2nd US Bank approval in 10 days. Altitude this time!

[imaximous]

I was approved for a Cash+ on 2/16 after UW review with a $5k SL. I requested a CLI to $10k upon approval, and it was denied after second review. If you're interested, my post is here...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/US-Bank-Cash-approval-with-BK7-reporting/m-p/5...

Fast forward to 2/26... I waited a few days to become elegible to apply for the Altitude Reserve card since you gotta be an existing customer. The system denied my application automatically without a HP and I posted about it here...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/US-Bank-Altitude-denied-No-hard-pull/td-p/5...

I called UW dept. and I was told it'd stay declined because of the high number of recent inquiries and new accounts. Then I pushed a little and presented options to the UW and she agreed to submit for second review, but she also gave me little hope. 

Well, this morning I get a notification from UPS that I'm getting a package from US Bank arriving tomorrow. From reading the forums, that's an indication that a card is coming! I immediately logged into my account, and there it was - a second account with a $5k limit. I know it's low for this type of card, but that's a good start for me. I'm just glad they even approved me at this point. 

Some data for those who may find it useful:

- BK7 2011 (US Bank not IIBK)

- They pulled EX for the Cash+ and EQ for the Altitude (I'm in NY). They didn't pull my report when I applied for Altitude and got denied by system, but the HP came when I requested a manual review. That was odd, but not complaining.

- Scores: This is tricky because my EX Fico8 is 751 based on the many letters I received from applying (denials and approvals). But when I got my Cash+, it showed a 695 EX score using Fico Classic V3. I'm just surprised by the big gap. I don't know my EQ score yet till I get the letter.

- Inquiries: 13/24 on Experian and 7/24 Equifax

- New accounts: 9/24, however, 6 are from the last 2 months. Luckily my 2 PenFed approvals haven't posted yet. Phew...

- Utilization under 4%

I'll be loading this card on my Apple Pay and Samsung Pay and charge away... It's definitely going to become my daily driver.

[Shadowfactor]

Congrats on the approvals

Later down the road consider opening a FlexPerks card to help max out the rewards. The FlexPerks VS is free the first year and the AF is offset by the wifi credits on airlines. You will have to see if the bonus categories on the FlexPerks make sense for you. They help me get the higher rewards when I cant use the Altitude on mobile pay for gas.

Things to note:

Only organic spend to hit the Min spending requirment.

Do NOT buy giftcards with this card ( you might be safe after 6 months but still wouldnt risk it, Lots of AA when the card is used to buy giftcards)

Altitude CSR can access any of credit accounts you have with the bank. So call that line when having to deal with customer service. They are much better then the regular lines.

[imaximous]

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@Shadowfactorwrote:

Congrats on the approvals

Later down the road consider opening a FlexPerks card to help max out the rewards. The FlexPerks VS is free the first year and the AF is offset by the wifi credits on airlines. You will have to see if the bonus categories on the FlexPerks make sense for you. They help me get the higher rewards when I cant use the Altitude on mobile pay for gas.

Things to note:

Only organic spend to hit the Min spending requirment.

Do NOT buy giftcards with this card ( you might be safe after 6 months but still wouldnt risk it, Lots of AA when the card is used to buy giftcards)

Altitude CSR can access any of credit accounts you have with the bank. So call that line when having to deal with customer service. They are much better then the regular lines.

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Thanks! I appreciate the pointers too! I've read a lot about buying gift cards, and I'm definitely going to avoid that. I think I barely made the cut for approval, so I'm not taking chances. I didn't get this card just for the SUB, but I plan to keep it as long as they don't nerf it.

I looked into the FlexPerks cards, but they didn't look too interesting to me, so I applied for the Cash+. I'll definitely check them out again later on. I hope they'll allow some type of points transfer like Chase UR at some point.

[Anonymous]

Persistence pays off. Congrats on your approval.

[Shadowfactor]

Yes you can transfer points from flex perks cards to altitude. Which is the reason I suggested pairing the two.

The Cash+ you can not. Completely different program

[imaximous]

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@Shadowfactorwrote:
Yes you can transfer points from flex perks cards to altitude. Which is the reason I suggested pairing the two.

The Cash+ you can not. Completely different program

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Oh really? Is this something new? because I think I asked that question before getting US Bank cards to plan my applications accordingly, and the answer was no or not yet. 

[Shadowfactor]

I’m not sure if it’s new or not. It’s been like that since I opened the card beginning of January.

With the recent change in the flex perks program where points are now fixed at 1.5 CPP. I believe that probably was when they started allowing it.

At this time. It’s only FlexPerks to Altitude and not vice versa but I would imagine that will probably change sometime soon as both cards use the same portal and points are both worth the same amount.

[imaximous]

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@Shadowfactorwrote:
I’m not sure if it’s new or not. It’s been like that since I opened the card beginning of January.

With the recent change in the flex perks program where points are now fixed at 1.5 CPP. I believe that probably was when they started allowing it.

At this time. It’s only FlexPerks to Altitude and not vice versa but I would imagine that will probably change sometime soon as both cards use the same portal and points are both worth the same amount.

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I'll have to figure out the points math and see if this could work out. Not going to happen anytime soon for me, though. I think I'm pretty tapped out with US Bank for the foreseeable future or any other bank.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! Your SCL was $500 higher than mine with about the same score.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the good info, and congrats on the US Bank approval