Applying for Chase Freedom while waiting for BCE

[enharu]

Chase has a preapproval thing you can try to gauge your chances. https://creditcards.chase.com/

it is not 100% accurate, but at least you know if you stand a decent chance for the freedom or CSP right now.

Do you have a checking account with Chase? If you do and have a sizable deposit with them, your chances are a lot higher.

[Anonymous]

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@enharu wrote:

Chase has a preapproval thing you can try to gauge your chances. https://creditcards.chase.com/

it is not 100% accurate, but at least you know if you stand a decent chance for the freedom or CSP right now.

Do you have a checking account with Chase? If you do and have a sizable deposit with them, your chances are a lot higher.

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Thanks, it says there are no offers for me at this time. Is this a sign that I should wait to apply? And no I don't have any accounts with them right now. My two banks are BoA and WF, but each of them only has about $5,000 in each. 

So basically, if you guys were me at this point, what would you do? I'm still not exactly sure. Current scores are below. I'm a student with an income of about $20k/year and about $10,000 in cash accounts. I have a HP on EQ coming off in April, but the EX and TU HP doesn't come off until August, and I think a HP is now on EX as of yesterday for the BCE app. When should I apply for the Freedom (or maybe Citi or Capital One card is a better idea?) considering the above information and the fact that I'm waiting on the BCE?

Sorry for all the questions, but again, thanks for the help already. Very helpful for someone just learning the ins and outs of credit!

[enharu]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@enharu wrote:

Chase has a preapproval thing you can try to gauge your chances. https://creditcards.chase.com/

it is not 100% accurate, but at least you know if you stand a decent chance for the freedom or CSP right now.

Do you have a checking account with Chase? If you do and have a sizable deposit with them, your chances are a lot higher.

---

Thanks, it says there are no offers for me at this time. Is this a sign that I should wait to apply? And no I don't have any accounts with them right now. My two banks are BoA and WF, but each of them only has about $5,000 in each. 

So basically, if you guys were me at this point, what would you do? I'm still not exactly sure. Current scores are below. I'm a student with an income of about $20k/year and about $10,000 in cash accounts. I have a HP on EQ coming off in April, but the EX and TU HP doesn't come off until August, and I think a HP is now on EX as of yesterday for the BCE app. When should I apply for the Freedom (or maybe Citi or Capital One card is a better idea?) considering the above information and the fact that I'm waiting on the BCE?

Sorry for all the questions, but again, thanks for the help already. Very helpful for someone just learning the ins and outs of credit!

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If I were you at this point, I would just wait. Rather than risking 1 inquiry for a toy card or outright denial, I am on the conservative end.

Do you know what is impacting your score most? utilization? AAoA? number of accounts? types of accounts? credit history length?

Chase cards are one of the harder-to-get ones compared to other banks such as BoA. If you are willing to move your balance to Chase Checkings, then your chance will be higher. 

And IF you really insist on applying for something right now, I would still go ahead with the freedom.

IF you insist on getting a new CC regardless of who it is from, you can try lenders that pull EQ since that's your highest or lenders that are relatively easier to open accounts with. GE cards are the easier ones I heard.

You might also qualify for Discover IT for Students or any of those college cards offerred by other companies. Discover and Bank of America also has their preapproval thing on their site that you can test it out I heard.

[Anonymous]

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@enharu wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@enharu wrote:

Chase has a preapproval thing you can try to gauge your chances. https://creditcards.chase.com/

it is not 100% accurate, but at least you know if you stand a decent chance for the freedom or CSP right now.

Do you have a checking account with Chase? If you do and have a sizable deposit with them, your chances are a lot higher.

---

Thanks, it says there are no offers for me at this time. Is this a sign that I should wait to apply? And no I don't have any accounts with them right now. My two banks are BoA and WF, but each of them only has about $5,000 in each. 

So basically, if you guys were me at this point, what would you do? I'm still not exactly sure. Current scores are below. I'm a student with an income of about $20k/year and about $10,000 in cash accounts. I have a HP on EQ coming off in April, but the EX and TU HP doesn't come off until August, and I think a HP is now on EX as of yesterday for the BCE app. When should I apply for the Freedom (or maybe Citi or Capital One card is a better idea?) considering the above information and the fact that I'm waiting on the BCE?

Sorry for all the questions, but again, thanks for the help already. Very helpful for someone just learning the ins and outs of credit!

---

If I were you at this point, I would just wait. Rather than risking 1 inquiry for a toy card or outright denial, I am on the conservative end.

Do you know what is impacting your score most? utilization? AAoA? number of accounts? types of accounts? credit history length?

Chase cards are one of the harder-to-get ones compared to other banks such as BoA. If you are willing to move your balance to Chase Checkings, then your chance will be higher. 

And IF you really insist on applying for something right now, I would still go ahead with the freedom.

IF you insist on getting a new CC regardless of who it is from, you can try lenders that pull EQ since that's your highest or lenders that are relatively easier to open accounts with. GE cards are the easier ones I heard.

You might also qualify for Discover IT for Students or any of those college cards offerred by other companies. Discover and Bank of America also has their preapproval thing on their site that you can test it out I heard.

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Thanks, I'm certainly not set on doing anything right now. I have no real need for my credit or anything because I always PIF, my goal is just to set myself up with a score in the mid 700s by or shortly after I graduate college in just about 2 years, so I can easily get good auto-loans, and have no problem renting an apartment, and of course being able to get the better rewards cards like CSP eventually when I have more money to spend. Long term goals are obviously lower mortgage interest and maybe a small business loan in my future. So basically I just want to do whatever is best for my credit and if that means no applying for anything else regardless of the outcome of the BCE app, that is perfectly fine by me, I just want to do whats best.

As far as whats helping/hurting me, this is what myFICO says for EQ to give an idea:

Payment history: very good

Amount of debt: good (I still dont get this because I have no debt, I only have a charge card that I PIF every month. It just says I have a $900 balance on it, which was last months charge amount)

Length of History: not good. Makes sense I guess, my oldest is from 2009 which I dont think is active but it still says its there, I was just an AU/joint account. The only reason I havent looked further into it is theres a $9,000 limit and no activity since 2011 so its not exactly hurting me lol.

Amount of New Credit: I only have one HP on EQ which will be off in a month, EX and TU have one coming off in August and EX also has my current BCE app.

The only negative items I have on there are from 2011 there was one 30 day late payment from the account I was a AU/joint for, on both EQ and TU. I'm disputing it, because I wasn't even a legal adult at the time, I didn't exactly have control over the situation.

[enharu]

2 years is a lot of time to build up credit. Even if you don't apply for any new cards and stick with your amex, your scores will go past 700 as your account ages.

If you have an AAoA of >5 years it definitely helps with a lot of things. Opening more accounts between now and 2 years later will only make your AAoA go down. 

There's no right or wrong answer to this. Whichever route you take, is going to increase your score in the long run as long as you keep up with payments, and keep your debt levels low.

An apartment credit app is very different from a credit card app. You can still rent an apartment even with a 500 score, just that your deposit might be higher. Anything past 650-700 or up, your deposit will probably be around the same. Most apartment credit apps just don't want to see any defaults, BK, recent lates, chargeoffs, and most importantly evictions.

I would say right now you're in good shape. Just let whatever you have age up over time. You can apply for more cards now or later or don't apply entirely. Overall your score is going to be higher and the difference in scores between which route you take wont be significant.

Another thing people fail to overlook is the 0% APR offer when you get a new card. Do you really need that 0% APR right now? People on this forums hammer to death about carrying a balance. banks are okay with you carrying a balance as long as its not a lot compared to your CL and also dragged on excessively long. You essentially waste a 0% APR free pass if you don't plan on buying anything you want to finance now. Some people are confident they will never need to finance anything. That's the ideal situation. If you can say the same then ignore the 0% APR offer. I personally think it's good to leave the opportunity around if the need ever arises.

[CredittotheMax]

I wouldn't said you got denied yet. I applied for the BCE on Thursday and the system was down too. It told me to check back in 24hrs, but a few hours later the status changed to in progress. I checked friday morning and I was approved.

[Anonymous]

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@enharu wrote:

2 years is a lot of time to build up credit. Even if you don't apply for any new cards and stick with your amex, your scores will go past 700 as your account ages.

If you have an AAoA of >5 years it definitely helps with a lot of things. Opening more accounts between now and 2 years later will only make your AAoA go down. 

There's no right or wrong answer to this. Whichever route you take, is going to increase your score in the long run as long as you keep up with payments, and keep your debt levels low.

An apartment credit app is very different from a credit card app. You can still rent an apartment even with a 500 score, just that your deposit might be higher. Anything past 650-700 or up, your deposit will probably be around the same. Most apartment credit apps just don't want to see any defaults, BK, recent lates, chargeoffs, and most importantly evictions.

I would say right now you're in good shape. Just let whatever you have age up over time. You can apply for more cards now or later or don't apply entirely. Overall your score is going to be higher and the difference in scores between which route you take wont be significant.

Another thing people fail to overlook is the 0% APR offer when you get a new card. Do you really need that 0% APR right now? People on this forums hammer to death about carrying a balance. banks are okay with you carrying a balance as long as its not a lot compared to your CL and also dragged on excessively long. You essentially waste a 0% APR free pass if you don't plan on buying anything you want to finance now. Some people are confident they will never need to finance anything. That's the ideal situation. If you can say the same then ignore the 0% APR offer. I personally think it's good to leave the opportunity around if the need ever arises.

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Thank you for your information. I think I'll probably apply for one more card regardless of the BCE decision, and regardless of that outcome, I won't make any further action for a while at least. 

I was also considering the WF Cash Rewards card, or maybe the WF college cash reward card (my income is right on the border of $12,000 at my current hours, but because its a student job its not for sure going to keep steady at my current hours rate). I figure maybe because I have accounts with WF I will have more luck than Chase? I guess the same would apply for BoA?

But as you said, probably the best thing I can do at this point is just keep using whatever cards I do have and PIF, even if that's just my AMEX Gold, and wait for some past HPs to come off (April for EQ, August for EX and TU, and I guess I have one pending from yesterday on EX for the BCE, though from what I've heard, if you're a current AMEX member a denial is only a SP). I just want to hopefully set myself up more now, so I don't have later cards dragging down my AAoA, which is clearly a weak point for anyone who is my age.

[Anonymous]

QUICK UPDATE: 

Called in to the new accounts department and the guy was very nice, he said another department was handling the decision and he put me on hold and said he'd let me know the outcome in a minute or so. It was so nerve-wracking hahaha, but he had good news for me! I will have my BCE in 7-10 days! I asked him the limit, but he said it would be revealed in envelope. Went online and checked my status to confirm and was greeted nicely with the congratualtory approval message!

[webhopper]

Congrats!!

[CredittotheMax]

Congrats, told you to not worry about it. For some reason everyone is getting approved for BCE this month, so anyone who's interested head on over to amex.