topic Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase in Credit Cards

Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:45:33 GMT

Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

My first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @15%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:48:09 GMT

Well, interest rates are creeping up, but not that much! I would imagine that different Chase product lines have different interest rate ranges applicable too, some just start out higher.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

K-in-Boston — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 14:07:30 GMT

Chase is not the only lender to do this. Citi approved me for the Diamond Preferred card in 2016 when my overall utilization was like 35-40% and scores were in the 710s with an APR of 12.24%. They approved me 3 months ago for the ThankYou Premier card when my overall utilization was like 13% and scores were in the 730s/740s with an APR of 24.99%. Fortunately, I'm not planning to ever carry any balances on any of the rewards cards that I use for purchases so it doesn't really matter that much, but I feel your frustration.

What made me a little angry with Chase is that all of my cards with them are at the bottom of their APR ranges, but I got a letter at the beginning of the year (as did a few others here) that they were increasing my APR on my 11 year-old Freedom account because it was too low and needed to be brought back inline with what other consumers with the same card have. At least with Citi (and Amex and Discover, perhaps others), you can always hop on chat and ask for an APR reduction.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

iced — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 14:18:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

FinStar — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 14:47:29 GMT

OP, this exactly.

What some folks have done in the past, if an APR or SL was not to their satisfaction, they opted to use those Chase CCs for a while to build some internal history.
Over time, once their overall profiles improved (minimal inquiries, stable/low utilization, moderate/aged profile, etc.) reapplied and were given a better APR and a fairly decent SL.

Based on the outcomes you've shared, and since there isn't really much detail, it appears Chase isn't comfortable with your profile to extend any additional credit at this point, hence the smaller SLs.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 15:12:36 GMT

To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 15:39:44 GMT

Agreed—Ive never carried a balance and don't intend to. AAOA is very low at 1 year and only have 3 cards .

I have three cards:

CFU 1000k

AMZ 500c

Amex 18000k

Scores 735-755

@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:10:08 GMT

Yeah, clearly chase doesn't like me as much as Amex or anyone else .I have prequals for everything I could want except 00 on chase lol

@iced wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?
Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:12:45 GMT

I do use them. I run 2k + per month through the CFU and AMZ, and I pay several times a month to keep utilization low

@iced wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?
Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:51:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Agreed—Ive never carried a balance and don't intend to. AAOA is very low at 1 year and only have 3 cards .

I have three cards:
CFU 1000k
AMZ 500c
Amex 18000k

Scores 735-755
@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?

Both my Amex cards started at 1k. Evidently Amex and Chase have very different methods on determing how much Credit Limit to give you.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

AverageJoesCredit — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:51:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?

No difference between 15% and 24%? Never less than 24k on a Chase CC. That's great for you but not everyone is you and your high profile. I think your advice for people should be more constructive than what is afforded your profile. We all dont make high income or are able to feel the generosity of Chase but that doesnt make our credit any less than yours.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

FinStar — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:04:03 GMT

I believe @Anonymous was implying on the APR that most folks who tend to get approved for smaller SLs to make good habit of PIF methods where the higher APR should be irrelevant until the OP can optimize their profile.

I can definitely see the perspective that @Anonymous was sharing, but I didn't see it in a way that their profile was above anyone's. Surely we've seen folks with thinner profiles that have surprised many with some pretty decent SLs on Freedom/CFU, heck even CSPs for individuals who wouldn't ordinarily fit the "mold". But, as we all know, everything will be YEMV in the wonderful world of credit 😉

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:07:04 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?
No difference between 15% and 24%? Never less than 24k on a Chase CC. That's great for you but not everyone is you and your high profile. I think your advice for people should be more constructive than what is afforded your profile. We all dont make high income or are able to feel the generosity of Chase but that doesnt make our credit any less than yours.

What I already said I only get approved for 1k limits with Amex.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

iced — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:11:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, clearly chase doesn't like me as much as Amex or anyone else .I have prequals for everything I could want except 00 on chase lol

Prequals mean nothing. The consensus would be that Chase loves me and I never see prequals either.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

xaximus — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:17:43 GMT

Chase is weird sometimes. I didn't see any pre-qual's but recently got one of their cards with a decent limit. What I have noticed though is that they do like to see an AAoA of atleast 1 year and good credit habits, PIF, PIF before statement hits, stuff like that. Even then, they are finicky. Never know with them. I would utilize them and pay them off every month, they will usually extend more credit as time goes.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:28:20 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?
No difference between 15% and 24%? Never less than 24k on a Chase CC. That's great for you but not everyone is you and your high profile. I think your advice for people should be more constructive than what is afforded your profile. We all dont make high income or are able to feel the generosity of Chase but that doesnt make our credit any less than yours.

Also I don't have a high profile my FICO scores are right around 700 with multiple charge-offs. There is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. Both tell you to never carry a balance. If you are carrying a balance at 15 percent you are making a bad decision. There are reward cards and then there are cards to carry balances. On cards with good rewards the interest rate will likely be terrible.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

iced — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 18:17:44 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. You should never carry a balance on either card. And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent. If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees. They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card. They seem to be very generous. Is your AAOA very low?
No difference between 15% and 24%? Never less than 24k on a Chase CC. That's great for you but not everyone is you and your high profile. I think your advice for people should be more constructive than what is afforded your profile. We all dont make high income or are able to feel the generosity of Chase but that doesnt make our credit any less than yours.

I didn't see anything wrong with what he shared. Advocating PIF and not carrying debt isn't some privilege for the wealthy elite - it's common financial sense that everyone should strive for, and can do with proper budgeting . If all someone can afford to pay is $100 a month, that's all they should be charging on a card.

There's no rule saying we all have a right to get cards from the bank we want (in this case, Chase). If Chase doesn't like your profile, they don't like your profile. Of course, there's about one new thread a week around here started by someone looking for some secret backdoor trick to "get in" with Chase or get them to give them CLIs only to find that there really isn't some secret backdoor trick at all. There's no system to game or 3x CLI strategy that works with Chase. Sorry.

If Chase isn't extending someone the credit they want, they can do one of two things about it:

1. Do business with a different bank.

2. Work with the credit they do extend you, and maybe someday they'll extend you more.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 01:51:47 GMT

Interesting.

1. Do they keep old card, apply for new card?

2. Or, close old card, apply for new, hoping for a better apr?

Choice 2 scares me more than 1, both seem risky.

@FinStar wrote:
OP, this exactly.

What some folks have done in the past, if an APR or SL was not to their satisfaction, they opted to use those Chase CCs for a while to build some internal history.
Over time, once their overall profiles improved (minimal inquiries, stable/low utilization, moderate/aged profile, etc.) reapplied and were given a better APR and a fairly decent SL.

Based on the outcomes you've shared, and since there isn't really much detail, it appears Chase isn't comfortable with your profile to extend any additional credit at this point, hence the smaller SLs.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

UpperNwGuy — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 02:33:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
There is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent. Both tell you to never carry a balance. If you are carrying a balance at 15 percent you are making a bad decision. There are reward cards and then there are cards to carry balances. On cards with good rewards the interest rate will likely be terrible.

Frogman is absolutely correct, and this has nothing to do with his personal circumstances. It applies to everybody regardless of income, credit score, or credit history.

Re: Just when I thought I understood Chase

FinStar — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 04:20:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting.
1. Do they keep old card, apply for new card? Often times that was the case to build internal history.
2. Or, close old card, apply for new, hoping for a better apr? As a best practice (or workaround), most individuals would get the approval first then close the old card and eventually PC or merged the accounts. There were instances in which some folks weren't happy with the initial results and closed their account. Months/years later would reattempt another application which would in most cases yield a much more favorable outcome. That's proven more tricky with the 5/24 restriction in place.
Choice 2 scares me more than 1, both seem risky.

@FinStar wrote:
OP, this exactly.

What some folks have done in the past, if an APR or SL was not to their satisfaction, they opted to use those Chase CCs for a while to build some internal history.
Over time, once their overall profiles improved (minimal inquiries, stable/low utilization, moderate/aged profile, etc.) reapplied and were given a better APR and a fairly decent SL.

Based on the outcomes you've shared, and since there isn't really much detail, it appears Chase isn't comfortable with your profile to extend any additional credit at this point, hence the smaller SLs.