Apologize for the length of this post, but I have to celebrate...
Despite the opportunities that I have and those awarded to me, I've made some poor choices in my personal finance. Long story short I defaulted on my student loan, and had late payments on my car and credit cards/accounts [spanning the last 10 years]. At my lowest, I even had a FICO 480. Sure, I've paid some things off and had closed accounts. Eventually some of the baddies dropped off my credit report, and my score slowly rose the low 600s. About a year ago, I started to get serious about getting my finances in order, but was always discouraged about the the total amount owed on all revolving accounts. (~$19K) After much research AKA Youtube, I "customized" the 50/30/20 rule to better fit my needs and my salary. I created a spreadsheet, using a more aggressive snowball method, to first pay off my sub-prime CCs (incl. Cap1 QS1 $400, Cap1 Plat $300) and LOC (incl. Dell Financial $1500, Care Credit $4200, and Paypal $2400). From August-October 2020, I paid almost $12K total (spread into weekly payments) to get to a $0 balance. To avoid being cash poor weekly, I only continued to use my NFCU CashRewards VISA and carry a small balance which I felt comfortable and confident that I could pay it off easily.
Unsure that I would even get approved for the CSP due to me being at 6/24 (pre-application), I heard from a few others' successes if you apply in-branch, and have an existing Chase banking relationship. For additional context, there's been several people who have been denied because of the 5/24 rule, even with FICO 700+ and a Chase checking account. Still I figured I would give it a shot [as my first step in expanding my credit] before heading over to AMEX, since the CSP had its highest ever SUB. After all, a Chase denial wouldn't necessarily hurt my chances with another creditor; whereas vice versa might halt my pursuit for Chase credit. I created a plan to request CLIs and new CCs from present-2022, with the intention of applying for the CSP at the end of November 2020. By then I know my FICO score would have risen due to the reporting of all my recent payments and reflect my ~2% Util. Fast forward to this past weekend when many credit gurus AKA Youtube (again) indicated that the CSP 80K SUB was expiring on November 7/8, 2020. 11/3/2020 9PM: I went to Chase's website to see if the SUB offer is still there. I couldn't tell you what I was thinking at the time, because I likely wasn't. Ended up applying on the app, and getting on my knees to pray. Honestly there was a little part of me that expected manual review or cold rejection... 30 seconds in, and BOOM! APPROVED with a SL $14,500! I had to rub my eyes to ensure I wasn't dreaming. APR is 22.99%, but I have every intention of PIF. Also the $4K within 3 months to get the 80K SUB shouldn't be a problem with how I've aggressively mapped out future transactions and payments.
I have so many questions, like: HOW? Did my Chase banking relationship influence the decision? Did the presidential election have anything to do with it? OK, maybe not the last question. I am sharing my success story for the benefit of anyone who might need to here it. Certainly I've learned my lesson when it comes to managing my finances and being responsible with my credit. The plan is to use it for transactions that I would normally use my debit card, and earn some bonus points. Now off the garden...
DPs:
Chase Banking Relationship
- Checking and Savings
- No Offers in Chase Credit Journey
- No credit offers in Chase Offers
FICO 8: EQ 641 TU 667 EX 641 at time of application
Inquiries: EQ 5 TU 4 EX 8 at time of application
*Did NOT pre-qualify for Chase products in CreditMatch tool at time of application
Annual Income: $145,000
Goal Card(s): AMEX Platinum, Chase Freedom Flex World MC
