I am currently an AU on 3 cards but do not have a card under my own name.
My data points are:
EX 700, EQ 680, TU 710
Utilization 5% on one card, 2% of TCL, AZEO
One collection (which I do not recognize and am disputing) and it should fall off by March 2020
No new inqs in years
Retired with decent income and good savings, no debt
Am interested in a card with no annual fee and preferably some cash back.
I have narrowed down to the following:
Amex Blue Cash Everyday
Discover Cashback or Balance Transfer
Capital One QuickSilver
Bank of America Cashback
Based on my data points, do I have a chance with any of them? If not, any other recommendations?
@eastsea wrote:I am currently an AU on 3 cards but do not have a card under my own name.
My data points are:
EX 700, EQ 680, TU 710
Utilization 5% on one card, 2% of TCL, AZEO
One collection (which I do not recognize and am disputing) and it should fall off around March 2020
Retired with decent income and good savings, no debts
Am interested in a card with no annual fee and preferably some cash back.
I have narrowed down to the following:
Amex Blue Cash Everyday
Discover Cashback or Balance Transfer
Capital One QuickSilver
Bank of America Cashback
Based on my data points, do I have a chance with any of them? If not, any other recommendations?
IMHO you have a chance with any of them.
Amex gave me 3 "Featured Cards" (is that the same as pre-qualification?) Blue Cash Prefered, Gold, Marriot Bonvoy.
Capital One gave me QuickSilver One with an annual fee and Platinum which has no cash back.
Discover did say I am pre-approved for the Discover It Cash Back card.
@eastsea wrote:Amex gave me 3 "Featured Cards" (is that the same as pre-qualification?) Blue Cash Prefered, Gold, Marriot Bonvoy.
Capital One gave me QuickSilver One with an annual fee and Platinum which has no cash back.
Discover did say I am pre-approved for the Discover It Cash Back card.
1. "Featured cards" doesn't mean anything. It is not a prequalification or preapproval.
2. You don't want the platinum card, and you don't want an annual fee.
3. Discover's preapprovals used to be meaningless, but nowadays are usually OK.
4. I would go for the Amex Blue Cash Everyday or the BOA Cash card.
As an AU the sway depends on the creditor, and their association between the vendor for credit lines usually starting out closed store loop cards are a bit easier to work out, but major cards open loop cards, can be exhausting to understand why they wont issue one credit.
Comenity Bank as an example often is the most strictest and thus most likely will not extend you credit for an individual account.
Synchrony Bank on the other hand do look at AU's, but keep in mind that they most likely will determine if you made a purchase under your own vendor account.
Example let's say your partnerfamily member has an online vendor account at Walmart.com, they also were issued a credit line of let's say $1k via Synchrony Bank.
And they add you as an AU.
Two things need to be done, first you should have your own Walmart.com account, and secondly the potential debtor must have an account in good standing.
While you won't have access to making sure payments on purchases you made using the account, are being made, it can be damaging to you.
This is where it's important to make sure the person that allows you to be an authorized user, is a stand up p[erson in paying their bills on time, and keeping balances within a reasonable threshold.
Comenity Bank is the worse in not considering AU for future credit lines from my own experience, however Synchrony does appear to be reasonable.
Of course this is also dependent upon the original vendor and the agreement between the creditor and vendor.
As some vendors (Aka Walmart as an example) may carry some underwriting risk in the creditor/vendor agreement.
That means it depeends on how much risk a vendor is willing to take on behalf of issuing credit to a potential debtor with a creditor.
To show as an example of just how much authority a vendor has in regards to risk assessment, let's consider the following, I'm an AU for my partners JCPenney account, they have $1,200.00 credit line (use it maybe twice a year between both of us, and both times was me).
Yet when I apply for my own credit line, I'm told I am already a member within their program.
So in essence it means the vendor JCPenney, is not willing to underwrite risk at this time.
Although from the same creditor Synchrony I have a Walmart (soon to transfer to Capital One sadly 
)with $3,500.00 credit line, and my partner has been stuck at $900.00.
My Lowes wen't from $600.00 to $5k, partners wen't from $500.00 to $2,500.00.
The same in regards to Victoria's Secret, I'm an authorized user, they have $1,200.00 credit line, no limit increases, I used it almost exclusively but have been denied from Comenity at least 15 times in the last year.
Capital One was the first creditor that gave me credit with zero credit history, it was a $250.00 credit line that graduated to $500.00 but denied credit increases since, as I understand these types of accounts aren't really designed to increase or be long standing keepers.
Although it was unsecured, which was/is a plus.
Creditors have policies that are rather goofy all over the place.
Example when I first applied about a year ago for a Discover Card, I was offered a secured card, I delcined, as I already have a couple of those cards, which I figure was plenty enough.
About a year later I went thru their pre-qual page and was given two unsecured card options for their it card, one for cash back the other for milage, I seldom travel so the cash back made the best sense, I finished the application and was approved, then they started in wanting all sorts of extra information, which I felt was arbitrary and decided not to give them the information, so they closed the access of the credit line, and reported it as an account closed by vendor, although I had told them I wasn't interested, they stated "No we value you as a customer", in the end they just wanted the prestige to report account closed by Discover.
So they can be misleading and downright dirty to a consumer at times.
Because I have been gathering information for an in depth book, I have been doing real world experiments, thus I opened a Belk account was granted $500.00 credit line, I also opened up a Gap account both from Synchrony Bank and was given $250.00, in 8 month's my Belk went to $1k, as well as my Gap.
I then cancelled both accounts, and after they were reported as closed in proper by debtor (account holder) I applied again to each, this time I was approved for the Belk card for $300.00 and Gap at $500.00.
Again giving evidence as to how much risk a vendor is willing to offer a creditor.
The notion that all credit offered is given strictly by a perceived lender is not accurate, it's a shared connection between vendor, creditor, and potential debtor.
So many closed loop cards are easier to obtain from reasonable creditor/vendors, it depends on the underwriting and the financial condition a vendor may be in at any particular point in time.
However open loop cards such as VISA/MASTERCARD will be a bit more difficult to obtain for the most part, and is even more difficult if they are branded open loop cards with a vendor name, unless the vendor is doing extremly well, or entered into a better economical contract with a creditor.
Just my point of view, in the end I would say Synchrony Bank is one of the best, as they appear to use data in house as well as FICO, and other coring models.
In the end their house score is what they decide to follow. Real world information.