Chase Sapphire Reserve Approval Great SL

[Anonymous]

It's been two years since I applied for any credit whatsoever.  About 4 years ago I began a rebuild and made great progress going from upper 400's to mid to high 600's in about 9 months and total CL of about 100k spread over lenders like NFCU, Citi and Cap One.  Two years ago I decided to leave it all alone and maintain low balances and let the scores grow because I had plenty of available credit.  Then a year ago my wife was diagnosised with cancer and all the plans went out the window.  With just about everything maxed out to pay for her needs, travel to specialized care etc my scores took a significant hit. She passed and I have been using some of the life insurance to pay down debt.  I have chosen to do this over about a year to maximize the score recovery as all of the simulators seem to indicate this method results in more stronger scores than paying it all at once.  I recently became a Chase Private Client and thought that perhaps despite the high utlization and scores in the low 600's perhaps my relationship would result in an approval.  Last night I was bored and decided to give it a shot and was instantly approved with a SL of $48,500.  I was pretty shocked and am happy.  My next highest SL is with NFCU at $22k.  

[importxpresions]

Congrats!

[AverageJoesCredit]

Congrats on one of the biggest sl ive seen here on myFico. My condolences on the passing of your wife. Many blessings

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 do this over about a year to maximize the score recovery as all of the simulators seem to indicate this method results in more stronger scores than paying it all at once.  .  

---

Condolences on everything. :-/

Congrats on the Reserve and huge limit!  Wanted to mention that those simulators are junk at estimating changes. If all the debt is on credit cards or loans then paying them down would likely have a huge positive impact on your FICO because it will reduce your overall utilization and debt/income. Plus, you may save a ton of interest. No point paying interest on it. 

"paying it over time," really only helps in the very beginner phase of credit, to build a history of payments. But, even that's not worth paying a lot of interest. Once you have an established positive history then decreasing or paying off debt is by far the biggest factor in getting into the excellent range (740+).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, I will take it and just pay them down.   

[pinkandgrey]

I’m sorry about your wife But huge congrats on that massive SL! That’s one of the best starts I’ve seen for this card!

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

It's been two years since I applied for any credit whatsoever.  About 4 years ago I began a rebuild and made great progress going from upper 400's to mid to high 600's in about 9 months and total CL of about 100k spread over lenders like NFCU, Citi and Cap One.  Two years ago I decided to leave it all alone and maintain low balances and let the scores grow because I had plenty of available credit.  Then a year ago my wife was diagnosised with cancer and all the plans went out the window.  With just about everything maxed out to pay for her needs, travel to specialized care etc my scores took a significant hit. She passed and I have been using some of the life insurance to pay down debt.  I have chosen to do this over about a year to maximize the score recovery as all of the simulators seem to indicate this method results in more stronger scores than paying it all at once.  I recently became a Chase Private Client and thought that perhaps despite the high utlization and scores in the low 600's perhaps my relationship would result in an approval.  Last night I was bored and decided to give it a shot and was instantly approved with a SL of $48,500.  I was pretty shocked and am happy.  My next highest SL is with NFCU at $22k.  

---

Condolences on your wife's passing. Congratulations on the CSR and the high limit.

I wouldn't pay attention to the simulators; your scores would do just as well by paying it all down.

[Anonymous]

My condolences as well...

In regards to the approval... HUGE. Congratulations. Proof that gardening and watering those little baby fico scores will grow into monster limits! Congratulations!

[CreditMagic7]

Indeed that is one Great SL bar none. Congrats! on building back to some breathing room.

Terrible ordeal to cope with when it comes to a loss that close. Went through something similar and it's no picnic picking up the pieces if we ever really do.

[MrPSS]

My condolences go out to you.

Congrats on that huge SL & Welcome to the Chase Club!! I would agree that paying most eventhing to at least below 10%, if not off. No reason to pay interest in your case. Also, I saw the scores in your sig were a bit outdated... might I recommend heading over to creditchecktotal.com (now Experian) where you can get an update on all three reports for $1? You have 7 days to cancel/downgrade your membership to the free version afterwards.