topic Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid?? in Credit Cards

Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 00:16:07 GMT

Hello everyone,

I've had two other posts debating about getting a new travel credit card as my current lineup does not have any cards that I can rack up miles and hotel points on. I went on discovers pre-approval site because someone reccommended the discover it miles card. The site came back with pre-approvals for Discover It student Chrome for 15.24% APR(decent APR is tempting) and the Discover it Student cash back also for 15.24%. While these APR rates are really tempting and I have almost all of my student loans through discover and pay interest on them every month (I'm guessing they trust/like me a little) Neither of these cards offer me the travel rewards I seek. Next I have a mail offer from Citi for the AAdvantage Miles up card. While I am a frequent AA traveler, the APR is 22.24% (no range just solid number) I have a TYP with citi currently with a 15.74% APR and the SUB for the mileup currently is not nearly as good as the other AA cards. I made a few other threads about potentially apping for thr CSP but and worried my scores aren't enough to be approved and I really don't want to waste a HP for nothing. I also was reading about the Wells Fargo Propel for travel seems to rack up points nicely but I've never banked with them and not sure about their reward system. I fly American and United the most, but also fly some cheaper airlines when possible (spirit offers $48 flights to orlando I can't refuse) so in honestly I think the AAdvantage would be too airline specific for me. I also was looking at the Amex hilton honors aspire card for the hige SUB it's offering and because I love AMEX and how they've treated me over the years. Others have recommneded platinum but I think that is too high level for my current scores and thin profile. What do you guys think?

*****EDIT I did the free trialf for 30 days from experian.com to see all 3 agencies******

EX Fico 8: 756 as of 06/15/19

6% utilization
Inquiries: 10 (two were supposed to fall off 06/02/19 still showing)
No lates, no collections 100% payment history
AAofA 2 years 2 months

EQ Fico 8: 749 as of 06/15/19

6% utilization
Inquiries: 7
No lates, no collections, 100% payment history
AAofA 2 years 2 months

TU Fico 8: 733 as of 06/15/19

6% utilization
Inquiries: 7
No lates, no collections, 100% payment history
AAoA 2 years 1 month

With all this and my cards listed in my signature what are my approval chances for the following cards (I ranked them in order of what I want most) I would be happy with any of these cards to be honest all hit different perks for me so I'll probably end up apping for the one you guys think I have best chances with:

Chase Saphire Preferred

Citi Prestige

Capital One Venture

Amex Platinum

Amex HH Aspire

Wells Fargo Propel

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 01:44:27 GMT

I'm pretty confident Amex would happy to give you a platinum with those scores and your history with them.

I'm not in a position to answer about the others, but Amex's charge cards don't require fantastic credit scores (and yours are pretty good).

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 02:13:40 GMT

Thanks @RealityBites as you can see I put that one down lower on the ranking because I'm not a big fan of charge cards for the fact that while I'm in school my income fluctuates based on how my classes are so some months I carry a balance others I pay in full and the other con is that the annual fee for platinum is massive BUT I know I'd use the airline credit and Uber credit but aside from that $400 in "savings" I'm not too sure I'd get enough spend out of it for the sign up bonus $5000 in 3 months is a lot for me in that time Frame

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 15:20:27 GMT

Your scores are fine. What's the tricky part is when you accumulated the INQ's and if they were approvals that are now listed on your reports.

You already have 5 cards which is more than enough to get/keep high scores.

You mentioned being in school and fluctuating income which makes it harder to go for a bonus w/o eating into it with interest expenses if you can't pay in full.

Airline specific cards don't offer the best earn rate overall but do when using them directly for airfare.

So,, you want points / miles for travel? The best option is to go for UR (Chare) or MR (Amex).

Chase Saphire Preferred - earns UR at a slgitly higher rate than CFU and allows you to transfer the points through their portal to airline partners

Citi Prestige - earns TYP's which aren't as valuable or easy to use, they don't transfer (captive portal)

Capital One Venture - It's cap1 and they're useless... you accumulate points and erase travel purchases with them... nothing special

Amex Platinum - you earn MR's but, you have a $550 AF attached to it.... unless you're traveling ALOT it doesn't make sense... maybe in the future after school.

Amex HH Aspire - earns hotel points... is this really what you're aiming for?

Wells Fargo Propel - earns points and recently changed to allow to erase purchases instead of being restricted to $25 increments.

For what your goasl are I would probably say go for:

Propel to diversify your lenders, easy $300 bonus

CSP is a good stepping stone w/ a lower $95 AF than Platinum.... the only issue I see is your current $500 CL with Chase... then again depending on where you 5/24 count lands it's possible to get an approval for the min $2000 CL

For MR's with a lower AF and some bonus look at the ED or EDP in incognito mode as they typically have a 20K or 30K bonus attached to them and ED is $0 AF and EDP is $95 AF

Then check out the list of rewards cards over here for other potential matches. Keep in mind each lender has specific criteria where if you app for one thing it starts a clock where you have to wait to qualify for an additional bonus.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 18:27:53 GMT

The easiest ones to get are the ones that I’d steer you away from. A hotel card is too restrictive to be your only travel card and the Platinum has a terrible earning rate on anything that isn’t travel.

Since the other three cards each in their own AF tier, I’d generally expect you’d have the easiest time getting the no AF card and the most difficult getting the highest AF.

Are any of those inquiries about to drop off? Keep going like you’re going (less the hard pulls) and you won’t have to worry about what you qualify for much longer.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 18:37:33 GMT

Wow thank you for listing out all the data points really helped me see all my options. As for my inquiries the newest one on TU was July 2018 (student loan) newest inq on EQ was also July 2018 for student loan and EX was also July 2018 for discover student loan. My newest account was becoming an authorized user on the blue cash card in August 2018. All other card accounts were opened 2016 and 2017 so I should be within 5/24

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 19:07:30 GMT

An easy way to count is either open a free account w/ Experian (includes your Fico 8) or CK https://www.creditkarma.com/myfinances/creditreport/#accounts sort by date. CC's are what you're counting back 2 years on.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 19:33:22 GMT

Yeah I have a free experian account showing all 3 agencies. Ignoring student loan account openings here's the order

1) Cap one opened 06/28/2016

2) Amex opened 01/01/2017

3) Chase opened 01/27/2017

4) Citi opened 02/01/2017

5) Amex AU opened on 08/17/18

That's it for credit card accounts being opened. As for Inquiries I was mistaken

EX: 10 inquries total 02/08/2019 for FNB Omaha (I have no clue what this inquiry is I never applied for it and will be disputing)

-side note two inquires were supposed to fall off last month but still are showing up on experian they fell off other two agencies though

TU: 7 Inquiries total latest one being 07/30/2018 discover student loan

EQ: 7 inquiries total latest one being 07/30/2018 discover student loan

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 19:39:58 GMT

So, if you're going for Chase you're 1/24.... now, to play it right you need to space apps probably 3 mo's apart to not get them shutdown or denied a bonus.

Virtually 0 INQ's in a year looks good for most other cards as well.

Some of the specifics are covered here

Some lender specific points can be found here (this one is BOA but, there's a list of lenders at the bottom)

here's a reddit on the subject as well

If you're willing to put the effort into figuring out who looks for what then narrowing down the options gets easier and knowing where your INQ will land helps spread them so you don't stack them all on one single CR.

If you want to really see where your options are there's a fun Visio on the matter as well.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:13:13 GMT

Sweet thanks for all the links. So I've come up with a plan

Step 1) Go into chase branch and see if I have any pre-approved offers there for CSP

Step 2) If yes then apply in branch and hope for success

Step 3) If approved go sit in the garden and be happy

Step 4) If not approved try for Citi Prestige for SUB and 4th night free

Step 5) If approved be happy and sit in garden

Step 6) If not approved move to Amex platinum

Step 7) if approved put as much spend as possible through it for SUB and start using uber perks immediately

Step 8) If not approved apply for Discover It student since all else failed lol

Does this sound like a good or bad plan from what I read on your links I should prioritize chase then citi then amex. Also from what I read Wells Fargo doesn't like people they have no background with so I think I'm dropping that from my travel card want list.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:19:40 GMT

I would just do 1/4/7 + WF just to get them out of the way if you have the spend required to hit the bonuses and collect the free $$.

WF isn't all that sensitive on having a relationship with them. In fact some posts recently show that having a relationship with them resulted in denials. If you have a use for the card then get it or keep it on your short list for 6-12 months down the road if you get approvals on 1/4/7. Adding 3-5 accounts isn't a big deal unless you're going to lose out on the bonus due to lack of spend.

I added 5 accounts and a few denials (1 inq's / others geo-restrictions) Mar-May to collect the bonuses. Some might stick around for a year and some may not.

I picked up WF back in Dec for $7500 w/o any prior relationship w/ them. I called them to bump the limit to 25K and got denied for lack of relationship.... no big deal. I hit the 3K spend and collected my $300 from them and now w/ the points eraser function it's easier to redeem them on purchases instead of $25 increments like it used to be and w/ other banks.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:24:31 GMT

So you think I should go for CSP, Prestige, Platinum, and then WF? Do you mean like all within a few days or spaced out?

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:31:27 GMT

If I was you I would see if I could do a product change, your Chase & Cap1 cards are redundant.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:35:07 GMT

It doesn't really matter the timing. I usually just do a batch of apps in a single hour if that. Kind of depends on my list I have gathered and the results I'm getting.

This last batch I had 5-10 cards on the list and targetted them in order of bonus and some didn't work out and moved down the list after looking up data on approvals for each one as the list progressed. I hit a couple of hiccups where the status wasn't immediate or there was a significant delay on a card being shipped/lost. I had a deadline for a spend that had to be hit so, the list had backup options on it if something didn't workout right.

CSP - $4K Spend - no 0% period $95 AF ($505 net bonus)

Prestige - $4K spend - no 0% period $495 AF (50K points doesn't cashout at $500 more like $250 unless you get a GC and sell it or use it for a travel credit)

Platinum - $5K spend - no 0% period $550 AF (60K-100K in MR's with the same issue was Citi on redemption)

Propel - $3K spend - 0% for 12 months $0 AF / 30K points = $300 + whatever points you make on purchases

So, 16K spend in 3 months is a bit of a rough goal.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:50:51 GMT

yeah If I am approved for them all I know I can get 8k spend at least because I am enrolled in a summer class and am paying out of pocket for it so I could pay that whole bill off ($5,000) then I usually spend about 1k a month on bills but have a few trips planned so I can realistically hit 10k spend without trying too hard. Another possibility is my fall bill for school will be coming in august I could spend the extra 5k-6k on my tuition bill then my student loans will just refund me since I already paid with credit card then I can use student refund to pay the cards off. So while it seems impossible for me to spend 16k I could theoretically get it done lol alright well tomorrow will be the day I guess! I'll update this forum

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:55:48 GMT

I didn't say impossible. Just rough. But it sounds like you have the expenses and reimbursement in place to not pay interest on it. The time frame lines up for hitting all of the goal spend to reap the bonuses. The bonues alone could pay for your trips

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 19:36:10 GMT

Hey just an update went to the branch today to pay my Freedom Unlimited off sadly no in branch pre-approvals showed up but the banker wanted me to apply and kept trying to shove the Reserve in my face (I made it clear that card was not within my reach due to not having any cards over 10k) but he was adamant that it fit my needs better. I told him I'm going to hold off for now and left. Do you think the CSP is not meant to be since I have no offers online, on app, or in branch? I still need a travel card and am at 1/24 so I could still try for Amex platinum and citi prestige and garden some more. I feel like Amex and citi have been more generous with me than other cards. Also capital one approved my CLI last night for sadly only $300 so I'm now at $2,600 limit on that card

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Remedios — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 20:01:01 GMT

@Bmn5940 wrote:
Hey just an update went to the branch today to pay my Freedom Unlimited off sadly no in branch pre-approvals showed up but the banker wanted me to apply and kept trying to shove the Reserve in my face (I made it clear that card was not within my reach due to not having any cards over 10k) but he was adamant that it fit my needs better. I told him I'm going to hold off for now and left. Do you think the CSP is not meant to be since I have no offers online, on app, or in branch? I still need a travel card and am at 1/24 so I could still try for Amex platinum and citi prestige and garden some more. I feel like Amex and citi have been more generous with me than other cards. Also capital one approved my CLI last night for sadly only $300 so I'm now at $2,600 limit on that card

Even with prequal and/or preapproval, the process is not complete till you hit apply button. Not having either is really not an indicator of denial, just like having them is not a guarantee of approval.

Cold app is perfectly fine, and unless you're willing to wait for pre-approval (some people never get them and yet have no issues getting approved), you'll need to apply and find out.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

SouthJamaica — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 21:28:29 GMT

@Bmn5940 wrote:
Hey just an update went to the branch today to pay my Freedom Unlimited off sadly no in branch pre-approvals showed up but the banker wanted me to apply and kept trying to shove the Reserve in my face (I made it clear that card was not within my reach due to not having any cards over 10k) but he was adamant that it fit my needs better. I told him I'm going to hold off for now and left. Do you think the CSP is not meant to be since I have no offers online, on app, or in branch? I still need a travel card and am at 1/24 so I could still try for Amex platinum and citi prestige and garden some more. I feel like Amex and citi have been more generous with me than other cards. Also capital one approved my CLI last night for sadly only $300 so I'm now at $2,600 limit on that card

I think you're in good shape to apply for the CSP or the Citi Premier, both of which are good travel cards.

Re: Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

Bmn5940 — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 21:32:41 GMT

Alright I'll pull the trigger for CSP cold app tonight and then for the prestige right after I'll update here my results fingers crossed chase trusts me/loves me enough the SUB for CSP right now would be huge for my upcoming travel and the 4th night free on prestige would be amazing to pair with it