Multiple pre-approved offers solid??

[Bmn5940]

Hello everyone,

I've had two other posts debating about getting a new travel credit card as my current lineup does not have any cards that I can rack up miles and hotel points on. I went on discovers pre-approval site because someone reccommended the discover it miles card. The site came back with pre-approvals for Discover It student Chrome for 15.24% APR(decent APR is tempting) and the Discover it Student cash back also for 15.24%.  While these APR rates are really tempting and I have almost all of my student loans through discover and pay interest on them every month (I'm guessing they trust/like me a little) Neither of these cards offer me the travel rewards I seek. Next I have a mail offer from Citi for the AAdvantage Miles up card. While I am a frequent AA traveler, the APR is 22.24% (no range just solid number) I have a TYP with citi currently with a 15.74% APR and the SUB for the mileup currently is not nearly as good as the other AA cards. I made a few other threads about potentially apping for thr CSP but and worried my scores aren't enough to be approved and I really don't want to waste a HP for nothing. I also was reading about the Wells Fargo Propel for travel seems to rack up points nicely but I've never banked with them and not sure about their reward system. I fly American and United the most, but also fly some cheaper airlines when possible (spirit offers $48 flights to orlando I can't refuse) so in honestly I think the AAdvantage would be too airline specific for me. I also was looking at the Amex hilton honors aspire card for the hige SUB it's offering and because I love AMEX and how they've treated me over the years. Others have recommneded platinum but I think that is too high level for my current scores and thin profile. What do you guys think?

*****EDIT I did the free trialf for 30 days from experian.com to see all 3 agencies******

EX Fico 8: 756 as of 06/15/19

• 6% utilization
• Inquiries: 10 (two were supposed to fall off 06/02/19 still showing)
• No lates, no collections 100% payment history
• AAofA 2 years 2 months

EQ Fico 8: 749 as of 06/15/19

• 6% utilization
• Inquiries: 7
• No lates, no collections, 100% payment history
• AAofA 2 years 2 months

TU Fico 8: 733 as of 06/15/19

• 6% utilization
• Inquiries: 7
• No lates, no collections, 100% payment history
• AAoA 2 years 1 month

With all this and my cards listed in my signature what are my approval chances for the following cards (I ranked them in order of what I want most) I would be happy with any of these cards to be honest all hit different perks for me so I'll probably end up apping for the one you guys think I have best chances with:

Chase Saphire Preferred

Citi Prestige

Capital One Venture

Amex Platinum

Amex HH Aspire

Wells Fargo Propel

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty confident Amex would happy to give you a platinum with those scores and your history with them.

I'm not in a position to answer about the others, but Amex's charge cards don't require fantastic credit scores (and yours are pretty good). 

[Bmn5940]

Thanks @RealityBites as you can see I put that one down lower on the ranking because I'm not a big fan of charge cards for the fact that while I'm in school my income fluctuates based on how my classes are so some months I carry a balance others I pay in full and the other con is that the annual fee for platinum is massive BUT I know I'd use the airline credit and Uber credit but aside from that $400 in "savings" I'm not too sure I'd get enough spend out of it for the sign up bonus $5000 in 3 months is a lot for me in that time Frame

[Anonymous]

Your scores are fine.  What's the tricky part is when you accumulated the INQ's and if they were approvals that are now listed on your reports.

You already have 5 cards which is more than enough to get/keep high scores.  

You mentioned being in school and fluctuating income which makes it harder to go for a bonus w/o eating into it with interest expenses if you can't pay in full.

Airline specific cards don't offer the best earn rate overall but do when using them directly for airfare.

So,, you want points / miles for travel?  The best option is to go for UR (Chare) or MR (Amex).

Chase Saphire Preferred - earns UR at a slgitly higher rate than CFU and allows you to transfer the points through their portal to airline partners

Citi Prestige - earns TYP's which aren't as valuable or easy to use, they don't transfer (captive portal)

Capital One Venture - It's cap1 and they're useless... you accumulate points and erase travel purchases with them... nothing special

Amex Platinum - you earn MR's but, you have a $550 AF attached to it.... unless you're traveling ALOT it doesn't make sense... maybe in the future after school.

Amex HH Aspire - earns hotel points... is this really what you're aiming for?  

Wells Fargo Propel - earns points and recently changed to allow to erase purchases instead of being restricted to $25 increments.  

For what your goasl are I would probably say go for:

Propel to diversify your lenders, easy $300 bonus 

CSP is a good stepping stone w/ a lower $95 AF than Platinum.... the only issue I see is your current $500 CL with Chase... then again depending on where you 5/24 count lands it's possible to get an approval for the min $2000 CL

For MR's with a lower AF and some bonus look at the ED or EDP in incognito mode as they typically have a 20K or 30K bonus attached to them and ED is $0 AF and EDP is $95 AF

Then check out the list of rewards cards over here for other potential matches.  Keep in mind each lender has specific criteria where if you app for one thing it starts a clock where you have to wait to qualify for an additional bonus.

[Anonymous]

The easiest ones to get are the ones that I’d steer you away from. A hotel card is too restrictive to be your only travel card and the Platinum has a terrible earning rate on anything that isn’t travel.

Since the other three cards each in their own AF tier, I’d generally expect you’d have the easiest time getting the no AF card and the most difficult getting the highest AF.

Are any of those inquiries about to drop off? Keep going like you’re going (less the hard pulls) and you won’t have to worry about what you qualify for much longer.

[Bmn5940]

Wow thank you for listing out all the data points really helped me see all my options. As for my inquiries the newest one on TU was July 2018 (student loan) newest inq on EQ was also July 2018 for student loan and EX was also July 2018 for discover student loan. My newest account was becoming an authorized user on the blue cash card in August 2018. All other card accounts were opened 2016 and 2017 so I should be within 5/24

[Anonymous]

An easy way to count is either open a free account w/ Experian (includes your Fico 8) or CK https://www.creditkarma.com/myfinances/creditreport/#accounts sort by date.  CC's are what you're counting back 2 years on.

[Bmn5940]

Yeah I have a free experian account showing all 3 agencies. Ignoring student loan account openings here's the order

1) Cap one opened 06/28/2016

2) Amex opened 01/01/2017

3) Chase opened 01/27/2017

4) Citi opened 02/01/2017

5) Amex AU opened on 08/17/18

That's it for credit card accounts being opened. As for Inquiries I was mistaken

EX: 10  inquries total 02/08/2019 for FNB Omaha (I have no clue what this inquiry is I never applied for it and will be disputing)

-side note two inquires were supposed to fall off last month but still are showing up on experian they fell off other two agencies though

TU: 7 Inquiries total latest one being 07/30/2018 discover student loan

EQ: 7 inquiries total latest one being 07/30/2018 discover student loan

[Anonymous]

So, if you're going for Chase you're 1/24.... now, to play it right you need to space apps probably 3 mo's apart to not get them shutdown or denied a bonus.

Virtually 0 INQ's in a year looks good for most other cards as well.

Some of the specifics are covered here 

Some lender specific points can be found here  (this one is BOA but, there's a list of lenders at the bottom)

here's a reddit on the subject as well

If you're willing to put the effort into figuring out who looks for what then narrowing down the options gets easier and knowing where your INQ will land helps spread them so you don't stack them all on one single CR.

If you want to really see where your options are there's a fun Visio on the matter as well.

[Bmn5940]

Sweet thanks for all the links. So I've come up with a plan

Step 1) Go into chase branch and see if I have any pre-approved offers there for CSP

Step 2) If yes then apply in branch and hope for success

Step 3) If approved go sit in the garden and be happy

Step 4) If not approved try for Citi Prestige for SUB and 4th night free

Step 5) If approved be happy and sit in garden

Step 6) If not approved move to Amex platinum

Step 7) if approved put as much spend as possible through it for SUB and start using uber perks immediately

Step 8) If not approved apply for Discover It student since all else failed lol

Does this sound like a good or bad plan from what I read on your links I should prioritize chase then citi then amex. Also from what I read Wells Fargo doesn't like people they have no background with so I think I'm dropping that from my travel card want list.