Denied for Chase Freedom with 760 due to debt to income ratio (med school loans and resident salary)

[Anonymous]

Background: I am graduating medical school this week and am starting residency in July. For anyone not familiar with the process, doctors do a paid "internship" after medical school that pays 50-60k called residency. My specialty has a 4 year residency, after which the median income is 300k for my specialty. I have 250k in student loans (and this is from a state school). Not sure it was the greatest financial decision in the world but I want to work hard to pay it off and avoid unnecessary expenses where I can.

I am looking for a 0% APR credit card to help cover moving expenses as I do not get paid until mid-July and am using my savings to pay for June and July rent and utilities.

My FICO is 760 with <10% utilization on all 3 of my cards (15k limit across all 3). No late payments with 8 year credit history. I would prefer a 0% APR card to obviously save on interest until I get paid in mid-July.

I was denied from Chase Freedom this morning. I called the reconsideration line and was told it was my debt-to-income ratio (250k student loans to 60k income during residency) and I am risky because of "my 5k loan payment per month." I tried to explain I am doing income based repayment and have never actually paid 5k a month (that's insane) but they wouldn't budge.

Anyone have any advice? Should I keep applying to more cards and hope to speak to someone who understands my situation?

I am trying to survive the next few months with no income and really would like to avoid interest (I have a poor family so family help isn't an option).

[Anonymous]

IMO, Chase is a picky lender so I'm not surprised. Have you checks the Amex prequals? I got the BCE from Amex a couple months ago, with their 0% APR for 18 months. I believe it should still be offered on the site, but you should check to see. 

I'm sure there are other 0% interest rates for other cards out there, but this is the first one that came to my mind.

[Anonymous]

The Amex EveryDay card comes with 0% APR for 15 months and $0 balance transfer fee.  Given your scores you'd have a high chance of sucess although there is a possibility you would again have to recon with them.  Try the Amex prequalification site and see what pops up: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers/

Chase can be a finicky lender; if you live in an area with Chase branches I'd strongly suggest you go in and speak with a personal banker.  Although at this stage I'm not sure the recon can be overturned; they'd certainly want you as a client given your earning potential.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Background: I am graduating medical school this week and am starting residency in July. For anyone not familiar with the process, doctors do a paid "internship" after medical school that pays 50-60k called residency. My specialty has a 4 year residency, after which the median income is 300k for my specialty. I have 250k in student loans (and this is from a state school). Not sure it was the greatest financial decision in the world but I want to work hard to pay it off and avoid unnecessary expenses where I can.

I am looking for a 0% APR credit card to help cover moving expenses as I do not get paid until mid-July and am using my savings to pay for June and July rent and utilities.

My FICO is 760 with <10% utilization on all 3 of my cards (15k limit across all 3). No late payments with 8 year credit history. I would prefer a 0% APR card to obviously save on interest until I get paid in mid-July.

I was denied from Chase Freedom this morning. I called the reconsideration line and was told it was my debt-to-income ratio (250k student loans to 60k income during residency) and I am risky because of "my 5k loan payment per month." I tried to explain I am doing income based repayment and have never actually paid 5k a month (that's insane) but they wouldn't budge.

Anyone have any advice? Should I keep applying to more cards and hope to speak to someone who understands my situation?

I am trying to survive the next few months with no income and really would like to avoid interest (I have a poor family so family help isn't an option).

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[Hex]

Have you thought of Discover? They have a 0% apr offer and a pretty solid prequalify tool. Not sure what CL you'd get though.

[Hex]

Capital One’s Quicksilver has a 9 month 0% APR offer plus a $150 bonus if you spend $500 in the first 90 days. The card offers 1.5% cashback and you can redeem it as soon as it posts with no minimum amount required for redemption. They also have a great phone app. I love Cap1 if you can’t tell. Also the Quicksilver usually gives fairly large original credit limits. They have solid prequalify too. Just make sure you apply for the real Quicksilver. The Quicksilver One is a pretty terrible card and won’t include any of the above benefits except the great phone app part.

[Hex]

I should also mention that any Cap1 application will result in a hard pull on all three credit bureaus. The prequal is a soft pull. Also future credit limit increases are also a soft pull so to many its worth it. I just wanted to warn you. I wouldn't apply unless i got the okay on the prequal first.

[Gmood1]

It's an off the wall recommendation, but how about Blispay https://blispay.com ? Depending on how much you need to hold you over. This could be the perfect card. It's 0% for six months with no payments for six months. Plus you'll get 2% cash back on all of your purchases. The catch is, the purchases must be $199 and above to qualify for the 6 month deal. Shouldn't be hard to do with moving expenses.
Your scores should net a $7500 approval or there about. Con is they don't give CLIs as yet. It's still a terrific card to have for emergencies and such IMO.
They only pull EX. And only report to EX.
The six months float of no payments, should take a little pressure off you.
Congratulations on your new start and welcome to the forums.

[Anonymous]

I think you should apply for Discover, they have 0% APR for 18 months I believe.