Does having a Chase bank account help with their CC approval

[Countrygirl]

My chapter 7 discharge date is in a few days and I am working on rebuilding. I currently have 2 cards - Mission Lane and Cerulean - one with no balance and the other with a minimal balance. I would like to eventually get a better card such as Chase and was wondering if opening a checking account with them would help? I did not burn them in bankruptcy.

[JoeRockhead]

I'm sure you're going to get mixed opinions on this so I'll give you mine. Unless you're going to deposit a significant amount of money with them, it will make no difference. Some people have had success when opening accounts and then applying for a card in branch. The bottom line is you don't need to have a relationship with them to get an approval. They're going to base their decisions on what your credit looks like. 

[Rogue46]

I didn't burn them in BK either but it still took just over 8 years for them to give me a card. I don't know if having a checking helps or not I would suspect it doesn't. Unfortunately the big guys - Chase, Amex, Citi are pretty strict around BK's

[visionsdivine]

Don't even bother with Chase until that bankruptcy is off your credit report. All you'll do applying for their cards is taking hit after hit with every hard pull.

Your best bet is to find a credit union or local bank to get a credit card with. Amex will take you back after 61 months. Not sure about Citi. 

[zerofire]

In the case of having an existing checking/savings account to get a boost in approval on a credit card that only happens with the Chase Freedom Rise. Even then it is not understood if that boost is worth it as getting that account naturally is so easy as well. All the other accounts are based on your credit history and how desperate the co-brand is to issue cards. Amazon for example loves its customers to ave their cards so they ask Chase to set the bar low but within reason. United on the other hand wants their cards to be in the hands of the affluent so your score needs to be quite a bit higher. On the main line cards like the Freedom and Sapphire lines Chase has no co-brand and can do anything it wants.

Lastly you should be aware that as soon as a BK shows up on your report the Chase computer will start auto-declining applications as they do not want to deal with someone that filed. The only potential way around that is to recon. It will return to normal once the BK drops off after 10 years as long as you did not include Chase.

[dfwxjer]

Doesn't make a difference at all. 

Technically I have a Chase employee account with like $40 in it (I bank elsewhere with much better savings acct rates) so I doubt it had any effect on getting approved for my CSR and Chase Amazon Prime card. 

But as noted above, no sense even trying until the BK falls off your credit report entirely. It will autodecline as Chase is a very conservative lender with very strict criteria around things like BK. Local credit unions, Cap 1, etc are all much more lenient on these things. 

[AndySoCal]

@Countrygirl  Having a checking or savings account is not going to help with the approval period se. Some banks will look at your checking account to see how you manage money. Looking for non sufficient funds and or over drafts etc. if you do open a checking it should be the primary checking account. I personally have only one checking account. I have the ability to open a second one if a should arise.

Having an account gives you the ability to talk to a local banker if you have a problem with an application. I prefer the credit union option as already mentioned. The link below might help in finding a local credit union. Use either the on the left or right

https://www.depositaccounts.com/credit-unions/ 

[Anonymous]

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@AndySoCal wrote:

@Countrygirl  Having a checking or savings account is not going to help with the approval period se. Some banks will look at your checking account to see how you manage money. Looking for non sufficient funds and or over drafts etc. 

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Yes, while most banks aren't going to look, so it's probably not going to do anything.  But, as @AndySoCal says, it can give them ability to decide you are a bad risk, if your bank account behavior has any blemishes, such as NSF returns.  (And no bonus points for having a perfect history, that's just the expectation).   Now if your balance was $500M, after a possibly extensive Know-Your-Customer investigation, even Chase would be more likely to give you a credit card with a usable limit. If the balance was $10K, probably not.