Chase approval when?

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Hi all, 

so I had a charge off with Chase about 9 years ago and I let a bank account overdraft and get closed. This was in the midst of pretty much deciding which cards to pay off and which creditors to satisfy. Never filed BK, paid off almost 200k in cc debt and STILL had to let some get CO'ed. 

So, I'm now pre qualed for the last month roughly (even when the SUB was $200 - which i should have taken - on the Amazon Prime Visa)

I did their online pre qual, and it said I was not pre qualed for anything at all (im opted out of pre screened offers) BUT THEN I got an email from Chase offering me $250 on Chase Freedom Unlimited for $500 spend... does that mean I had a good chance of getting the card?

and since it's almost been 10 years.. should I be okay (once I'm under 5/24) to apply and be approved for a chase card?

I've managed to build my credit back up to the 650-700 range on all three bureaus. NO baddies for 5 years. I'm getting more and more curious but I also remember how difficult it was building credit the first time and how BOA would deny me even with 700 scores as would Chase, but Amex was the first big lender to approve me in the 690s which is how I grew my Blue Cash and Delta Cards which then led to getting all the prime cards and all the debt. LOL

I really would like to BT about 6-8000$ but I could just as easily pay it off in the next 2-3 months as well. Still nice to have a hobby in building my credit. lol

[IcyCool7227]

I'm curious, what was all part of that $200k in debt? Were you charging cars or something lol? I myself got back with Chase a little after 7 years back in March 2024, though I did not try to apply earlier becuz of scores and the 5/24 rule. When will you be under 5/24?

[Rogue46]

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

I'm curious, what was all part of that $200k in debt? Were you charging cars or something lol? I myself got back with Chase a little after 7 years back in March 2024, though I did not try to apply earlier becuz of scores and the 5/24 rule. When will you be under 5/24?

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I was curious of that too, Initially I thought maybe it was a typo?

[youngandcreditwrthy]

@IcyCool7227 @Rogue46  it was me making credit a hobby and growing almost every card I had to the 20-30k range.. and several years worth of balance transfers, plus I used it to pay for college (max fed student loan amount was around 50k back then - ten or so years ago) and believe it or not.. until I let some of the cards default, my score was around 800 because of good ole utilization... I had 450k avail and was using 150k ish. What a thing to be hold. then when I decided no more balance transfers (because the saga would have continued if I weren't scared of an amex FR).

noteworthy is that for roughly 10 years I got away with low interest debt, mostly 0% with low BT fees or none in some cases. Those were the days (and it does still happen) when BOA, Citi, etc would send me blank checks to my ginormous credit lines or even let me just transfer the cash into my account to pay off the balances myself. 

so it was a combo of several years of college, me trying to "build" my credit and my income not quite catching up with my spending. That is no longer a problem as my DTI is like 4% lol 

so be warned... you can end up with 200k in cc debt with a near 800 fico score and be completely effed. I suppose I could say it wasn't an affordability issue as I did pay 80% of the debt off....but I did burn one or two banks for 20-30k each simply because they were jo's and I know the law. 150k a year income, 200 k cc debt. I felt like I was in an impossible situation and know the law very very well. So far Amex is the only bank ten years later holding a grudge.

This time around I just PIF. to allow a 20 something to have "up to 450k" in revolving credit is crazy. I even had 100k exposure with Synchrony that they  froze but then LET ME KEEP after their invasive policy. They just want to prevent fraud.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

oh and yes, I did buy a car. with a boa blank check . it was like no bt fees and 1.99% for 16 months or something. I paid that off and then sold the car for more about a year later and made money (even from the low ball offers that the dealer give) because I canceled a previous warranty and got a refund haha

if you can afford to pay a car off in the time a BT lasts, DO IT. I had the title in my hand within a week and the debt used to purchase the car was unsecured and a lower rate than what was being offered.

[Rogue46]

That's quite a cautionary tale my friend thanks for sharing. To answer your original question Chase let me in 8 years post BK although I never held a Chase card so I dont know if that makes a difference (I suspect it does)

[youngandcreditwrthy]

@IcyCool7227  now that I've been taking advantage of higher limits during the holidays, I'm right at 5/24 lol...rebuilding heh. in about 6-12 months, I'll be back under 5/24 rule although I hear that the 5/24 rule has gone away as of late 2023. It was put in place to prevent even more inflation from what my souces tell me and now that "official " "government" funny money CPI is at 2.5 % on the dot, maybe they'll go back to normal.

after opening I think 4 cards in the past week, I'm no longer pre qual'ed but hey I'll give it those 6 months, watch the inqs fall off and let my other acounts get past the 24 month point (since my rebuild started around mid 2023) and go from there.

when I got the marriot premier rewards card back in I think 2014 I was 7/24 in the 690s and the approved instantly with 25k limit. HHI 150k.

[IcyCool7227]

One other thing I'd like to add in case you weren't aware I believe many, if not all cc lenders have a hardship assistance program. I'm guessing that would have helped things a bit had you done that but personally I don't know since I never was in one myself. 

[dfwxjer]

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@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:

@IcyCool7227 @Rogue46  it was me making credit a hobby and growing almost every card I had to the 20-30k range.. and several years worth of balance transfers, plus I used it to pay for college (max fed student loan amount was around 50k back then - ten or so years ago) and believe it or not.. until I let some of the cards default, my score was around 800 because of good ole utilization... I had 450k avail and was using 150k ish. What a thing to be hold. then when I decided no more balance transfers (because the saga would have continued if I weren't scared of an amex FR).

noteworthy is that for roughly 10 years I got away with low interest debt, mostly 0% with low BT fees or none in some cases. Those were the days (and it does still happen) when BOA, Citi, etc would send me blank checks to my ginormous credit lines or even let me just transfer the cash into my account to pay off the balances myself. 

so it was a combo of several years of college, me trying to "build" my credit and my income not quite catching up with my spending. That is no longer a problem as my DTI is like 4% lol 

so be warned... you can end up with 200k in cc debt with a near 800 fico score and be completely effed. I suppose I could say it wasn't an affordability issue as I did pay 80% of the debt off....but I did burn one or two banks for 20-30k each simply because they were jo's and I know the law. 150k a year income, 200 k cc debt. I felt like I was in an impossible situation and know the law very very well. So far Amex is the only bank ten years later holding a grudge.

This time around I just PIF. to allow a 20 something to have "up to 450k" in revolving credit is crazy. I even had 100k exposure with Synchrony that they  froze but then LET ME KEEP after their invasive policy. They just want to prevent fraud.

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If you're PIF'ing every month then how do you have $6-8k on a card that you're looking to BT? 

And the numbers in this thread are all over the place. You paid off $200k of cc debt, 80% of your total cc debt from your words, burned "one or two banks for 20-30k" but you were using $150k of $450k TCL? None of that adds up. If you were using $200k or more of $450k TCL then there is zero chance your score was still 800. The algorithm doesn't allow it. 

Finally, you decided no more balance transfers because you were scared of an Amex FR, but you were good with burning them bc they were "jo's"? I also don't get how they're holding a grudge if you have a BCE. 

I hope you achieve what you're looking to do, but this thread is hard to follow.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

@dfwxjer 

as stated, rough numbers. It's been more than ten years at this point, the slate is clear. Now I PIF and income is higher, but it would be nice, as I continue to build my credit, to park a month or two worth of disc expenses on a good BT offer and use that to rebuild without paying super high interest or buying things I dont need. Otherwise, I'll just continue PIF, but I know for certain most banks don't like PIF. Synchrony already lowered my Car Care limit bc  I was pif and they made no interest lol.