I get a little long winded, so I'll start with the nitty-gritty first and then do my spill on the specifics later. 
My DD was approved for a Chase Freedom Unlimited a couple of days ago.
- $800 starting limit
- 22.24% APR
- 0% APR for 1st 15 months
- $200 SUB with $500 spend in 1st 3 months
Quick DP's:
- They only HP on EX (nice surprise!). So DP's are from EX...
- Previously, only 1 HP from 7 months prior (AMEX BCE app)
- EX FICO 8 765
- AAoA = 8 months
- AoYA = 6 months (student loans)
- AoOA = 11 months (yes, only 11 months)
- AMEX BCE @ 12% UTI, $24k CL, 7 months old
- Disco Chrome Student @ 2% UTI, $7k CL, 11 months old
- 2 Student loans opened 6 months ago:
- Both show as PAID and CLOSED on the reports, but are actually deferred.
- One is $24k balance on $24k loan amount
- One is $280 balance on $25k loan amount
- No derogs
- AU on 4 cards since 10/18, totals for all 4 below:
- UTI = 0%
- CL = $38,750
- Ages of those accounts in months: 80, 80, 76, 40
Now for the backstory...
Due to lack of knowledge on how the credit world works, my DD didn't have credit history until this past Summer. Without a credit history and with her about to start Med school (and looking for apartments) after graduating undergrad in a few months, we had to get things rolling. Luckily, she was approved for a Disco Chrome Student 11 months ago and has received generous CLI's numerously. Next was an AMEX BCE 7 months ago, and an extremely generous 3x CLI a few months later. 6 months ago, she had to take on 2 student loans to pay for EXPENSIVE med school (expensive even with it being an in-state public university). She ended up not needing one of the loans due to being frugal and help from us, so she returned the money on the highest APR% one with no fees or interest charged (that was sweet!).
Unfortunately, Disco and AMEX aren't accepted everywhere, and she was wanting her very own Visa or MC (instead of relying on ours). We have been eyeing the Chase Trifecta for her to attain so that she will be ready to get some rewards for travel when she graduates. She's been gardening waiting on the 1+ year mark from when she got the Disco, but mailers have been steadily showing up from Chase tempting her (both the FU and Southwest cards).
The mailers had "pre-selected" verbiage and a firm APR rate (no range). Reading on here, it sounded like a pretty good chance of being an approval, but it also sounds like Chase wants a least 1 year of history for a CC before approving. With only a few months to go for the 1 year anniversary of attaining her Disco, she waited. However, new loans are about to hit for this next semester along with a large purchase on her AMEX that was required (still in 0% intro period and will be paid off in a few months).
Fearing these items may drop her score too far, we both figured it was worth a shot and the HP to see if she would get an approval from Chase. She entered the mailer reference number and her info, and stared at the submit button for a while. After some time passed, I hear a "click" and see that she hit the submit button in a way that I envision AJC "hulk smashing" for Disco CLI!
To our surprise, Chase approved! Yes, it is a small SL of $800 and could have possibly been higher if she had waited a couple of months. But we both rejoiced nonethelss! Now to the garden she will go, letting things grow (and hopefully Chase will grow with her).
What is the possibility of RECON for a higher credit line? Noticed the note in the picture about calling them to get a different credit line, but I don't know if it would cause another HP or if it would even be possible.
Noticed the AMEX purchase actually hit on the same day of application on her EX report, so they may have already seen that purchase that put her over the 9% threshold.
Congratulations on your approval!
@randomguy1 wrote:
@Duke_Nukem wrote:What is the possibility of RECON for a higher credit line? Noticed the note in the picture about calling them to get a different credit line, but I don't know if it would cause another HP or if it would even be possible.
Noticed the AMEX purchase actually hit on the same day of application on her EX report, so they may have already seen that purchase that put her over the 9% threshold.
From what I've read on these forums is a recon for CL is a HP.
Thanks for writing it all out, I agree with your logic that even with a shorter file, you took in consideration of what was going to possibly happen with her credit due to the loans, and took an educated chance. Congrats to the DD.
Thanks! Will probably leave that bear alone... don't want to risk any AA. Hoping no AA will come after those loans hit.
There were some other items that I was unsure about that may have helped or hurt her application.
- Was she 2/24 or was she 6/24? It sounds like the common idea here is that Chase counts AU into their 5/24 rule. If so, she was 6/24 because the AU were added on her account in Oct 2018 (15 months ago).
- However, even though the AU accounts were added about 15 months ago, they came in with history showing their opening date and large number of payments prior to when she was added as AU. Those older AU accounts had about 2 years worth of payments shown in her reports even though the accounts were a few years older than that, so it didn't bring in the entire history... just the last couple of years. So I'm wondering if Chase saw those accounts as being opened longer than when we actually added her as AU, which knocked them out further than 24 months in their eyes... essentially making them appear opened 39 months ago (24 month history + 15 months since added as AU)?
- Last month, we removed her as AU from two of the accounts in preparation for apping with Chase after she hit the 1 year anniversary mark of opening her Disco. It sounds like we need to dispute CRA's to actually get those AU removed, which we haven't done yet. Those still show on her report, but no updates since Nov.
- Now that she has been approved for a Chase card and no plans to app for anything else for a couple of years, I'm thinking we don't need to dispute the removal of those two AU accounts from her CRAs. Let them age off in 10 years, which should still help... especially since they are at 0% UTI and represent $25k in CL.
Congrats to DD