In my experience, I never received any offer by mail but it wasn't until my score was in the 700s that I got approved for cards like Discover and Citi (with recon). I wouldn't even necessarily consider my first few cards "Prime" as the Citi card I had, was a no rewards card and had somewhat higher interest 21-22% ish.
This is what I've learned, and I wished someone would have told me this many years ago.
Do some research and find the 3-4 "Dream" cards you'd ultimately want in your wallet... and DO NOT apply for them. If you do now, without any real credit history or just coming off of a few bad years, if you happen to get approved, the limits and apr will not likely be your dream limit or apr. However that's not to say that you can't or shouldn't apply for other cards issued by the same bank. For instance. If your dream card is CSP. Apply for freedom or some other Chase partner cards like Marriot or United and build up a good reputation with them. Give it a year and then apply for CSP, you'll be happier with the CSP's starting limit and APR at that point. You'll probably want to get CLI over time, but you won't have to or want to as often if you started with 15k rather than the minimum 5k.
Once your have that first large limit card, the rest will start falling into line. My average credit limit was 3-4k. Then after a few years, I applied for CSP. Boom 11k, then I applied for PNC, boom 10k. Then Citi prestige 15.5k, then Ritz Carlton 27k, BofA 15k. The CCC will try to outdo the other in hopes to gain your business.
Best of luck to you!
I got my first credit card preapproval from my first unquestionably prime lender (American Express) TODAY, actually (EX 675) -- your thread inspired me to do my monthly check of preapprovals and Amex has never come up with anything before!!! I did get preapprovals from Capital One once I hit the 640s across the board, but it is questionable whether or not Capital One could be considered prime (not to diss on Capital One, though -- I love Capital One). Strangely, despite having 3 credit cards with Chase, I have never gotten any official preapprovals from Chase. I did get a few mailers from them though, and one from Citi, but they looked like generic marketing.
EDIT: Holy crap, I just looked at the APR for my Amex preapprovals. 12.99% on the EveryDay?!? Now, that is tempting.....
Score wise when I got my first "prime" card, the Venture, I was probably around 680-720. Scores took a dip due to a BT I'm carrying and paying off, but they should rebound once I get my balance back down to less than 10% util
@Anonymous wrote:I got my first credit card preapproval from my first unquestionably prime lender (American Express) TODAY, actually (EX 675) -- your thread inspired me to do my monthly check of preapprovals and Amex has never come up with anything before!!! I did get preapprovals from Capital One once I hit the 640s across the board, but it is questionable whether or not Capital One could be considered prime (not to diss on Capital One, though -- I love Capital One). Strangely, despite having 3 credit cards with Chase, I have never gotten any official preapprovals from Chase. I did get a few mailers from them though, and one from Citi, but they looked like generic marketing.
EDIT: Holy crap, I just looked at the APR for my Amex preapprovals. 12.99% on the EveryDay?!? Now, that is tempting.....
awesome sauce! but i was kinda thinking uhhh why wouldnt they, based on your other cards and their limits...
If I were you Id snag those 15k MR points, upon approval, google prg 50k from private browser, and apply. worst case scenario is they deny the 2nd and its only a soft pull....then you are sittin on 65k mr points, a healthy start