Chances of getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve card?

[Anonymous]

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@pip3man wrote:

I dont have much to say in regards to your question but **bleep** your gonna make $110K right outta college?! What career field is this and did u attend an Ivy League if u don't mind me asking? Very impressive I must say... Congrats!

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Haha I studied Computer Science at a "good" school, if you figure out from there what I'll be doing for work

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

5/24 is a very valid concern if CSR is the goal, and if you want that card in the next two years any applications that you make now for credit cards should certainly be well-planned.  DrMind, while it's not normally the first thing that comes to mind when someone is just building their credit portfolio, if you're going to be traveling in the next year it may actually be worth evaluating whether the American Express Platinum charge card makes sense for you.  Yes it comes with a very hefty annual fee, but it sounds like your spend and travel plans are actually a good fit.  Between the sign-up bonus, airline fee credit, Global Entry credit (assuming you do not already have GE), Uber credit, etc... you would actually come out well ahead of the annual fee for the first year.  But certainly a revolving credit card from American Express should help you in establishing a relatively high credit line in a short amount of time (8-14 months).  If you were to consider the Platinum card and a revolving product, it may make sense for you to lean toward a Membership Reward earning card like the EveryDay or EveryDay Preferred as the points from both cards would pool together.  I am also going to agree that the Share Secured Loan may not really be needed in your case as your scores are already quite sufficient.

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It seems like the Platinum and PRG could both be good chocies for me. Given my current profile, what are the odds I would get approved for either one? For some background, I'm pre-qual'd for the ED, but no charge cards except for the Green. And should I be getting both a revolver and charge card at the same time?

By the way, are charge cards helpful in building your credit portfolio/history? If not, should I be getting a third card so that I have more than just 2 cards with credit lines?

[K-in-Boston]

With a clean (although thin) file, a good income and an Experian score in the 740s I could not imagine you being turned down for the Platinum card provided you are OK with the annual fee (which for many of us is more than worth it).  The rumor mill is that the Green/Gold/Platinum families of charge cards all actually have the same underwriting standards - score-wise that seems to be upper 600s, but Amex does take a lot of other things into consideration.  Charge cards are the same in building history and a portfolio as a revolving credit card.  The main differences would be that you have no preset spending limit (which I will say would probably not help you in your endeavor to later show Chase that you can handle a 5-digit revolver of your own) and the full statement balance will be due 25 days after your statement closes, unlike a normal credit card where you would have a minimum payment of like $25 and have the ability to carry a balance that collects interest.  That does become possible with Pay Over Time if it's later offered to you, but I'm trying to keep it as black and white as possible.  Charge cards are also not factored into revolving credit card utilization (i.e. you have $3000 on $10,000 in credit limits, therefore you are using 30% of your available credit) so using them, even for large amounts, will not bring your scores down.

You already have very good scores so like the Share Secured Loan mentioned earlier in this thread it's probably not too much of a concern for you, but the ways to maximize your FICO scores are to have 3 or more revolving credit cards and have less than 50% of them reporting a balance at any given time.  (Preferably under 29%, and ideally between 1-9%.)  If you were to get the ED and a Platinum card (which I think is very likely if you applied; hopefully others more familiar with thin but very good credit files will chime in) that would put you at 3/24 for Chase's 5/24 max policy for your future CSR application.  Filling that 4th spot with a Discover card would also give you a good shot at creating a decently sized credit line on a useful card that you won't regret having later.  Alternately, filling the 4th spot with a Chase card such as the Freedom card would give you 5% cash back on rotating categories, get your foot in the door with Chase, and later be a good combination with your CSR (assuming the current UR program doesn't change drastically).  However the starting lines can be very hit and miss for cards like the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited (you have no debt so a Slate is useless to you), and any credit line increase requests will be a HP.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

With a clean (although thin) file, a good income and an Experian score in the 740s I could not imagine you being turned down for the Platinum card provided you are OK with the annual fee (which for many of us is more than worth it).  The rumor mill is that the Green/Gold/Platinum families of charge cards all actually have the same underwriting standards - score-wise that seems to be upper 600s, but Amex does take a lot of other things into consideration.  Charge cards are the same in building history and a portfolio as a revolving credit card.  The main differences would be that you have no preset spending limit (which I will say would probably not help you in your endeavor to later show Chase that you can handle a 5-digit revolver of your own) and the full statement balance will be due 25 days after your statement closes, unlike a normal credit card where you would have a minimum payment of like $25 and have the ability to carry a balance that collects interest.  That does become possible with Pay Over Time if it's later offered to you, but I'm trying to keep it as black and white as possible.  Charge cards are also not factored into revolving credit card utilization (i.e. you have $3000 on $10,000 in credit limits, therefore you are using 30% of your available credit) so using them, even for large amounts, will not bring your scores down.

You already have very good scores so like the Share Secured Loan mentioned earlier in this thread it's probably not too much of a concern for you, but the ways to maximize your FICO scores are to have 3 or more revolving credit cards and have less than 50% of them reporting a balance at any given time.  (Preferably under 29%, and ideally between 1-9%.)  If you were to get the ED and a Platinum card (which I think is very likely if you applied; hopefully others more familiar with thin but very good credit files will chime in) that would put you at 3/24 for Chase's 5/24 max policy for your future CSR application.  Filling that 4th spot with a Discover card would also give you a good shot at creating a decently sized credit line on a useful card that you won't regret having later.  Alternately, filling the 4th spot with a Chase card such as the Freedom card would give you 5% cash back on rotating categories, get your foot in the door with Chase, and later be a good combination with your CSR (assuming the current UR program doesn't change drastically).  However the starting lines can be very hit and miss for cards like the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited (you have no debt so a Slate is useless to you), and any credit line increase requests will be a HP.

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In regards to "having less than x% of them reporting a balance at any given time", do you mean that as

• Having 10 cards and ideally only 1 of them having a balance at a time (1-9%)? -OR-
• Having 10 cards, where I have a balance on at most 4-5 of them and the credit utilization in total is ideally between 1-9%?

And for my 4th revolver, how long should I wait after I get my Amex cards (assuming I am approved for them)? And I guess as a side question, should I wait a little bit before I apply for the Amex cards, as I only got my CapOne card 3 months ago?

[K-in-Boston]

If you are applying for mortgage where a single point may count in the next 30 days, 1 card 1-9%.  Otherwise for just maximizing your scores, a balance on 4 or fewer of the 10 making up 1-9% of the total credit lines.  That's really micromanaging it, and you do not have borderline scores and aren't applying for a mortgage tomorrow.  If you end up with 4 revolving credit cards (including the 2 you have now) with total limits of $40,000 just try to keep it under about $11k or so at any time.  Again, anything on a charge card won't factor in.

Wisdom here is usually that if you know what you want for sure, it's best to add new cards as close together as possible so that they all age together and the new account sting wears off faster instead of resetting the clock every 3-6 months or whenever you apply.  While HPs do minimal or no damage to many credit profiles, that would also allow any HPs you get from apps to wear off faster (they no longer factor into your score after a year and disappear completely in 2).  Basically, the more distance you can put between new apps and your Sapphire Reserve app, the better your outcome with it is likely to be.  Within reason, Amex is not very "new account" sensitive.  You also only have a single new account in the past 2 years which likely puts you in the 98th or 99th percentile on this forum.  I would say if you know for sure what you want, grab them all at once.  Others may have valid arguments against doing it that way, of course.  It's your decision to make.

[HeavenOhio]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

If you are applying for mortgage where a single point may count in the next 30 days, 1 card 1-9%.  Otherwise for just maximizing your scores, a balance on 4 or fewer of the 10 making up 1-9% of the total credit lines.  That's really micromanaging it, and you do not have borderline scores and aren't applying for a mortgage tomorrow.  If you end up with 4 revolving credit cards (including the 2 you have now) with total limits of $40,000 just try to keep it under about $11k or so at any time.  Again, anything on a charge card won't factor in.

Wisdom here is usually that if you know what you want for sure, it's best to add new cards as close together as possible so that they all age together and the new account sting wears off faster instead of resetting the clock every 3-6 months or whenever you apply.  While HPs do minimal or no damage to many credit profiles, that would also allow any HPs you get from apps to wear off faster (they no longer factor into your score after a year and disappear completely in 2).  Basically, the more distance you can put between new apps and your Sapphire Reserve app, the better your outcome with it is likely to be.  Within reason, Amex is not very "new account" sensitive.  You also only have a single new account in the past 2 years which likely puts you in the 98th or 99th percentile on this forum.  I would say if you know for sure what you want, grab them all at once.  Others may have valid arguments against doing it that way, of course.  It's your decision to make.

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I think that 5/24 bucks that wisdom somewhat. I think that it might be better to add one card now, then deploy that "wisdom" once DrMind has built a little more history. I really like the idea of an AMEX revolver at this point.

We've mentioned the Chase Freedom cards as possibilities in a subsequent round of apps. But now I'm thinking if that the good doctor plays his cards right and positions himself for a $5,000 minimum starting limit, the Sapphire Preferred might become an option. Once he has the limits and history to qualify for the CSR, the CSP can be product-changed into one of the Freedom cards.

DrMind, most cards report the statement balance to the credit bureaus right after the statement cuts. There are some exceptions (notably US Bank and Chase) that you can learn to deal with if or when you have those cards.

To optimize the utilization portion of your score, you want one card reporting a small balance (between $5 and 8.9% of its limit) with the rest of the cards reporting zero. All cards reporting zero will ding you. Don't go below $5 if you want to show a positive balance; some cards forgive small balances and report zero rather than bothering to bill you. You can spend as much as you like as long as you're safely within your limit. Simply pay your card down to the desired balance just before it reports. Note that you don't have to pay interest to report a positive balance. That balance should come from new charges.

Because your scores are good, there's no pressing need to optimize on an ongoing basis. But I think it's worthwhile to try it before you need it so you know how to do it. Doing that will also give you an idea of what your highest possible score is at a given time and will educate you about how your score might vary if you report larger balances.

While it isn't necessary to stay under 8.9%, you should always try to keep reported balances at 28.9% of your limit or below. That's the number that's considered responsible. You can get by with occasional exceptions, but I woudn't apply for any cards during a month where you're above that number.