Input please...Citi Costco and Amazon Prime approval odds

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, I need some input here. First time poster, long time lurker.
I've done some research here on these cards, but I'm not 100% confident of approval odds.

There are two credit cards that I'd like to apply for.

1st: Citi Costco card : App'd and approved for a 5.5K SL 3/25!

2nd: Amazon Prime Signature Visa

Here are my most current stats...

Discover Credit Scorecard as of 03/03/2018

EXP FICO 8 score 716

7 total accounts
4 years length of credit
1 inquiry
26% utilization
0 missed payments

Credit Karma as of 03/16/2018

TU score is 735

7 total accounts
1 year, 9 months age of credit
2 inquiries
26% utilization
0 derogatories
100% payment history

EQ score is 724

7 total accounts
1 year, 9 months age of credit
5 inquiries

26% utilization
0 derogatories
100% payment history

Of the seven total accounts, I only have balances on two accounts.
I have $8550 in total credit.

My Citi account is currently (as of today) at 77% utilization.
My US Bank account is currently (as of today) at 55%

I recently applied for a CLI on my Citi Diamond Preffered card and that was denied. Utilization was at 69% when I applied.

I have no other auto loans, mortgages, lines of credit to report.

I have been a Chase customer (checking/savings) for 10 years, and I'm a current Amazon Prime member.

I've been a customer in good standing with Citibank/Citigroup for under 1 year, accts opened July 2017.

Thanks for the help!

[jlitnns]

You can always pre-qual for Citi and see if it shoots you towards the Costco card. I did that last week and got approved with scores lower than yours. I had been running a pre-qual 1-2 times a week for the past couple months and Costco is the only one that showed up for me. I got a decent SL of $5.5k, my overall util is just under 13%.

Good luck and keep us updated.

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Hi guys, I need some input here. First time poster, long time lurker.
I've done some research here on these cards, but I'm not 100% confident of approval odds.

There are two credit cards that I'd like to apply for.

1st: Citi Costco card

2nd: Amazon Prime Signature Visa

Here are my most current stats...

Discover Credit Scorecard as of 03/03/2018

EXP FICO 8 score 716

7 total accounts
4 years length of credit
1 inquiry
26% utilization
0 missed payments

Credit Karma as of 03/16/2018

TU score is 735

7 total accounts
1 year, 9 months age of credit
2 inquiries
26% utilization
0 derogatories
100% payment history

EQ score is 724

7 total accounts
1 year, 9 months age of credit
5 inquiries

26% utilization
0 derogatories
100% payment history

Of the seven total accounts, I only have balances on two accounts.
I have $8550 in total credit.

My Citi account is currently (as of today) at 77% utilization.
My US Bank account is currently (as of today) at 55%

I recently applied for a CLI on my Citi Diamond Preffered card and that was denied. Utilization was at 69% when I applied.

I have no other auto loans, mortgages, lines of credit to report.

I have been a Chase customer (checking/savings) for 10 years, and I'm a current Amazon Prime member.

I've been a customer in good standing with Citibank/Citigroup for under 1 year, accts opened July 2017.

Thanks for the help!

---

I would wait to apply until your utilization is lower. Citi wouldn't give you a CLI recently, so I don't see them willing to grant you a new line of credit either. 

As for the Amazon Visa, you will likely net an approval but at a small limit, which Chase will likely keep you at forever. They're not CLI friendly unless you want to take a HP for a shot in the dark CLI. Again, get those individual utilizations under 30% and they will probably give you a decent starting limit. 

When you do apply for the Amazon Visa, make sure you do it through Amazon.com. They usually offer a free $50-$70 giftcard offer upon approval. 

[Gregory1776]

Same as the former post: check the prequelifys, and get your utilization down, that will help a lot! 😎

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah, I've been beating up the Citi pre qual page and it keeps telling me the same thing..."we couldn't match your records to a Pre-Qualified credit card offer. See below for 3 other cards you may like."

The 1st card shown is the Costco card then it shows other cards I might be interested in...the Citi Simplicity, the Citi Thank you Preferred, and the Citi Thank you Premier card...but none show as pre qualified...unless I'm not reading it correctly.

When I apply for credit, which factor is considered most...overall utilization of all reported accounts, or individual account utilization?

I'd hazard a guess that my Citi stats (age of account, current utilization, etc) aren't in the "favorable" category for granting new accounts.

I also have a Citibank Home Depot card that has a zero balance, always paid on time.

I have cards/accounts with Capital one and USAA as well. All unsecured accounts, but apparently "maxed out" for CLI's. 

Those I'd most likely file in the "sock drawer" while keeping the accounts open.

Maybe I should just chill and garden for awhile.

Thanks again!

[Gregory1776]

Having a high balance on two of your cards won’t help you in applying. I’m actually not even sure whether account Uti or overall matters more, but I know keep it below 30% (really 28.9%). Gardening will certainly help to age off any inquiries and give you time to pay down your balances while giving you a better shot at getting a preapproval/approval when the time comes. 

[Anonymous]

I have the same issue with Citi pre-qualifying page.  It state "we couldn't match your records to a Pre-Qualified credit card offer".  Then it offers some cards that I may like.  What I don't understand is how are they doing a precheck with just the last 4 digits of the SS number.  Don't they need the whole number to do a softpull? 

[SomewhereIn505]

Citi has a score tracker that allows you to track for 90 days without having an account with them.  Sometimes they have personalized offered in there versus their pre qualify check. Try that to see if anything comes up for you. 

[jlitnns]

When I app'd last week I had 13% overall util and 80% on 1 card from a BT and was approved for Costco. Decent SL at $5.5k. I have subscribed to the Citi credit score for the past 3 months and it pre-qualed me for the DC and AAdvantage but when I went to Citi pre-qual site those never showed up, only Costco and ultimately that's why I decided on Costco, plus that is more appealing to me than DC.

Keep us posted OP and good luck!

[Appleman]

With the high utilization, it will be difficult to get the approvals you want.

As many have already said, get the utilization down as low as possible but less than 30% before applying again.

I am not sure how your overall profile looks but take a look at SoFi, Lending Club and Prosper. All of these sites allow you to pre-quailfy for a personal loan with only a Soft pull of your credit. It will be a hard pull if you accept a pre-qualification so be warned.

If you were able to use the personal loan to pay off your credit cards your score would get a big boost. The scoring models are more favorable to a personal loan as compared to credit card debt.

The BIG thing to watch out for is simply running up the credit cards again digging a deeper hole. However, it can be a good way to get a score improvement and pay off some debt. Also, if you are currently not using a budget, start. YNAB is the one I use. Budgeting helps you not create new debt which will be key to future financial success. 

The payoff is getting paid to use credit cards for cash back versus paying a ton of interest.

Good luck!