Scores needed for Chase, Discover, PenFed Promise

[Bizambish]

Hello forum! Looking for advice

I’m sure this has been covered many times but things change and we can always use updated info

Want to know recommended Fico scores and make or break profile qualities to qualify for approval (for any amount, but preferably respectable SL’s) :

Chase- I believe Freedom and Slate are the easiest to qualify for as starters with the company

Discover- Standard IT

And PenFed - Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the promise card is the best to get your foot in the door

I have never had an account with any of these three so I did not burn any of them in my past credit life. I have joined PenFed already but not ready to apply yet as I have a lot of improvements to my fico profile under way and in progress. Will have less than 5 inq on all CR’s

Any advice, data points, general thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks FicoFam

[Anonymous]

Keep it simple.  In general you need a minimum 670 score for any of those lenders.  Why 670?  Because that's the cutoff point between a sub-prime aka "fair" credit score and a "good" credit score.  Of course, it also depends on your specific credit profile, income, prior credit history, etc. if a lender would take the chance to approve an app with a sub-prime score and you'd usually be stuck with a small credit limit.

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@Bizambish wrote:
Hello forum! Looking for advice

I’m sure this has been covered many times but things change and we can always use updated info

Want to know recommended Fico scores and make or break profile qualities to qualify for approval (for any amount, but preferably respectable SL’s) :

Chase- I believe Freedom and Slate are the easiest to qualify for as starters with the company

Discover- Standard IT

And PenFed - Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the promise card is the best to get your foot in the door

I have never had an account with any of these three so I did not burn any of them in my past credit life. I have joined PenFed already but not ready to apply yet as I have a lot of improvements to my fico profile under way and in progress. Will have less than 5 inq on all CR’s

Any advice, data points, general thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks FicoFam

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[Bizambish]

Great response, thank you for the advice and information. I was thinking minimum 680, but ideally 700-720. I see you’ve got the cards I’m asking about in your signature :-) Do you remember data points from when you obtained them?
Thanks again

[Anonymous]

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@Bizambish wrote:
Great response, thank you for the advice and information. I was thinking minimum 680, but ideally 700-720. I see you’ve got the cards I’m asking about in your signature :-) Do you remember data points from when you obtained them?
Thanks again

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Also, Chase and Discover have prequalify tools which tend to be solid with single APRs.  I concur with 670 minimum and agree that a 700-720 would just be icing on the cake and ultimately likely result in a higher SL.

My Discover was back in October ‘17 on a 726 EQ pull w/ $9K SL. But there are approvals across the board.  

[Bizambish]

Great info, thank you!

[Anonymous]

I'll go against the grain here and disagree with everything above so far, as 90% of it pertains simply to credit score.  Credit score is far less important than credit profile.  In general these two factors are fairly proportional, but as with anything there are exceptions.

OP, do a Google search for Credit Pulls Database.  There you can look up each of the cards you're interested in and see data points from those approved/denied for the cards along with their credit score and often other pieces of data to go along with it.  You'll see people with a 610 score approved for a card that someone with a 740 score was denied for.  Case in point, score is just a generalization and overall profile needs to be looked at and considered.  I'd strongly recommend looking into the specific factors that the lenders you're considering either like or dislike.  

For example, Chase doesn't like little credit history.  Someone with 7 months of credit history can possess a 720 credit score no problem.  This person would very likely be denied for a Chase product.  Conversely someone with a credit score 60 points lower at 660 that's got a thick/aged file could stand a better chance at approval for a Chase Slate for example.

Discover tends to like thin/younger files that have few if any revolvers.  Someone with 1 year of credit history and 0-1 other credit cards may have a lower score than someone with 10 years of credit history, 30 credit cards and a bunch of inquiries.  The first person may have a score in the 600's compared to a 700's score for the second person, where the first person is more aligned with what Discover is looking for and may see an approval where the second gets denied with a score in the mid 700's due to "too many inquiries" or something similar.

These are just examples and you can definitely do more research on the specific products that you're considering.  I just advise everyone to exercise extreme caution when suggesting that certain credit scores are make or break values for certain lenders when overall profile is far more important. 

[Anonymous]

I started rebuilding in August 2017, and given what I now know, I would have done several things differently.  For example, instead of opening cards and being stuck with "toy" limits I would have just opening a share secured loan, paid it down to less than 8.9% outstanding balance, and then waited a month to see the impact on my scores.  The SSL raised my scores approx 35 points on each bureau but its difficult to determine exactly how much because I had inquiries and new accounts hitting the reports at the same time.

My Discover IT was opened on 8/22 with a surprising SL of $10,000 when my credit scores were only EQ 666, EX 648, and TU 640.  I've since used two or three soft pull CLIs to get it to $15,000.  

The PenFed Promise was opened on 9/29, again with a starting limit of $10,000.  My Equifax FICO 9 (the score now used by PenFed) was reported as 712 but my FICO 8 scores were substantially lower in the 650s.  While I was approved for the Promise I was denied for the Power Cash Rewards card but I was able to open the PCR 6 months later and reallocate $5,500 of the Promise credit line to it.

My Chase Freedom card was opened on 12/28 but prior to that I opened a Chase checking account on 10/5 to establish a relationship (and to get the $150 bonus).  Two months after opening the checking account I got prequalifed offers for the Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Slate cards and then went in-branch to open the Freedom.  My credit scores by December had climbed to EQ 750, EX 698, TU 689.

It was not originally planned this way but in hindsight the smartest thing I did before starting to rebuild was accumulate $25,000 in savings in about an 18-month period.  So when I actually started rebuilding my credit I was immediately able to pay in full every month which has a large positive impact on scores.  Plus just having cash on hard opens many doors to credit that would otherwise be firmly shut.  Using those savings I was able to readily fund a Share Secured Loan with Alliant, and start several banking relationships which allowed me to access the credit products offered by those banks.

I should also point out that I had the advantage of a credit history dating back to 1986 and I never burned any of my creditors.  I simply stopped using credit for over 10 years and my accounts were eventually close for non-use.  So even though my scores were low at the beginning of my rebuild I had the positive credit history to fall back on.

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@Bizambish wrote:
Great response, thank you for the advice and information. I was thinking minimum 680, but ideally 700-720. I see you’ve got the cards I’m asking about in your signature :-) Do you remember data points from when you obtained them?
Thanks again

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[HeavenOhio]

@Bizambish, adding to what's been said above, Chase and PenFed are both sensitive to new accounts. It's nice to have a period of gardening before applying. Three months will probably do it, but six months is better. If you have lots of new accounts, I'd wait even longer.

A break that you can get with PenFed is that they'll probably approve membership even if they're not ready to issue a card. After properly managing your savings account for a while, you'd be in a better position for a card.

Opening a bank account with Chase doesn't seem to help with cards as much as it does when you open an account with a credit union.

[Bizambish]

Thank you! Great insight

[Bizambish]

Great insight; exactly what I’m looking for. Thank you!