topic Re: Garden or app? in Credit Card Applications

Garden or app?

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 21:54:25 GMT

So my fiance and I are struggling with gardening longer or going on an app spree for her.

Her data:

Income $37,000 as a teacher or $76,650 with me included (been together 7 years)
Ford Motor Company 0% installment auto loan $20,300
Student loans $21,000
Care Credit 490/2,000
Kohl's 30/700
American Express Gold Card Preferred (opened 12/16)
AAoA 3 years
New accounts in 2 years: 2
Inquires in 2 years: 2
UTL around 22%
FAKO scores range from 690-715

Currently renting an apartment
100% clean files her entire life, not even one single 30 day late... Ever.

Should we age out the AMEX for 6-12 months or go ahead and app. She wants to get out of the toy limits. But the next card she wants is a CSP, but they seem to have conservative limits and don't dish out CLI's without a HP. She gets discover, Citi, and American Express RSVPs by mail with pretty decent offers regularly.

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 22:41:08 GMT

What is her FICO scores? CSP actually comes with decent limits. How much of a starting limit is she looking for?

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 22:54:51 GMT

Unknown FICO, she's pretty frugal when it comes to spending money. I've thought about paying for it myself for her. She's wanting 6k+ cards

Re: Garden or app?

SouthJamaica — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 23:23:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So my fiance and I are struggling with gardening longer or going on an app spree for her.

Her data:

Income $37,000 as a teacher or $76,650 with me included (been together 7 years)
Ford Motor Company 0% installment auto loan $20,300
Student loans $21,000
Care Credit 490/2,000
Kohl's 30/700
American Express Gold Card Preferred (opened 12/16)
AAoA 3 years
New accounts in 2 years: 2
Inquires in 2 years: 2
UTL around 22%
FAKO scores range from 690-715

Currently renting an apartment
100% clean files her entire life, not even one single 30 day late... Ever.

Should we age out the AMEX for 6-12 months or go ahead and app. She wants to get out of the toy limits. But the next card she wants is a CSP, but they seem to have conservative limits and don't dish out CLI's without a HP. She gets discover, Citi, and American Express RSVPs by mail with pretty decent offers regularly.

In order to really answer your question I think we need to know her FICO scores.

Discover prequalified offers are completely meaningless.

Citi and American Express prequalifications are generally solid, if they are genuine pre-qual's.

All prequal's are meaningless if your FICO scores have dipped in the past couple of months, which could be the case since she added a new card recently.

I don't think she can get the CSP because it has a minimum $5k opening limit, and she does not appear to be in that league yet.

She can find out what her prospects with Chase are by dropping by a branch and asking them to check if she's prequalified for any cards.

She might do well with a Citi DC or an Amex BCE, but again we would need to know her FICO scores to have any real handle on whether she's likely to be approved.

Re: Garden or app?

Gmood1 — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 23:56:32 GMT

Have her pull her scores here for a dollar https://www.creditchecktotal.com .
That way we have something to go on. I guessing she's going to fall between 750 to 800 score wise from your description.

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:21:27 GMT

Just paid for an ultimate 3b. Here is what we have all based on FICO score 8.

Equifax 731
TransUnion 728
Experian 740

Re: Garden or app?

Gmood1 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:36:55 GMT

Scores look good! You guys only looking at AF cards? If she wants the CSP..App for it.
You guys planning a lot of traveling? Is cash back , miles or both of interest?

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:47:51 GMT

We do travel a decent amount, just within the states. Cash back or miles aren't a huge factor in credit card selection. Her largest reason to originally wanting a CSP (we did even discuss a CSR) was the plunk and status factor of it, and eventually going to an uber high limit. We did read that Chase very rarely did auto CLI... So we are open to suggestions on any cards with rewards, low interest rates, and large SL. Annual fees, or balance transfers are the smallest concern.

Plus, we are even happy to continue to garden. Given the new AMEX pickup to bring the AAoA back into the fold.

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:50:18 GMT

Another plan of ours was to attempt to get her to revolvers that aren't a charge card a much higher limit before apping. Albeit, we went sure the HPs would be worth it because she rarely uses those cards

Re: Garden or app?

Gmood1 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 01:07:28 GMT

What do you consider a Uber limit? So you're really after high limits and mainly a status card?

I know of several that give nice SLs. I've never been into cards for status though.The Avianca airline cards give some whopper limits. The average SL I've seen from members here is around $25k.

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 01:35:47 GMT

Obviously we are in a much lower income tier than many members on here but an uber limit for her would be 20k. She spends $700 a month excluding bills and utilities, and I have a very small amount of debit. So we have a some financial breathing room, and a higher limit will be much appreciated. We really don't use our credit cards for anything we couldn't pay cash for anyway. So a status card would be a nice addition to her wallet or a low interest rate card for the rare large purchases.

Our traveling just consists of a quarterly trip to Atlanta, GA for shopping or Asheville, NC for sightseeing. So I guess we will use her AMEX bonus points from her gold card on hotels. Not sure if we will actually fly anywhere.

Re: Garden or app?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 02:08:36 GMT

So long story short, she's looking for any and all recommendations on reputable cards with a high SL and/or plenty of room to grow. Obviously her scores and income still could be better, but given what she has to work with what should she be looking at?

Re: Garden or app?

austinguy907 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 02:18:37 GMT

Toy limits = NO MORE APPS

The key to getting out of toyland is to not apply for anything new and let things grow. Hit your existing cards for CLI's every 6 months and once you finally step up to $5K then that's a good indicator you're moving up in the world for CL's. Once you hit $10K then you're well on your way to a solid file. There's really nothing to do but let time and payments post to make your CL's grow. You could pick up some Synch cards if you want some artificial feel good 25K limits that can mostly be used in one place. Though your scores are good enough to possibly get a co-brand V/MC out of Synch that you can leverage to 25K as well.