topic Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards in Credit Card Applications

Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:46:19 GMT

Hey everyone,

I'm interested in applying for the Sapphire Reserve, but obtained the Freedom ($5k), CSP ($8k), and an Amex HHonors Surpass ($5k) just 3 months ago (I would have just applied for the Reserve instead of CSP if it had been available at the time). I have 2 older CapOne QS's ($4.25k, $6.5k) which I've been trying forever to merge as well.

Curious about chances for approval for the Reserve. I'm good to go as far as 5/24 (these are the only 3 cards I've obtained in years), but do have the 3 hard inquiries on my EXP report from the 3 applications above, plus 2 add'l from renting an apartment 12/2014. TU/EQ reports have 0/1 inquiry only (Chase also pulled EQ for apps above).

Current Scores:

EXP (FICO): 694 - will improve a bit upon next update

TU (FAKO): 796

EQ (FAKO): 788

EXP report has 1 derrogatory (CO student loan from 5 yrs ago), other reports are completely clean. Overall utilization below 8%.

The only thing I can really do that I can think of in the short-term to improve my chances is request the AmEx 3x CLI (which I should be eligible at this point), I'm just waiting for them to do another soft pull because I recently had a high utilization authorized user account removed from my reports and they haven't SP'd since the removal (this removal will also improve the EXP FICO score a bit; isn't reflected in the score listed above). Theoretically, that should get my AmEx limit to something more like $15k if all goes well.

Any ideas on the chances / advice? I'd really like to do this ASAP to take advantage of the $300 travel credit for the remainder of the calendar year.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

CreditCuriosity — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:28:16 GMT

Just my take on it, if you are under the 5x24 rule you are ok on that front. Although you have picked up two Chase cards recently I am not sure how Chase will feel about extending you more credit with a fairly short track record with them. It could be a hit or miss. It also depends more than just score but your whole credit profile. Inquires won't be your issue. Income, AAoA oldest account and current exposure with Chase, DTI are what they are going to mainly be concerened wtih. What are your limits also on your other two Chase cards? Only CC accounts counts against the 5x24 rule, but I believe you understand that.

Edit: See you mentioned the limits above for Chase.. Problem is the CSR has a 10k min credit limit so if they were to approve you their is a good chance you might have to do a recon approval to take from your CSP / Freedom to possibly get the account open. Obviously they might extend you another 10k credit, but I am not quite sure about that...As stated a hit/miss as it could go either way. I wouldd possibly give it 6 months history with them myself before going for more, but you know your profile better than me. Just my 2 cents

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

redpat — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:31:29 GMT

This is the problem with app sprees and the benefit of spreading card apps over time. In your case it made no sense to get freedom and hilton cards right away because you needed $4k spend on CSP over three months.

It is what it is but you left no room for opportunities if new cards came along or if sign-up bonuses changed.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:36:50 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
Just my take on it, if you are under the 5x24 rule you are ok on that front. Although you have picked up two Chase cards recently I am not sure how Chase will feel about extending you more credit with a fairly short track record with them. It could be a hit or miss. It also depends more than just score but your whole credit profile. Inquires won't be your issue. Income, AAoA oldest account and current exposure with Chase, DTI are what they are going to mainly be concerened wtih. What are your limits also on your other two Chase cards? Only CC accounts counts against the 5x24 rule, but I believe you understand that.

Edit: See you mentioned the limits above for Chase.. Problem is the CSR has a 10k min credit limit so if they were to approve you their is a good chance you might have to do a recon approval to take from your CSP / Freedom to possibly get the account open. Obviously they might extend you another 10k credit, but I am not quite sure about that...As stated a hit/miss as it could go either way. I wouldd possibly give it 6 months history with them myself before going for more, but you know your profile better than me. Just my 2 cents

Thanks for your thoughts!

To add some add'l data - I pay everything in full every month and have a completely paid off $50k student loan with them on the report as well, so DTI should be no issue. I do have a good amount of spend going through the Chase accounts because it's all just reimbursed work travel.

AAoA is on the short side, 5 yrs, primarily because of the recent cards. I'm trying to bump it up a little bit by combining the two CapOne accounts whenever they get around to allowing me to do so, since one of them is only ~3 yrs old and the other is 6 yrs old (removing the 3 yr account will bump up the avg).

Oldest account is 11 yrs. Income is about $68k.

Do you think them having the add'l data point of an AmEx with a (hopefully) $15k limit will help my chances? I can certainly wait until I get the AmEx CLI in the next few weeks, at least they'll see another lender with a limit that high? Seems like there's kind of a Catch-22 with getting the CLI's (no one wants to bump you up until others have), but hopefully the Amex 3x thing will help!

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:35:41 GMT

@redpat wrote:
This is the problem with app sprees and the benefit of spreading card apps over time. In your case it made no sense to get freedom and hilton cards right away because you needed $4k spend on CSP over three months.

It is what it is but you left no room for opportunities if new cards came along or if sign-up bonuses changed.

Regarding that - I have plenty of work spend and was able to hit the $4k spend on the CSP, the $500 spend on the Freedom, and the $3k (I think it was) on the HHonors Surpass simultaneously; I got all of the bonuses. I stay at Hiltons all the time, so wanted the bonus there plus the 12x points, and wanted to do the Freedom/CSP combo because at the time it was the best thing available (transferring UR points from 5x Freedom categories for the CSP's better redemption).

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

redpat — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:54:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@redpat wrote:
This is the problem with app sprees and the benefit of spreading card apps over time. In your case it made no sense to get freedom and hilton cards right away because you needed $4k spend on CSP over three months.

It is what it is but you left no room for opportunities if new cards came along or if sign-up bonuses changed.
Regarding that - I have plenty of work spend and was able to hit the $4k spend on the CSP, the $500 spend on the Freedom, and the $3k (I think it was) on the HHonors Surpass simultaneously; I got all of the bonuses. I stay at Hiltons all the time, so wanted the bonus there plus the 12x points, and wanted to do the Freedom/CSP combo because at the time it was the best thing available (transferring UR points from 5x Freedom categories for the CSP's better redemption).

But now you want another chase card also. I wasn't questioning the ability to spend but getting all three cards at once.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:58:10 GMT

@redpat wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@redpat wrote:
This is the problem with app sprees and the benefit of spreading card apps over time. In your case it made no sense to get freedom and hilton cards right away because you needed $4k spend on CSP over three months.

It is what it is but you left no room for opportunities if new cards came along or if sign-up bonuses changed.
Regarding that - I have plenty of work spend and was able to hit the $4k spend on the CSP, the $500 spend on the Freedom, and the $3k (I think it was) on the HHonors Surpass simultaneously; I got all of the bonuses. I stay at Hiltons all the time, so wanted the bonus there plus the 12x points, and wanted to do the Freedom/CSP combo because at the time it was the best thing available (transferring UR points from 5x Freedom categories for the CSP's better redemption).

But now you want another chase card also. I wasn't questioning the ability to spend but getting all three cards at once.

Yeah; I mean in retrospect if I had known the Reserve was coming out I would have just waited. At the time, though, I had logical reasons for wanting all 3 cards / ability to take advantage of the bonuses and each of their bonus categories, and it worked out well. I didn't anticipate wanting any other cards at all in the foreseeable future, then Chase comes along and drops this much better product

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

dragontears — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:03:01 GMT

FYI combining your cap1 cards will NOT change your AAOA since the closed card will stay on your reports

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

CreditCuriosity — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:07:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
Just my take on it, if you are under the 5x24 rule you are ok on that front. Although you have picked up two Chase cards recently I am not sure how Chase will feel about extending you more credit with a fairly short track record with them. It could be a hit or miss. It also depends more than just score but your whole credit profile. Inquires won't be your issue. Income, AAoA oldest account and current exposure with Chase, DTI are what they are going to mainly be concerened wtih. What are your limits also on your other two Chase cards? Only CC accounts counts against the 5x24 rule, but I believe you understand that.

Edit: See you mentioned the limits above for Chase.. Problem is the CSR has a 10k min credit limit so if they were to approve you their is a good chance you might have to do a recon approval to take from your CSP / Freedom to possibly get the account open. Obviously they might extend you another 10k credit, but I am not quite sure about that...As stated a hit/miss as it could go either way. I wouldd possibly give it 6 months history with them myself before going for more, but you know your profile better than me. Just my 2 cents

Thanks for your thoughts!

To add some add'l data - I pay everything in full every month and have a completely paid off $50k student loan with them on the report as well, so DTI should be no issue. I do have a good amount of spend going through the Chase accounts because it's all just reimbursed work travel.

AAoA is on the short side, 5 yrs, primarily because of the recent cards. I'm trying to bump it up a little bit by combining the two CapOne accounts whenever they get around to allowing me to do so, since one of them is only ~3 yrs old and the other is 6 yrs old (removing the 3 yr account will bump up the avg).

Oldest account is 11 yrs. Income is about $68k.

Do you think them having the add'l data point of an AmEx with a (hopefully) $15k limit will help my chances? I can certainly wait until I get the AmEx CLI in the next few weeks, at least they'll see another lender with a limit that high? Seems like there's kind of a Catch-22 with getting the CLI's (no one wants to bump you up until others have), but hopefully the Amex 3x thing will help!

I personally would get the 3x CLI on Amex and wait until your Chase accounts are at least 6 months old to show them some history. How much have you put through your two Chase cards since you have had them? Like I said it could go either way, but I would say they probably have extended all the credit they will to you currently if I was to guess until you have other CL with other lenders that are higher or been with them longer. It is a catch 22 as you can't be over 5x24 either. Your income is fine for the card, just the short history with Chase and other limits w/other lenders is what concerns me as Chase is currently your biggest exposure lender and they know this when they pull your reports. It really depends if you want to roll the dice, just make sure you wait for your Amex 3x CLI to report for even better odds if you choose to roll the dice.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:14:44 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
Just my take on it, if you are under the 5x24 rule you are ok on that front. Although you have picked up two Chase cards recently I am not sure how Chase will feel about extending you more credit with a fairly short track record with them. It could be a hit or miss. It also depends more than just score but your whole credit profile. Inquires won't be your issue. Income, AAoA oldest account and current exposure with Chase, DTI are what they are going to mainly be concerened wtih. What are your limits also on your other two Chase cards? Only CC accounts counts against the 5x24 rule, but I believe you understand that.

Edit: See you mentioned the limits above for Chase.. Problem is the CSR has a 10k min credit limit so if they were to approve you their is a good chance you might have to do a recon approval to take from your CSP / Freedom to possibly get the account open. Obviously they might extend you another 10k credit, but I am not quite sure about that...As stated a hit/miss as it could go either way. I wouldd possibly give it 6 months history with them myself before going for more, but you know your profile better than me. Just my 2 cents

Thanks for your thoughts!

To add some add'l data - I pay everything in full every month and have a completely paid off $50k student loan with them on the report as well, so DTI should be no issue. I do have a good amount of spend going through the Chase accounts because it's all just reimbursed work travel.

AAoA is on the short side, 5 yrs, primarily because of the recent cards. I'm trying to bump it up a little bit by combining the two CapOne accounts whenever they get around to allowing me to do so, since one of them is only ~3 yrs old and the other is 6 yrs old (removing the 3 yr account will bump up the avg).

Oldest account is 11 yrs. Income is about $68k.

Do you think them having the add'l data point of an AmEx with a (hopefully) $15k limit will help my chances? I can certainly wait until I get the AmEx CLI in the next few weeks, at least they'll see another lender with a limit that high? Seems like there's kind of a Catch-22 with getting the CLI's (no one wants to bump you up until others have), but hopefully the Amex 3x thing will help!
I personally would get the 3x CLI on Amex and wait until your Chase accounts are at least 6 months old to show them some history. How much have you put through your two Chase cards since you have had them? Like I said it could go either way, but I would say they probably have extended all the credit they will to you currently if I was to guess until you have other CL with other lenders that are higher or been with them longer. It is a catch 22 as you can't be over 5x24 either. Your income is fine for the card, just the short history with Chase and other limits w/other lenders is what concerns me as Chase is currently your biggest exposure lender and they know this when they pull your reports. It really depends if you want to roll the dice, just make sure you wait for your Amex 3x CLI to report for even better odds if you choose to roll the dice.

That's probably what I'll end up doing then; hoping for the best with the AmEx CLI. I'll hopefully get that, then wait for it to report, then try Chase and call the recon. Happy to transfer as much CL from the Sapphire as they'll let me, since I won't be using it anymore anyway. After the 12 months is up, I'll just downgrade to Freedom Unlimited as I'll at least have some use for that (better earnings for non-bonus category spend, points transferrable to Reserve).

So far I've put $7400 through the CSP and $2150 through the Freedom ($9550 total in 3 months), so hopefully that will help my chances a little too?

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:24:24 GMT

@dragontears wrote:
FYI combining your cap1 cards will NOT change your AAOA since the closed card will stay on your reports

Ah I didn't realize that; some of the free credit monitor sites (Credit Karma, etc.) seem to average only the average age of open accounts. (From CK's page, "We calculated your age of credit history by averaging the ages of your open credit accounts.").

AAoA for purpose of FICO scores always includes closed accounts as well? In that case, advice re: whether or not to combine the Cap1 accounts? The other thing is that that would create one account with a much higher CL, which seems to help for getting high CLs from other issuers...

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Glkslngr — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 17:25:46 GMT

If you're going to look to increase your CL's on your existing cards, make sure they are SP's. Chase questioned me about my recent inquiries and why I was increasing several limits recently.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 17:31:51 GMT

I opened up Freedom Unlimited in May, CSP in July, and was approved for CSR on Monday. Under 4/24. $18,000 exposure with Chase. Chase even gave me a CLI on my FU after giving me the CSR. You should be fine, but ymmv.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:05:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened up Freedom Unlimited in May, CSP in July, and was approved for CSR on Monday. Under 4/24. $18,000 exposure with Chase. Chase even gave me a CLI on my FU after giving me the CSR. You should be fine, but ymmv.

Interesting, thanks! What was your existing CL on the Chase cards when you applied for the CSR? Any other cards with a high limit?

Mostly I'm just nervous about the $10k minimum since I don't currently have that on any other card.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:06:05 GMT

@Glkslngr wrote:
If you're going to look to increase your CL's on your existing cards, make sure they are SP's. Chase questioned me about my recent inquiries and why I was increasing several limits recently.

Yeah they'd definitely be SPs; if they were to ask me about that hopefully just letting them know that I put a lot of (reimbursed) spend through for business travel would suffice.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:23:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I opened up Freedom Unlimited in May, CSP in July, and was approved for CSR on Monday. Under 4/24. $18,000 exposure with Chase. Chase even gave me a CLI on my FU after giving me the CSR. You should be fine, but ymmv.
Interesting, thanks! What was your existing CL on the Chase cards when you applied for the CSR? Any other cards with a high limit?

Mostly I'm just nervous about the $10k minimum since I don't currently have that on any other card.

Freedom Unlimted was my first revolver from any bank opened up in May with $1k limit. Only had Kohl's $300 (now $700)

Opened up CSP last month $5k, highest limit at the time of approval.

Approved for CSR on Monday $10k, my first $10k limit and now highest CL.

And Tuesday my FU went from $1k to $3k.

So total exposure with Chase is $18k.

FU $3k CSP $5k CSR $10k.

All opened up this year with the first coming in May.

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:38:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I opened up Freedom Unlimited in May, CSP in July, and was approved for CSR on Monday. Under 4/24. $18,000 exposure with Chase. Chase even gave me a CLI on my FU after giving me the CSR. You should be fine, but ymmv.
Interesting, thanks! What was your existing CL on the Chase cards when you applied for the CSR? Any other cards with a high limit?

Mostly I'm just nervous about the $10k minimum since I don't currently have that on any other card.
Freedom Unlimted was my first revolver from any bank opened up in May with $1k limit. Only had Kohl's $300 (now $700)
Opened up CSP last month $5k, highest limit at the time of approval.
Approved for CSR on Monday $10k, my first $10k limit and now highest CL.
And Tuesday my FU went from $1k to $3k.
So total exposure with Chase is $18k.
FU $3k CSP $5k CSR $10k.
All opened up this year with the first coming in May.

Ah interesting, thanks!

Re: Chances of approval for Sapphire Reserve w/ 3 recent new cards

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:45:35 GMT

Of course !! Good luck to you. Remember that what works for some may not work for others. Always good to collect as much data before apping.