Question about when to apply

[Anonymous]

Just curious, when you guys and gals are prepping your score for a big application (like the CSR or something along those lines) how long after your reports show the score increase do you wait to apply?

[wasCB14]

Score increase from what...micromanaging utilization?

[Anonymous]

Essentially yes. UTI dropping from 32% down to about 4%, I’m just waiting for all 3 CBs to show that. So can I apply that day or should I wait a month?

[Remedios]

Are you attempting another Amex app or different card?

[wasCB14]

I don't micromanage it. My reports sometimes show big balances, but they also show a history of paying them in full.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t have a relationship with the financial institution, it’s likely to be a hard pull, so you can wait until your score goes up like I did where I asked TU for EE on three derogatory accounts and then turned around and took that 54 point boost to go for the Sync PayPal cashback. 

Basically if you’re monitoring your credit, you can app when you get the alert that the change you’re waiting for has happened as long as you know what report will get pulled - if you don’t know, wait til it’s reflected on all three bureaus. 

If you are not looking specifically based on score, just grab WalletHub and Credit Karma. WalletHub will update Transunion every day for you, Credit Karma gives you EQ once a week but both of them are VantageScores so they’re worthless outside of monitoring, then get the Experian app and you get your Experian credit report and FICO every month as well as alerts for inquiries, new accounts, etc. 

[Anonymous]

It will be a chase app for the CSP, not the AMEX. And once I meet the min spend for the bonus I will do a HH aspire card to round out all my travel cards

[Remedios]

For CSP, apply once all three CRAs update your score, as Chase will frequently pull two

Amex will most likely be based on SP they have on you, so wait till SP shows updated score, plus additional 2-3 weeks to ensure underwriting has the most current info.

Good luck with your apps!