@Ghoshida wrote:
Good that you have done your cost-benefit analysis on the CSP and you know it's useful.
Now, you need to do a few things:
(1) Get a CLI on that Cap One. I'm guessing it's older than the Freedom. Is it on the credit steps program? If yes, has it become 6 months old yet? If neither then ask for a CLI online (love button) and then if denied, ask the exec office for raising it to $8-10k, they'll counter, and you'll get closer to $5k. Getting a CLI from Cap One is easier than getting one from Chase.
(2) Don't push the love button on Freedom. First, they don't have one. Second, they'll ask for a HP (that isn't half bad) and then mostly either decline or give you some paltry $500 (majority experience, there are rare success stories). What you should do is to push the limit of the card and then pay - make sure to pay multiple times the minimum at least, and better if PIF. Chase may not like util on others' cards but loves to see use on its own cards; my friend got a CLI from $5.5k to $10k with a $4k balance on his Freedom.
(3) Keep checking for Chase pre-approvals. They're pretty good. Yes, it's true that sometimes they don't show cards even when your profile is great and you'd get the card by cold app, but for many here the pre-app page has been consistent. I got a CSP pre-qual after I had the Freedom for 8 months and Slate for 6. My Freedom limit was $500, Slate was $1,000, and CSP was $6,700.
(4) Not guaranteed, but try to get the score above 700. I'd say that your scores are on the lower side for CSP. Again, YMMV.
Thanks for this helpful outline!
1) Yes, the Cap1 is on credit steps and got an increase a few months ago. I actually hit the love button and was denied due to asking for another increase in six months. How do I reach the EO?
2) That is a sweet increase that your friend got, and this is a good plan to note! I have stopped making minumum payments since I was younger and more irresponsible with credit (I say that like it wasn't just 3-4 years ago). I think my statement just cut at $1.3K usage, but I put $600 down, so I can easily rack that back up closer to my limit 
3) That is a nice SL for the CSP! I hear in branches you can also ask, and ideally I'd like a SL above the $5k as well. But that's in a perfect world.
4) That's the goal, and I feel like I'm so close, considering I was in the 500s late 2014 when I first started looking at my FAKO scores.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Ghoshida wrote:Good that you have done your cost-benefit analysis on the CSP and you know it's useful.
Now, you need to do a few things:
(1) Get a CLI on that Cap One. I'm guessing it's older than the Freedom. Is it on the credit steps program? If yes, has it become 6 months old yet? If neither then ask for a CLI online (love button) and then if denied, ask the exec office for raising it to $8-10k, they'll counter, and you'll get closer to $5k. Getting a CLI from Cap One is easier than getting one from Chase.
(2) Don't push the love button on Freedom. First, they don't have one. Second, they'll ask for a HP (that isn't half bad) and then mostly either decline or give you some paltry $500 (majority experience, there are rare success stories). What you should do is to push the limit of the card and then pay - make sure to pay multiple times the minimum at least, and better if PIF. Chase may not like util on others' cards but loves to see use on its own cards; my friend got a CLI from $5.5k to $10k with a $4k balance on his Freedom.
(3) Keep checking for Chase pre-approvals. They're pretty good. Yes, it's true that sometimes they don't show cards even when your profile is great and you'd get the card by cold app, but for many here the pre-app page has been consistent. I got a CSP pre-qual after I had the Freedom for 8 months and Slate for 6. My Freedom limit was $500, Slate was $1,000, and CSP was $6,700.
(4) Not guaranteed, but try to get the score above 700. I'd say that your scores are on the lower side for CSP. Again, YMMV.
Thanks for this helpful outline!
1) Yes, the Cap1 is on credit steps and got an increase a few months ago. I actually hit the love button and was denied due to asking for another increase in six months. How do I reach the EO?
2) That is a sweet increase that your friend got, and this is a good plan to note! I have stopped making minumum payments since I was younger and more irresponsible with credit (I say that like it wasn't just 3-4 years ago). I think my statement just cut at $1.3K usage, but I put $600 down, so I can easily rack that back up closer to my limit
3) That is a nice SL for the CSP! I hear in branches you can also ask, and ideally I'd like a SL above the $5k as well. But that's in a perfect world.
4) That's the goal, and I feel like I'm so close, considering I was in the 500s late 2014 when I first started looking at my FAKO scores.
(1) For me, contacting them on social media with a brief description of what I wanted and my phone #. Their social media reps were very friendly and put an EO person in touch with me. Sometimes using old school email may also work. Try searching on Google; rules here are strict about posting email ids
However, I'd personally say it's better to wait out the 6 month period unless you're in a big hurry; seems like you'll be there before the Freedom gets to 6 months. In any case Cap One love button works only like 0.5% of the times so be ready to contact EO. They are sometimes hard on the 6 month between CLI criterion.
(2) Yes, only min payment is never a good idea. Don't micromanage but pay off as much as you can if not PIF. Under some circumstances, using the 0% APR for multiple months could be a good idea but I won't suggest that to you because (a) too small limit, Chase might question your credit profile if you can't pay off every month and (b) you want a CSP so you would not like to carry balance over multiple months.
(3) The lowest CL for CSP is $5k. I was hoping Chase will be a bit more generous but I think they were a bit sceptic about my profile; I wasn't PIF-ing for almost a year previous to that. I had legit reasons not to; but that takes a toll on the profile. Anyway, now I have hit an internal limit with Chase with my 3 cards so I don't expect a CLI in future.
(4) Good luck with it. As others mentioned, goodwill may be very handy. Try the rebuilding forum here, very useful.