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Hello!
I would super appreciate some advice on which credit card to apply for .
To give some history, I am currently in my 4th year of medical school so I have a lot of student loans. I wanted to apply for another credit card to help me out a little bit since I will be traveling a lot pretty soon to interviews for residency. I was looking at cards that offer a nice bonus and decided to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Oooops. I was denied as they stated that my loans showed up on my credit report as a monthly obligation, which is false since they're all in deferment. So that was my mistake for not reading online that they're very picky. I've been eyeing Capital One Venture, but I read online that they're also pretty picky and I don't want another hard inquiry from a denial . Then I came upon BoA Premium Rewards, but I've read that they prefer people with a BoA bank account.
My current credit cards: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred and Citi TYP
Experian FICO: 772 | Equifax FICO: 799 (got this one from Citi) | Transunion Vantage: 730
Total credit limit: 11k
Credit utilization: Under 10%
Average account age: 5 years | Oldest account: 10 years
Inquiries: 2 on Experian and TU, 1 on Equifax
Advice please? Thank ye kindly!
@Anonymous wrote:Hello!
I would super appreciate some advice on which credit card to apply for .
To give some history, I am currently in my 4th year of medical school so I have a lot of student loans. I wanted to apply for another credit card to help me out a little bit since I will be traveling a lot pretty soon to interviews for residency. I was looking at cards that offer a nice bonus and decided to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Oooops. I was denied as they stated that my loans showed up on my credit report as a monthly obligation, which is false since they're all in deferment. So that was my mistake for not reading online that they're very picky. I've been eyeing Capital One Venture, but I read online that they're also pretty picky and I don't want another hard inquiry from a denial . Then I came upon BoA Premium Rewards, but I've read that they prefer people with a BoA bank account.
My current credit cards: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred and Citi TYP
Experian FICO: 772 | Equifax FICO: 799 (got this one from Citi) | Transunion Vantage: 730
Total credit limit: 11k
Credit utilization: Under 10%
Average account age: 5 years | Oldest account: 10 years
Inquiries: 2 on Experian and TU, 1 on Equifax
Advice please? Thank ye kindly!
Have you tried a prequal for Discover Miles yet? Cap1 also has a prequal check. They're not exact, but they'll give you a good idea on where you stand.
@Hut1: I tried the capital one prequalifier earlier but it told me that they didn't have any offers for me and asked if I had opted out. Which when I looked at my Equifax credit report afterwards, it said that I actually did opt out LOOL. Oops. I have now opted back in, but I read that it takes upwards of 5 days to process? Does the discover one have a nice sign up bonus?
@Lucienbel: Omg that sounds so frustrating. I have an AmEx blue cash preferred, but would I be eligible for a sign up bonus if I already have an AmEx card? I've had this one for 5 years now I think?
I guess I'm just trying to find a credit card that I would for sure get approved for despite all my student loans with the best sign up bonus. I really want a bonus in order to help offset the cost of all the flights I'll have to book
@Anonymous wrote:
Experian FICO: 772 | Equifax FICO: 799 (got this one from Citi) | Transunion Vantage: 730
Total credit limit: 11k
Credit utilization: Under 10%
Average account age: 5 years | Oldest account: 10 years
Inquiries: 2 on Experian and TU, 1 on Equifax
Advice please? Thank ye kindly!
Your scores look great, but keep in mind the Equifax score from Citi is a Bankcard Fico 8 and that scale goes to 900 which obviously inflates the score compared to other Fico 8 scores. Did you try to recon via customer support? If not, I'm curious as to why not. It might be worth it to explain your circumstances.
@Anonymous wrote:@Hut1: I tried the capital one prequalifier earlier but it told me that they didn't have any offers for me and asked if I had opted out. Which when I looked at my Equifax credit report afterwards, it said that I actually did opt out LOOL. Oops. I have now opted back in, but I read that it takes upwards of 5 days to process? Does the discover one have a nice sign up bonus? Disco doesn't do bonuses in the sense you see w/ other lenders. They match your spend earnings for the first 12 months.
Miles - goes from 1.5% to 3%
IT - doubles your 1% and 5% earnings
Chrome doubles your earnings as well
@Lucienbel: Omg that sounds so frustrating. I have an AmEx blue cash preferred, but would I be eligible for a sign up bonus if I already have an AmEx card? I've had this one for 5 years now I think?
If it's NEW to your NAME/SSN then you should be eligible for a SUB
I guess I'm just trying to find a credit card that I would for sure get approved for despite all my student loans with the best sign up bonus. I really want a bonus in order to help offset the cost of all the flights I'll have to book
Nothing is 100% until you hit submit and the card is in your hand.... even then if you're doing too much too fast you might end up with a dead card in hand like others have been posting recently.
What travel plans / partners do you plan on using?
It will help narrow down the field a bit on the right cards to go for instead of throwing a handful of darts and hoping they all stick on the bullseye.
@Anonymous wrote:@Hut1: I tried the capital one prequalifier earlier but it told me that they didn't have any offers for me and asked if I had opted out. Which when I looked at my Equifax credit report afterwards, it said that I actually did opt out LOOL. Oops. I have now opted back in, but I read that it takes upwards of 5 days to process? Does the discover one have a nice sign up bonus?
There's not necessarily an immediate cash SUB you can benefit from, but they have a promo running to automatically match all the Miles you've earned at the end of your first year with no limit. There's also a 0% APR for 14 mos if you qualify. I've been interested in applying, but I just got 2 cards and I need to sit my butt down somewhere. Lol.
*edit* Yea! Ditto what Obscure said. I'd listen to him over me with FICO's like that.
@LakeLife wrote:Your scores look great, but keep in mind the Equifax score from Citi is a Bankcard Fico 8 and that scale goes to 900 which obviously inflates the score compared to other Fico 8 scores. Did you try to recon via customer support? If not, I'm curious as to why not. It might be worth it to explain your circumstances.
I did! That's why I know it was because of my loans. I called twice and they said that my monthly obligations were too high due to my student loans. I explained to them that I checked my credit reports myself and they say my loans are in deferment with $0 monthly payment, but they refused to budge . Btw I also applied for the Freedom since I read online that if you apply to more than one card in the same day with Chase it all counts as 1 hard inquiry and I got denied ROFL
And thank you! That really helps me out because I was confused since through Equifax's website it shows my Vantage score as 738 but Citi said theirs was FICO. I owe my scores to this forum honestly because I spent so many hours reading through it like 5 years ago when I was just starting to build my credit.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:@Hut1: I tried the capital one prequalifier earlier but it told me that they didn't have any offers for me and asked if I had opted out. Which when I looked at my Equifax credit report afterwards, it said that I actually did opt out LOOL. Oops. I have now opted back in, but I read that it takes upwards of 5 days to process? Does the discover one have a nice sign up bonus? Disco doesn't do bonuses in the sense you see w/ other lenders. They match your spend earnings for the first 12 months.
Miles - goes from 1.5% to 3%
IT - doubles your 1% and 5% earnings
Chrome doubles your earnings as well
@Lucienbel: Omg that sounds so frustrating. I have an AmEx blue cash preferred, but would I be eligible for a sign up bonus if I already have an AmEx card? I've had this one for 5 years now I think?
If it's NEW to your NAME/SSN then you should be eligible for a SUB
I guess I'm just trying to find a credit card that I would for sure get approved for despite all my student loans with the best sign up bonus. I really want a bonus in order to help offset the cost of all the flights I'll have to book
Nothing is 100% until you hit submit and the card is in your hand.... even then if you're doing too much too fast you might end up with a dead card in hand like others have been posting recently.
What travel plans / partners do you plan on using?
It will help narrow down the field a bit on the right cards to go for instead of throwing a handful of darts and hoping they all stick on the bullseye.
I feel really dumb asking this, probably med student fatigue, but what do you mean by travel plans/partners? I'm planning to fly to interviews that are too far away for me to drive to. I have some AA miles, but I don't have an airline preference. Actually my preference is the cheapest one LOL. I'm planning to use airbnb for the trips where I won't have a friend's home to stay at since they're usually cheaper.
And thank you so much for answering my other questions!
EQ doesn't offer a FICO directly. The only ones I'm aware of are the one you get here and the ones you get through CC's like Citi and those are enhanced. I suppose 1 other site experian.com offers a $1 trial for 7 days that provides all 3 Fico scores.
2 in 1 day w/ Chase is mostly a thing of the past for awhile now. 2nd one gets killed as a duplicate automatically. You can call though and see if they can push it through. Alternatively you can probably snag a co-brand though if that doesn't work. Chase these days is mostly a 1 in 30 situation excluding over 5/24 situations where you would want to head to a branch to try the odds of the pre-approvals that bypass 5/24.