topic Re: Getting AMEX and Chase? in Credit Cards

Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:14:37 GMT

A little background and current situation: I am 22 years old, barely starting out on credit.

Cards I have:

CapitalOne Platinum - $500 (opened June 2012)

BofA BankAmericard Platinum Cash Rewards - $500 (opened last month)

Discover Matrix - $300 (definitely want to close but I just opened it 2 weeks ago)

Discover IT - $1.5k (opened last week)

I tried applying for AMEX green, gold, and delta with no luck. My TU is 666 and EQ is 656. For my Discover IT, I applied online and they called me to ask more questions about my income and balances on my cards which aren't high at all, and that's how I got approved for that one. Should I call up AMEX and Chase and try that way? I'd appreciate any advice.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

myjourney — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:17:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
A little background and current situation: I am 22 years old, barely starting out on credit.

Cards I have:

CapitalOne Platinum - $500 (opened June 2012)
BofA BankAmericard Platinum Cash Rewards - $500 (opened last month)
Discover Matrix - $300 (definitely want to close but I just opened it 2 weeks ago)
Discover IT - $1.5k (opened last week)

I tried applying for AMEX green, gold, and delta with no luck. My TU is 666 and EQ is 656. For my Discover IT, I applied online and they called me to ask more questions about my income and balances on my cards which aren't high at all, and that's how I got approved for that one. Should I call up AMEX and Chase and try that way? I'd appreciate any advice.

Chase wants to see 1 year of history what cards do you want? Edit with such a short history IMO garden for 6 months

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:17:25 GMT

I'm aiming for amex gold and chase freedom or sapphire.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

myjourney — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:18:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm aiming for amex gold and chase freedom or sapphire.

Sorry for my manners welcome to the forum

CSP sorry I doubt

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

09Lexie — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:20:06 GMT

IMO, I would wait until your new cards are 1 yr. you have added new accounts to a thin file - Chase and Amex would like to see how you handle those new accounts. Plus your inq's will age some giving you a better chance to avoid a toy limit with Chase.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:20:22 GMT

Do you bank with chase? If you do, you have a good chance at the freedom. If not, I recommend you get other cards in the meantime or go garden

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:24:35 GMT

I bank with BofA. Any suggestions on what I should do with the discover matrix? Pay it off and close or pay it off and keep it?

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:26:17 GMT

Pay it off and keep it. You can try get it changed to discover it as well

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

09Lexie — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:26:25 GMT

Re: Discover Matrix IMO close it and make sure it's closed.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:28:09 GMT

CLOSE DISCOVER MATRIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Meltdownblitz — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:29:16 GMT

Honestly I'd wait as well. Once you have had your discover for 6 months you'll have no problems getting approved. Try applying for AMEX Green before Chase. My gf got AMEX Green with 6 months history, then an AMEX Clear. Unbelievable. They have lightened their requirements very much it seems. In 6 months you should be gold, grab a few cards then age for 6 more months then do the same again. Good luck!

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

solxp — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:29:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm aiming for amex gold and chase freedom or sapphire.

Welcome to the forums

You might sneak into a Green. Your chance at Sapphire all though not impossible is slim to none, min CL on CSP is 5k i think and they also like to see a 5k+ cl card with a year of history before matching. Freedom you could possible recon into one but expect at most a 1.5k match to the discover. You have alot of new cards reporting and your AoA looks like its less then 3 months now. You should let the Discover report then if your determined to apply for a Chase card now instead of waiting for 6 months go for a Freedom expect to recon and when you talk to them and they ask about all the new accounts and they will. Tell them you were looking for a good rewards card and got a offer from Discover and afterwards a friend told you about how awesome the Freedom is with its 5% categories and you looked into it and decided the Freedom was a much better fit then the Discover for you.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:56:39 GMT

Thanks for the welcome, I can tell this forum is going to prove quite useful for a long time!

Am I allowed to close the Matrix with the $75 charge they added to it when I applied for it? And I will wait until the Discover It reports, then I'll give Chase Freedom a shot over the phone and hopefully I can get in with Chase too. As for Amex, would it also be wise to have my balances paid off on my other cards ASAP so I can qualify for green or gold before 6 months?

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Indo — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:47:04 GMT

As someone who is also 22, I would reccomend waiting. There is no hurry to build up credit histry especially at our ages.

I started off with a Discover More card in 2010, waited 6 months before I got a Chase +1 student card, then waited until I Discover card was a little over a year old and got approved for the Amex BCE card. Obviously, since then, I PCed to a Chase Freedom (however it still has it's initial CL of $500).

Unless you want to struggle to raise your Chase cards CL - I would say wait. They usually match your highest - or at least around there. Discover likes to give CLI very often (I've received 3), so I would wait until you get a CLI from Discover then apply for a Chase card.

Now, for AMEX - getting a charge card is much easier than getting a revolver. I don't know how I got approved for the BCE card but I did. My reccomendation for them is to build at least 1 year of credit history and you should be good for a charge card.

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:22:21 GMT

So I called Chase yesterday on my lunch break and asked about my app. I got declined because of my short credit history and one of my balances is close to its limit (which I'm working on paying off whole in a month). June marks one year with that card so I will try to reapply again and meanwhile I will garden and pay off my balances in full.

Another question: I still live with my parents, can I pay for their mortgage and utlities with my cards? I'd like to take advantage of the cash rewards and the plan is they would pay me the money for those bills, I'd just be paying with my cards to get their benefits. Am I allowed to do this? What about a car payment?

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:30:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I called Chase yesterday on my lunch break and asked about my app. I got declined because of my short credit history and one of my balances is close to its limit (which I'm working on paying off whole in a month). June marks one year with that card so I will try to reapply again and meanwhile I will garden and pay off my balances in full.

Another question: I still live with my parents, can I pay for their mortgage and utlities with my cards? I'd like to take advantage of the cash rewards and the plan is they would pay me the money for those bills, I'd just be paying with my cards to get their benefits. Am I allowed to do this? What about a car payment?

Re mort

@Anonymous wrote:
So I called Chase yesterday on my lunch break and asked about my app. I got declined because of my short credit history and one of my balances is close to its limit (which I'm working on paying off whole in a month). June marks one year with that card so I will try to reapply again and meanwhile I will garden and pay off my balances in full.

Another question: I still live with my parents, can I pay for their mortgage and utlities with my cards? I'd like to take advantage of the cash rewards and the plan is they would pay me the money for those bills, I'd just be paying with my cards to get their benefits. Am I allowed to do this? What about a car payment?

Re mortgage: as a rule this doesn't make sense. You can use services like ChargeSmart.com, which allow you to pay your mortgage with a credit card (not Amex though) but charge enough of a fee to negate the rewards on most cards. Of course, if your parents are willing to pay the fee for you, that's all good!

Some utilities do allow credit card payments, others allow it through third party processors for a fee, which depending on the amount, may or may not be worth it.

Chargesmart also does car payments, but at a high fee.

If it was that easy, there wouldn't be decent reward programs, as people would have tons of miles from mortgage payments!

Re: Getting AMEX and Chase?

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:48:43 GMT

What about it benefiting my credit history and possible future approvals and/or CLIs?