topic Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC in Credit Cards

Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 02:43:29 GMT

Hi all,

First sorry for long text, I hope you want to help me nevertheless! I moved from Europe to the US in spring this year for a job. Having read a little bit about how credit history is built, with AAoA in mind I thought it was a good idea to get three secured CCs - from BoA, WF and CapOne, with $300 limit each. That was around 6-7 months ago. In retrospect I should maybe have gotten only one or two, but anyway. The BoA I use daily, the other ones barely. I tried to have below 10% utilization the date the balance posted. I always pay the balance in full after it posted. WF already sent me a letter that they will refund me my deposit and convert the CC into an unsecured card (much quicker than anticipated and even though I don't use it a lot).

I want to apply for another card with the following in mind:

1. decent credit limit in order not having to pay the balance after each bigger purchase (and being able to make single purchase bigger than the current limit of $300, of course). I guess $3-5k limit is what I would be aiming at.
2a. travel perks / insurances / collecting points as I travel quite a bit.
2b. alternatively: high cash-back.

BoA tells me my FICO8 TU is 719. WF sent me several mails that my monthly FICO score is available but to this day couldn't provide one. So the TU is really the only reliable one I have. CapOne has this dashboard called CreditWise which gives me a couple of other stats.

In summary my profile:
- Income: almost 6 figures
- TU 719, others unknown
- No loans, no negative entries
- 3 CCs (3/24)
- AAoA ca. 6-7 months

CapOne also adds:
- 100% on-time payments
- 2% of credit used
- 6 "recent inquiries" (I guess hard pulls)
- $878 credit line available (should be $900 actually)

The CSR would be perfect, as it would effectively cost me only $150 after using the travel credit. Since the minimum credit limit is $10k and it is unlikely for me, the next option would be the CSP at $5k. I read on the forum already that Chase doesn't like thin profiles with short CH too much. Do you think I can try the CSR/CSP nevertheless or would this only be a waste of a hard-pull?

The AmEx Gold or Plat could work. I have the Corporate AmEx from my employer in Europe and in the US. When I plugged my data in the pre-qual page, they offered three cards, among them the Plat with 75k MR points SUP (instead of 60k). However I would not be able to offset the $550 AF so easily (I don't use Uber a lot in the US - abroad I do). Also it is less accepted, especially in Europe.

Any other recommendations? My medium-term goal is still to get the CSR or the CSP so I want to stay below 5/24 for the next 6-12 months.

Thank you very much!

Kind regards,
Bostonito

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 02:10:03 GMT

You said you tried the Amex prequal but have you tried the Chase prequal?

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 02:42:29 GMT

Yes, I should have mentioned that I did the pre-qual with Chase also and it said:

We are unable to locate any offers for you at this time.
This may be because you have opted out of "pre-screened" offers from Chase and other companies or you have recently responded to another offer from Chase.

I did not opt-out at my address so it might be due to my short CH.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

SBR249 — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 03:10:19 GMT

Do you have any Chase bank branches in your area? Can you establish a banking relationship with them and park a decent amount of funds with them for some time?

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 03:23:03 GMT

I do have Chase bank branches near me. I read that having an account with them does not necessarily help with getting a CC, but I could still try. What would roughly be an amount that helps and for how much time should I park it?

Nevertheless I would like to apply for a new CC soon. I am currently halting my travel bookings in order to put money on a new CC should there be a SUP.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 04:14:59 GMT

If you move money through them then a banking relationship will definitely help. Parking money i'm not so sure unless the amount is big(smt like 10k+ probably). Go ask them, bankers would love to "sell" you some credit cards.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 04:33:11 GMT

It takes a minimum of 6 months to generate a FICO score. TransUnion tends to be the first with FICO scores because they frequently use a start date of January 1 for credit files; the other credit bureaus use the actual date when credit activity started. If you're absolutely certain that 6 months have elapsed since you opened your first secured card you can get your FICO scores for all three credit bureaus from creditchecktotal.com for $1. Just make sure to cancel the trial subscription before the 10-day period expires. Once you have all three scores you'll be better able to decide on an approach.

Have you looked into Amex's Global Transfer Program? Since you had an Amex card in Europe it will allow you to acquire a card here very quickly.

The CSR seems to be a reach at this point; you would be in a better position once your AAoA reaches 1 year.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 16:30:18 GMT

Thank you, I truly appreciate your responses and feedback!

I will check with a Chase branch when I have time. Regarding the FICO scores I will double-check the times and potentially buy the report from the mentioned website.

Amex's Global Transfer Program does not work since it does not apply to the Corporate card. I do not have any personal Amex yet.

Does anyone know much chances with the Citi Premier card with my thin profile? The Mastercard would have a much higher acceptance than the Amex.
My frequent flyer program Flying Blue would allow to transfer TY points as well as Chase UR and Amex MR (also SPG but I don't think that card is interesting at this stage).

After all, I am still most interested in good travel insurances and being able to off-set the AF to a decent amount. $150-200 AF is acceptable. The CSR would deliver that. I know the Amex Plat does deliver good insurances as well, but is more expensive (and I can realistically only off-set to $350, maybe $300 with some Ubering). Maybe I could get the Amex for the SUP and insurances for a year until I am able to get the CSR (and then cancel or PC the Amex Plat).

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 17:59:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you move money through them then a banking relationship will definitely help. Parking money i'm not so sure unless the amount is big(smt like 10k+ probably). Go ask them, bankers would love to "sell" you some credit cards.

It used to be that if you had at least $10,000 on deposit with Chase a personal banker could assist with a credit application that had been denied. But that Special Reconsideration program was discontinued over two years ago.

That said if you deposit a minimum of $1,500 in a Total Checking account and/or $10,000 in a Total Savings account you could earn at least $350 in bonuses for opening those accounts. Also, having a Chase account makes it easier for them to screen you for credit pre-approvals. But a pre-approval does not necessarily mean that you're guaranteed to be approved for a credit card. That decision is made by the underwriters in the lending department which is totally independent of the banking side of the business.

Personally, I opened a Total Checking account and two months later received a pre-approval for their Freedom and Slate cards; I applied and was approved for the Chase Freedom card. I haven't gotten any online pre-approvals since but in-branch I was informed that I'm pre-approved for all the card offered by Chase but I'm over 5/24 so I'm not applying for a while although I'm targeting the CSR.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 18:08:14 GMT

@Bostonito wrote:
Thank you, I truly appreciate your responses and feedback!

I will check with a Chase branch when I have time. Regarding the FICO scores I will double-check the times and potentially buy the report from the mentioned website.

Amex's Global Transfer Program does not work since it does not apply to the Corporate card. I do not have any personal Amex yet.

Does anyone know much chances with the Citi Premier card with my thin profile? The Mastercard would have a much higher acceptance than the Amex.
My frequent flyer program Flying Blue would allow to transfer TY points as well as Chase UR and Amex MR (also SPG but I don't think that card is interesting at this stage).

After all, I am still most interested in good travel insurances and being able to off-set the AF to a decent amount. $150-200 AF is acceptable. The CSR would deliver that. I know the Amex Plat does deliver good insurances as well, but is more expensive (and I can realistically only off-set to $350, maybe $300 with some Ubering). Maybe I could get the Amex for the SUP and insurances for a year until I am able to get the CSR (and then cancel or PC the Amex Plat).

If you could live without lounge access, the Amex Gold card is a more than adequate travel card; plus you'll earn 3x Membership Rewards points on airline tickets booked through Amex's travel portal.

The first thing I'd advise is to check to make sure all 3 credit bureaus are generating scores for you. Then you could apply for the Citi Premier card; the worst outcome is that they would say no. The CSR would appear to be beyond reach presently because you would typically need at least one year of credit experience and one account with a $10K credit line; neither of which you have.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:32:41 GMT

I’m in similar situation, but being from Canada, I was able to get US credit cards from Canadian banks in the US (TD, RBC) with high credit limits. Despite that, I’ve applied and been rejected for a number of credit cards with American banks!

American banks seem to be extremenly sensitive to the length of credit history (apparently about to change soon, with the new “UltraFICO”).

Try to see if your home country has any banks in the US. If so, they may approve you for a CC using your credit score back home.

I just applied and was approved for the Gold AMEX. The AF is pretty high, but I convinced myself the sign up bonus and high rewards earning rates will make up for that, at least in the short term. You might want to give the Gold AMEX a go.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 01:10:18 GMT

wrote:
I’m in similar situation, but being from Canada, I was able to get US credit cards from Canadian banks in the US (TD, RBC) with high credit limits. Despite that, I’ve applied and been rejected for a number of credit cards with American banks!

American banks seem to be extremenly sensitive to the length of credit history (apparently about to change soon, with the new “UltraFICO”).

Try to see if your home country has any banks in the US. If so, they may approve you for a CC using your credit score back home.

I just applied and was approved for the Gold AMEX. The AF is pretty high, but I convinced myself the sign up bonus and high rewards earning rates will make up for that, at least in the short term. You might want to give the Gold AMEX a go.

Getting a CC at all is not the problem - getting the interesting ones is

The Gold is quite interesting with the 50k SUP, with the 25k SUP not so much. If I may ask, which CL did you get and roughly how long did you have CH when you applied?

Thanks for the remark on UltraFICO, quite interesting! However I guess by the time banks have adopted it I will have a CH long enough already.

@Anonymous wrote:
If you could live without lounge access, the Amex Gold card is a more than adequate travel card; plus you'll earn 3x Membership Rewards points on airline tickets booked through Amex's travel portal.

The first thing I'd advise is to check to make sure all 3 credit bureaus are generating scores for you. Then you could apply for the Citi Premier card; the worst outcome is that they would say no. The CSR would appear to be beyond reach presently because you would typically need at least one year of credit experience and one account with a $10K credit line; neither of which you have.

In the majority of my flights I have lounge access through my FFP anyway, so that is not my main concern. I too realised that as a daily card the Gold is better suited than the Platinum due to the higher multiplier.

You said the CSR is out of reach with the $10k CL, do you think the same for the CSP with $5k? I guess it doesn't make a difference that I have a $5k CL with the Amex Corporate (since it is not reported)?

Regarding the credit scores I will wait a couple of days more, just to be sure. I checked and had applied for my first CC in the last week of March, second CC in the second week of April. First CC billing cycle ran until the last week of April. Safer to wait until the beginning of November to pull scores.

I will make some further research on the Citi and the Amex Gold and decide then. In any case I will report back.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

jdbkiang — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 05:49:03 GMT

I think the CSR and CSP are both out of reach for now, and Citi is typically pretty sensitive to thin files. I'd say out of Chase, Citi, and Amex, Amex is the most friendly to thin files. Given that, it may be the best option for you. Were you able to find a link for the 50K SUB?

You can try using discoverscorecard or creditchecktotal to check your FICO scores.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 18:37:03 GMT

Great remark with Discover's Scorecard, they show me the EX for free - I have a FICO8 EX 717. So I know that and FICO8 TU 719.

The Scorecard also states I have 4 inquiries while CapOne's Creditwise states 6.

I have not yet found a link for the 50k SUB for Amex Gold, but also did not search too much yet as I was still checking the cards. I do like the benefits of the Citi Premier quite a lot and the AF of $95 (1st year free) is nice as well. Hence I am considering giving the Citi a try and going for the Amex should I not be successful. It is a gamble with the HP, so I will still make up my mind a little further.

Thanks again for your valuable inputs!

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

jdbkiang — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 20:17:27 GMT

Glad it was of use to you! Remember that Credit Wise uses Vantage Score 3.0, which is different from FICO 08, so don’t rely on it for an accurate score.

From my personal experience, Citibank is stricter than even chase, and if you were feeling brave enough to go for the Citi premier, you might as well go for the CSP/CSR. Of course, YMMV, but a 700+ score is generally high enough to qualify for the CSR. It’s just other factors you have to be careful about. Regardless, if you’re already pre-qualified for an Amex platinum, then your chances of getting the Gold card are quite high. Having that card under your belt could help you apply for other cards too.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 23:10:18 GMT

A couple of good news at once:
- I got my new FICO8 TU and it increased from 719 to 731 with the following assessment one month later!
- The SL on my secured BoA CC increased by $100 without any request from my side.
- I applied for an Amex Gold and was approved.

Thanks for all your help! My next steps will probably be setting up a Chase checking account, parking some money there and then trying the CSR when I have exceeded one year with a CC.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

jdbkiang — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 03:32:47 GMT

Nice! Also, I'm not sure if you've tried this, but if you have anyone in the States with a good credit score or good credit history with their cards, you could always ask them to put you on as an AU. That's probably the fastest way to build your history. They can simply remove you after you get the CSR.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 15:28:02 GMT

Hey, good news on that CC approval. I was in the very same spot like you in early 2016. Did start with a secured card from WF and fortunately I already had an Amex card back in Europe before I moved to the US. Amex is VERY generous by US standards to give you an unsecured US card with decent starting limt (in my case it was $5k basically 3 weeks after I moved to the US and obtained my SSN. Didn't even have a FICO score yet) when they already know you from overseas.

After that I did exactly what was said before. Opened checkings & savings with Chase and put some funds in there. By 9 months builing credit in the US I tried to apply for the CSP (CSR out of reach) but was denied. Since I fly a lot of United went for the Chase United Explorer Card, as the banker said they are easier to get, and was approved. About 14 months into building credit in the US I applied for the CSP in a Chase branch and was finally approved.

Once this obstacle was taken my score and credit history were good enough to basically get any other card/credit I needed since. The first 12-14 months are defintiely the hardest and you can manage your credit as responsibly as you want, unfortunately there is no shortcut to increase the age and AAoA of your credit file.

Good luck!

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

Bostonito — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 23:54:27 GMT

If you remember I had created this thread to evaluate my chances to get a CSP. As you suggested I had opened a checking (and savings) account with Chase a little more than three months ago. I set up direct deposit and transferred $10k to the savings account in order to get both welcome bonuses. The day before yesterday I coincidentally checked CreditWise, their Vantagescore 3.0 TU overview tool, only to realize there was the CSP among the pre-qualified offers (other two being Freedom Unlimited and Slate). I visited the branch to check if they had a higher sign-up bonus but they didn't so I decided to apply online last night, starting from the pre-qualification page inside CreditWise. After putting in my data it said something along the lines of "We have received your application and need to review it.", without any indication of time (e.g. 7-10 or 30 days).

Today I called the hotline (from backdoor numbers thread: Chase: 800-945-2000 (App status with option to speak to rep.)) where the robo lady told me something like "under review and feedback in less than 30 days". I used the option to speak to a rep and asked why it is still pending when I was pre-qualified. Customer service rep connected me to loan department, she checked something in the background for one minute and told me I was approved with a CL of $5,000! I asked it to be expedited and after connecting me to Sapphire customer service they are now rush-shipping it to me. Can't wait to put my summer vacation spendings on the card

In summary I was able to get the CSP with only around 11 months of CH (foreigner moving to the US) and current TU733 Fico8 / EX720 Fico8. In a year or a year and a half I will try to PC to CSR.

Re: Foreigner with short CH looking for travel CC

FinStar — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:03:31 GMT

Great success story and congrats on your approval @Bostonito.

Locking this thread as you have been approved. Feel free to start a new approval thread in the Approvals forum if you wish.