Congrats on your progress since coming to the USA! Higher utilization does not increase your credit score. However, I have heard that some individual lenders' internal systems will ding you for too low utilizatioin on credit cards because they believe you are unlikely to use theirs much if approved. At least in the beginning, DC was playing hard to get ... you might want to get your AAofA to 1 year.
I would say wait until you hit at least 1 year of history to go for the Double Cash. I applied with 11 months of history earlier this week and was declined for basically not having enough history. It took a recon to EO for me to barely get it turned around with a $500 starting limit.
@Anonymous wrote:Hey everyone,
I was hoping to get some advice regarding the Citi Double Cash credit card.
I am very new to credit in United States coming from overseas (7 months of established credit now). I started out on my credit journey with the Chase Freedom card (I banked with Chase for 2 years and they approved me based on my banking relationship with them). They approved me for a $500 limit and I've asked to have it increased; however they won't consider an increase without pulling a hard inquiry on my EX credit report and I have not allowed them to do this.
I later applied for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card a month later and was given a $5000 limit - had this increased with a soft inquiry on EX to $15,000 after 90 days. I then applied for a Discover IT card and was not approved for the unsecured card - but they gave me an option to apply for the secured card - so I did this and gave them a $500 deposit - which set my limit - I thought I may as well start building credit with it and take advantage of the 5% cashback offers and they'll change it over to a unsecured card after 1 year specially since they already did a hard inquiry at that time. Then I got a pre approval offer in the mail from Capital One for the Platinum MasterCard with no annual fee - I applied and was approved for a $500 limit - I then called executive office and got them to add on the 1.5% cash back rewards for the same as the Quicksilver. Last week I received an offer to change to the actual Quicksilver MasterCard with no annual fee - so took it. Also asked for a limit increase with the EO - they went up to $1000.
So now with 4 credit cards all opened within the past 7 months - I've achieved FICO's of EQ 714, TU 707, EX 723. The only thing that is hurting my credit score from being higher is the age of my accounts and limited history of only 7 months. Everything paid on time in full every month and no balances carried - all balances paid down to $0 before the statement close date so all accounts reporting with $0 balance to all 3 CRA's. Not much more that I can do to increase my scores at this point except for letting them age.
Now to the Citi Double Cash credit card, I'd really like to get this card purely for the 2% rewards - giving me an extra 0.5% rewards over the Capital One Quicksilver card. I spoke with the Executive Office at Capital One and asked them if they'd match the 2% rewards so I'd keep my primary card transactions with them - however they weren't able to do this so eventually this card will just turn into the card which I use for foreign/international transactions due to no fees. My Discover IT and Chase Freedom cards still are good for the 5% rewards on the quarterly basis - and AMEX Blue Cash Everyday for 3% grocery and 2% gas rewards. But I'd like to get the Citi Double Cash card for 2% rewards on all US based transactions which aren't in the 5% bonuses or AMEX grocery 3%.
What are my chances of approval for the Citi Double Cash? I've looked through the forums and it appears that some people are approved in the late 600's and yet some people are declined in mid 700's. I have a perfect history; the only problem is the very limited 7 month history. Not sure if the system would approve me or if I was declined by the system whether a very thorough recon with the EO at Citi would work even if it gets my foot in the door for a low limit of $500 or something - since they do increases based on soft pull inquiries - this would be perfect to get started. Any thoughts, ideas or advice?
Thank you all for your help and advice!
Congratulations!..Thanks for sharing.
I personally think that its easier to get fidelity Amex than citi double cash.. Both are 2%..I know that DC is more accepted in many places, but if you do the math.. It won't be many bucks as amex is not accepted every now and then and you get quicksilver to use when that happens.. 0.5% difference in rare cases won't worth maybe 5$ in a year
