topic Re: Citi Double Cash in Credit Card Applications

Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 13:16:57 GMT

Hi,

I am seeking for advice on how long I should wait until I apply for a Citi double cash?

My credit history starts in mid 2016 when I moved to the US. I have/had the following cards.
- Wells fargo secured 300$ opened July 2016, closed June 2018
- Chase freedom unlimited $7k opened March 2018
- Chase freedom $9.3k approved yesterday

My fico8 from experian is 710, however it might be a bit lower than it should be because I have a 0$ utilization right now. I read on these forums that this hurts the score. I did not apply for any other cards then the ones mentioned above.

I read that the citi double cash is a bit harder to get. So I was wondering what your recommendation would be on how long I should wait until I try?

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 14:55:37 GMT

The Citi DC is not that hard to get and based on your other thread you'd easily qualify for it. What was hard to get for me was a pre-qualified offer so I simply did a cold application and I was approved.

How many inquiries do you currently have? You might be better off applying for the Citi DC now before the Chase Freedom reports to the credit agencies and temporarily lowers your scores.

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi,

I am seeking for advice on how long I should wait until I apply for a Citi double cash?

My credit history starts in mid 2016 when I moved to the US. I have/had the following cards.
- Wells fargo secured 300$ opened July 2016, closed June 2018
- Chase freedom unlimited $7k opened March 2018
- Chase freedom $9.3k approved yesterday

My fico8 from experian is 710, however it might be a bit lower than it should be because I have a 0$ utilization right now. I read on these forums that this hurts the score. I did not apply for any other cards then the ones mentioned above.

I read that the citi double cash is a bit harder to get. So I was wondering what your recommendation would be on how long I should wait until I try?

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 18:38:19 GMT

I'd apply for it sooner rather than later. If you can allow a small balance to report on one of your other cards first, that would raise your scores probably 15 points or so, giving you a slightly better look for the app. Citi DC SLs can be a bit on the lower end, but I'm fairly confident that you'd be approved and that your length of credit history wouldn't be the constraint here. Chase is usually one of the more strict lenders with respect to young credit history and it seems you did fine with 2 approvals from them with decent SLs.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 19:05:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The Citi DC is not that hard to get and based on your other thread you'd easily qualify for it. What was hard to get for me was a pre-qualified offer so I simply did a cold application and I was approved.
How many inquiries do you currently have? You might be better off applying for the Citi DC now before the Chase Freedom reports to the credit agencies and temporarily lowers your scores.

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi,

I am seeking for advice on how long I should wait until I apply for a Citi double cash?

My credit history starts in mid 2016 when I moved to the US. I have/had the following cards.
- Wells fargo secured 300$ opened July 2016, closed June 2018
- Chase freedom unlimited $7k opened March 2018
- Chase freedom $9.3k approved yesterday

My fico8 from experian is 710, however it might be a bit lower than it should be because I have a 0$ utilization right now. I read on these forums that this hurts the score. I did not apply for any other cards then the ones mentioned above.

I read that the citi double cash is a bit harder to get. So I was wondering what your recommendation would be on how long I should wait until I try?

Agreed with this sentiment.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:04:02 GMT

Thank you all for your answers. I was not aware that there is the option to apply for it right away. I somehow assumed after getting already two new cards this year I might have to wait until next year. I have 2 inquiries on my report. I only have access to experian. But the others have at max two.

Can anyone explain to me how the reporting of Chase cards exactly works. My freedom unlimited has the next payment due date on the 20th of June and normally it reports soon after that. Does anybody know exaxtly when it happens? Once this has happend I will have a > 0 utilization again. At what time would my new Chase freedom report first? If that happens later than when the freedom unlimited reports I would have a window to apply for the citi double cash. I just don't know if I will have this oppotunity.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 01:02:10 GMT

Your window to apply for the Citi Double Cash card is now. You're overthinking things and making them way more complicated that they should be.

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you all for your answers. I was not aware that there is the option to apply for it right away. I somehow assumed after getting already two new cards this year I might have to wait until next year. I have 2 inquiries on my report. I only have access to experian. But the others have at max two.

Can anyone explain to me how the reporting of Chase cards exactly works. My freedom unlimited has the next payment due date on the 20th of June and normally it reports soon after that. Does anybody know exaxtly when it happens? Once this has happend I will have a > 0 utilization again. At what time would my new Chase freedom report first? If that happens later than when the freedom unlimited reports I would have a window to apply for the citi double cash. I just don't know if I will have this oppotunity.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 02:28:51 GMT

I don't feel the OP is overthinking anything or making it any harder than it has to be. He's simply looking for advice and trying to ensure he doesn't make a wrong move. There's no harm in that.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 02:46:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you all for your answers. I was not aware that there is the option to apply for it right away. I somehow assumed after getting already two new cards this year I might have to wait until next year. I have 2 inquiries on my report. I only have access to experian. But the others have at max two.

Can anyone explain to me how the reporting of Chase cards exactly works. My freedom unlimited has the next payment due date on the 20th of June and normally it reports soon after that. Does anybody know exaxtly when it happens? Once this has happend I will have a > 0 utilization again. At what time would my new Chase freedom report first? If that happens later than when the freedom unlimited reports I would have a window to apply for the citi double cash. I just don't know if I will have this oppotunity.

Chase typically takes between 2-3 weeks to report a new account to credit bureaus. So technically you have until likely the end of the month to apply for the Double Cash without the Freedom showing up on your reports. What this means is that while Citi will be able to see the inquiries you incurred to get the Freedom card, they do not necessairly know you were approved for the Freedom. Currently, your scores have only been impacted by the inquiry. It will likely take another temporary hit when the new Freedom reports because it lowers your Average Age of Accounts and resets your Age of Youngest Account.

What's mostly being suggested here is to apply for the Citi DC now because it appears your current profile supports an approval. Waiting until after the Freedom reports in two weeks or so may change your profile in such a way that the DC may not be approved. This of course is all speculative at best. Also, you should feel no pressure to apply as this is your financial future and not ours. That being said, I'm in agreement that now is probably an optimal time. However, if you decided to wait until six months after the Freedom reported, that would be a good time too.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 08:42:24 GMT

Thank you all for your suggestions and explanations.

I am very hesitant to apply for another card before I have a bigger than 0 utilization on my report. This should be the case in about 1 week because then my freedom unlimited will report again. I think I will just wait until then and hope that by this time the new freedom card is not yet on the report. If this happens I am going to apply for the citi double cash in about a week. If I am not lucky and the new feedom card reports sooner I don't really mind to wait for a few months.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 14:58:36 GMT

Citibank DC is a Mastercard right??

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 18:20:03 GMT

Yes, the DC is a Mastercard.

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 02:17:17 GMT

Just wanted to give a little update.

First, thank you all for your explanations and suggestions.

My score somehow did not bounce back up after the freedom unlimited reported a balance of about 300$ again. The score went up by like 10 points or so compared to a 0$ balance that it had the month before. To me it seems that the drop in score might have been mostly caused by closing my secured Wells Fargo card. I knew that it was not ideal to close this card but I did not want to pay the 25$ fee for a secured card that had no chance of ever being unsecured.

In the end I decided not to apply for the Citi Double Cash right now. I have two cards now and a total credit limit of 16300$. I am happy with that. Honestly, I did not expect to get such high limits from Chase given that my credit history was only based on a secured card with a 300$ limit when I first applied. For now I will just wait a few months until my scores are back up again and then apply for the Double Cash.

Re: Citi Double Cash

hawkins — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:46:11 GMT

I am curious. I do not as of yet have any chase products. As I understand it the freedom unlimited is better then the freedom right? Is it possible to combine the 2 into the freedom unlimited?

Re: Citi Double Cash

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 20:12:38 GMT

The freedom unlimited isn't "better" or "worse" than the regular freedom. They are very different products. The first is 1.5% back on everything, where the other is essentially a 5% rotating category card, although you get 1% on non-category purchases. Which one makes more sense for you depends on your monthly spend, as well as the other cards you currently use (ie if you already have a 2% general spend card, taking on a 1.5% CB FU may not make the most sense).