topic Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds in Credit Cards

Limited Credit history, approval odds

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 06:56:21 GMT

Hello everyone!

I've been doing some research, and reading some posts on this forum and decided to see if you could provide some insights. I want to apply for a new credit card, I'm looking at something with travel rewards or good cash back, bonuses... but I'm not sure about my approval odds or what would be a good fit for my credit. I'm fairly new to credit in the united states and I'm trying to build a good credit but would also like to get some good rewards while doing so. I have a few trips planned for this year and I could benefit from a good rewards program. Also, should I consider applying for more than 1 cc at the time?? Any tips and recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

I'm 30 years old, income $40k

3 total accounts: 1 CC and 2 installment loans (school loans around 25k)

AoOA: 1 year 3 months

One card: Discover It. Started secured $200, then went up to 2k and now recently got an increase to $3,600

Credit Inquiries in the last 12 months: 1

Revolving utilization: 12%

No late payments

Transunion: 715

Equifax: 715

FICO: 715

Chase Saphire Prefered

Heard a lot of good things about this card and it has a great sign-up bonus. I'm also a chase customer (checking account) - Fair approval odds (CK)

Wells Fargo Propel

Great rewards, 3x points. Sign-up bonus, no annual fee. - Poor approval odds (CK)

Chase United Explorer

Big sign-up bonus and the spent needed is not as high as the CSP. Free checked bag- Very good approval odds (CK)

Capital One Savor One

Love the 3% cash back on entertainment and dining, where I spend the most on my current cc. No annual fee. - Fair approval odds (CK)

Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard

Big bonus(less spend amount as the csp). Fly American often, free checked bag - Fair approval odds (CK)

AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®

Big bonus with purchase (no big spend)

JetBlue Plus Credit Card

Big Bonus (low spend). 6x points for JetBlue purchases (fly JetBlue often)

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Drwaz99 — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:21:50 GMT

Here's my quick advice off the top of my head: First off, ditch Credit Karma except for keeping track of any changes to your TU and EQ profile. They use the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model which is rarely used. Same goes for their approval chances. They are simply marketing and not really based on anything solid.

Next, decide which cards you want the most as some lenders, mostly Barclays, so the Aviator Red and Jetblue cards, are incredibly inquiry sensitive. So if you go for one of those, you shouldn't apply for anything before them. Also keep in mind that Chase has the 5/24 rule, so no more than 5 accounts in the past 2 years.

Capital One, Chase and Citi all have prequalify tools you can use to get a better idea. Here are those links:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Credit-Card-Pre-Qualification-Links/td-p/4940665

If you are able to bring down your revolving utility to below 8.9%, you'll get a score bump from that and it'll put you in a better place to be approved.

If you're curious, I was just approved for the Aviator Red and you can check out my thread to compare our profiles.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Barclays-Aviator-Red-Approval/m-p/5474165#M578156

Think that's most of it, but haven't finished my coffee yet, so if you have any other questions, ask away!

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Priory_Man — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:12:28 GMT

@Drwaz99 wrote:
Here's my quick advice off the top of my head: First off, ditch Credit Karma except for keeping track of any changes to your TU and EQ profile. They use the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model which is rarely used. Same goes for their approval chances. They are simply marketing and not really based on anything solid.

Next, decide which cards you want the most as some lenders, mostly Barclays, so the Aviator Red and Jetblue cards, are incredibly inquiry sensitive. So if you go for one of those, you shouldn't apply for anything before them. Also keep in mind that Chase has the 5/24 rule, so no more than 5 accounts in the past 2 years.

Capital One, Chase and Citi all have prequalify tools you can use to get a better idea. Here as those links:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Credit-Card-Pre-Qualification-Links/td-p/4940665

If you are able to bring down your revolving utility to below 8.9%, you'll get a score bump from that and it'll put you in a better place to be approved.

If you're curious, I was just approved for the Aviator Red and you can check out my thread to compare our profiles.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Barclays-Aviator-Red-Approval/m-p/5474165#M578156

Think that's most of it, but haven't finished my coffee yet, so if you have any other questions, ask away!

+1 to everything said here.

If you can drop to below that magic 8.9 you will see a jump in scoring.

You need to pull your fico report and get accurate scores, sometimes its worth the $30 or $40 you pay myFICO to know exactly where you stand in the credit world.

CK is a useful tool for monitoring two of your reports, but, that's where it ends.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:53:57 GMT

@Priory_Man wrote:
@Drwaz99 wrote:
Here's my quick advice off the top of my head: First off, ditch Credit Karma except for keeping track of any changes to your TU and EQ profile. They use the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model which is rarely used. Same goes for their approval chances. They are simply marketing and not really based on anything solid.

Next, decide which cards you want the most as some lenders, mostly Barclays, so the Aviator Red and Jetblue cards, are incredibly inquiry sensitive. So if you go for one of those, you shouldn't apply for anything before them. Also keep in mind that Chase has the 5/24 rule, so no more than 5 accounts in the past 2 years.

Capital One, Chase and Citi all have prequalify tools you can use to get a better idea. Here as those links:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Credit-Card-Pre-Qualification-Links/td-p/4940665

If you are able to bring down your revolving utility to below 8.9%, you'll get a score bump from that and it'll put you in a better place to be approved.

If you're curious, I was just approved for the Aviator Red and you can check out my thread to compare our profiles.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Barclays-Aviator-Red-Approval/m-p/5474165#M578156

Think that's most of it, but haven't finished my coffee yet, so if you have any other questions, ask away!
+1 to everything said here.
If you can drop to below that magic 8.9 you will see a jump in scoring.
You need to pull your fico report and get accurate scores, sometimes its worth the $30 or $40 you pay myFICO to know exactly where you stand in the credit world.
CK is a useful tool for monitoring two of your reports, but, that's where it ends.

Or get the Experian app and get a free 7 day trial of CreditWorks Premium by going to scores and tapping Equifax or Transunion which will give you all three scores. I would do a myFICO pull if you’re going for a mortgage or a car but if you’re going for a credit card, your FICO8s are fine (and Experian includes their other scores when you get CWP anyway so you have some idea of what you’re dealing with on the other models).

Definitely need those either way before approval odds can be estimated.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

HeavenOhio — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:43:15 GMT

Welcome, @Anonymous.

How old is your Discover card? This is important because your oldest card should be at least a year old if you're considering a Chase application.

If you're going the Chase route and a Sapphire product is your ultimate goal, I'd start with the Freedom Unlimited (FU). Points earned on your FU can eventually be transferred to a Sapphire product once you have one.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) has a minimum credit limit of 5k, and Chase likes to see some "experience" with limits at that level before approving that card. That means that you should either have one 5k limit under your belt or a couple of limits that are close to that.

Capital One will likely approve a SavorOne card once Discover hits the one-year point. I'll let others comment on the other cards you're considering.

I'm a big fan of one card every six months, i.e. a card in month 1, month 7, month 13, month 19, and month 25. This will likely be enough to avoid denials based on too many recently opened accounts or too many recent inquiries. It also keeps you beneath 5/24. That's Chase's policy of automatically denying applications when one has opened five or more accounts in the past 24 months.

Because you've only applied for one card within the past year, I see no problem going for two once Discover hits the one-year point. That keeps you within the above "schedule." The main thing would be to stay at five or fewer cards in a 25 month period. There's some flexibility as to how you spread out your applications.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:58:18 GMT

Thanks everyone for your input! I just made a payment and that should lower my revolving utilization to 5%

@HeavenOhio My Discover card is 1.4 years old

I'm curious about the scores, I get a FICO report from Discover, it says it uses the FICO Score 8 model (TransUnion), is this good enough or should I pay to get a something else?

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:07:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks everyone for your input! I just made a payment and that should lower my revolving utilization to 5%

@HeavenOhio My Discover card is 1.4 years old

I'm curious about the scores, I get a FICO report from Discover, it says it uses the FICO Score 8 model (TransUnion), is this good enough or should I pay to get a something else?

If your reports are the same, your scores can be pretty similar but if you want the accuracy, I would say that the free trial of CWP is worth it. You can even cancel it in the app, no phone calls required.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Drwaz99 — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:14:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks everyone for your input! I just made a payment and that should lower my revolving utilization to 5%

@HeavenOhio My Discover card is 1.4 years old

I'm curious about the scores, I get a FICO report from Discover, it says it uses the FICO Score 8 model (TransUnion), is this good enough or should I pay to get a something else?

Probably the cheapest way to get your 3 bureau Fico8s is a free CreditWorks trial at Experian.com. You'll need a credit card to do it, but just make sure you cancel within the trial time frame(you can do this online and immediately after you signup and get the full amount of time). After that, you may be able to take advantage of a few $1 trials there, too. I think I'm on my 3rd(?) one. May not work for everyone, though.

CreditCheckTotal is another option, but you have to call to cancel your trial membership.
https://www.creditchecktotal.com/

Here at Myfico, you can purchase a 3 bureau report, with all your different Fico Scores (Bankcard, Auto, Mortgage) but it's expensive: $20/per bureau but there are coupons floating around the internet if you search for them.

Also note: It may take some time for your new payment (and newly lowered utilization) to reflect on your accounts, depending on when you creditor reports to the credit bureaus.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Drwaz99 — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:15:08 GMT

Dang, spent too much time typing!

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

HeavenOhio — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:53:30 GMT

With the Discover card being 1.4 years old, I'd say go ahead and apply for a card or two as soon as you know what you want and once your utilization updates. For the record, I think your utilization was fine. But since you've lowered it, you might as well take advantage of it.

In addition to the sources mentioned above, Experian FICO 8 is available from Discover Credit Scorecard. This service is open to everyone as opposed to the TransUnion score that's available only to cardholders.

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 22:43:29 GMT

Lol, thanks for the info! I'm definitely going to check that out and give that trial a go.
A friend that works in American told me about the aviator offer and it's really good, but I think from reading your threat that you have more history than me and better scores, I don't know if I have a good shot at getting it...

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

Drwaz99 — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:18:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Lol, thanks for the info! I'm definitely going to check that out and give that trial a go.
A friend that works in American told me about the aviator offer and it's really good, but I think from reading your threat that you have more history than me and better scores, I don't know if I have a good shot at getting it...

Honestly, in my opinion, you probably have a roughly equal chance of getting any of those you listed. The co-branded cards like the Aviator might be a tad easier. Obviously, that's my gut feeling after researching and reading thread upon thread. You have over a year of revolving history (with a major CC to boot) and a good score (that should get a nice bump when your newest payment reports) and Barclays is very good at reconsideration requests if their computer should decline you.

Have you tried the pre-qualification tools? I was able to get Capital One pre-quals (Savor, Venture, and QS), but Citi showed 3 cards about 2 months ago then they disappeared and they haven't come back. I've never had Chase prequalify me.

Just some things to think about. It really comes down to what you want out of your card and what you are comfortable with. Good luck!

Re: Limited Credit history, approval odds

HeavenOhio — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:54:46 GMT

@Anonymous, your scores are going to take care of themselves. It's your credit report that matters. It shows one nice credit card with some history, two student loans, and only one inquiry. There's not much for a score to condense. It's a good looking report, though. And it gives you a few good options.

I think Chase would love to have you on board. But as I mentioned, it'd be prudent to start with the Freedom Unlimited. And I think you're good for the SavorOne. Others are suggesting that you need a bit more history for the other cards.

Another option is AMEX. They're likely to come in with a good limit; I wouldn't be surprised if it matched your Discover card. And after 61 days, you can potentially triple your limit. You'd want to do your homework to see which rewards program fits you.

Maybe it's not your long-term card and it turns into a backup. That's OK. Discover and AMEX are both great backup cards as they allow you to keep good limits while putting low usage on them.