Just when I thought I understood Chase

[Anonymous]

Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

My first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @15%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

[Anonymous]

Well, interest rates are creeping up, but not that much!  I would imagine that different Chase product lines have different interest rate ranges applicable too, some just start out higher.

[K-in-Boston]

Chase is not the only lender to do this.  Citi approved me for the Diamond Preferred card in 2016 when my overall utilization was like 35-40% and scores were in the 710s with an APR of 12.24%.  They approved me 3 months ago for the ThankYou Premier card when my overall utilization was like 13% and scores were in the 730s/740s with an APR of 24.99%.  Fortunately, I'm not planning to ever carry any balances on any of the rewards cards that I use for purchases so it doesn't really matter that much, but I feel your frustration.

What made me a little angry with Chase is that all of my cards with them are at the bottom of their APR ranges, but I got a letter at the beginning of the year (as did a few others here) that they were increasing my APR on my 11 year-old Freedom account because it was too low and needed to be brought back inline with what other consumers with the same card have.  At least with Citi (and Amex and Discover, perhaps others), you can always hop on chat and ask for an APR reduction.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

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Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

[FinStar]

OP, this exactly.

What some folks have done in the past, if an APR or SL was not to their satisfaction, they opted to use those Chase CCs for a while to build some internal history.
Over time, once their overall profiles improved (minimal inquiries, stable/low utilization, moderate/aged profile, etc.) reapplied and were given a better APR and a fairly decent SL.

Based on the outcomes you've shared, and since there isn't really much detail, it appears Chase isn't comfortable with your profile to extend any additional credit at this point, hence the smaller SLs.

[Anonymous]

To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent.  You should never carry a balance on either card.  And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent.  If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees.  They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card.   They seem to be very generous.  Is your AAOA very low?  

[Anonymous]

Agreed—Ive never carried a balance and don't intend to. AAOA is very low at 1 year and only have 3 cards .

I have three cards:

CFU 1000k

AMZ 500c

Amex 18000k

Scores 735-755

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@Anonymous wrote:

To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent.  You should never carry a balance on either card.  And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent.  If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees.  They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card.   They seem to be very generous.  Is your AAOA very low?  

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[Anonymous]

Yeah, clearly chase doesn't like me as much as Amex or anyone else .I have prequals for everything I could want except 00 on chase lol

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

---

Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

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[Anonymous]

I do use them. I run 2k + per month through the CFU and AMZ, and I pay several times a month to keep utilization low

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just when I thought I understood Chase I looked into my APRs (intending to app for CSP soon).

@Anonymous first ever card they gave me a CFU 500SL @Anonymous%

My third overall card (11m later and youngest account), they gave me AMZ 500SL and 24% APR!?

Why would they give me the same paltry SL and a much higher APR after a year of PIF and experience with a much higher CL from another creditor?

---

Couple thoughts on this:

1. Chase tends to base APR not just on your profile, but on the card offering itself. If you look on their card offering page, you'll see the APRs vary by about 4% from the lowest to highest. You should not expect different cards with them to have the same APR as a result.

2. Chase doesn't really care what limits you have with other banks. They use their own internal score that can be wildly different than your FICO score. If you want to impress Chase and get better limits, you have to use their cards. While I see several posts about building up with other banks before approaching Chase, this is only anecdotally true. You'll find that the opposite is also true - Chase can and does shower people with high CLs and good APRs when other banks won't, and my observation on this is that it tends to be towards people who use Chase cards frequently and responsibly as well as people who look to have a low risk of churning.

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Agreed—Ive never carried a balance and don't intend to. AAOA is very low at 1 year and only have 3 cards .

I have three cards:

CFU 1000k

AMZ 500c

Amex 18000k

Scores 735-755

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@Anonymous wrote:

To me there is no difference between 15 percent and 24 percent.  You should never carry a balance on either card.  And with 500 dollar limits not very likely that you would even if it were 0 percent.  If you want low interest Discover sends me almost daily snail mail with 0 percent interest 0 percent transfer fees.  They might be more likely to give you higher limits too.

Me and my wife have never gotten a starting limit less than 24k on a Chase personal card.   They seem to be very generous.  Is your AAOA very low?  

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Both my Amex cards started at 1k.  Evidently Amex and Chase have very different methods on determing how much Credit Limit to give you.