Rebalancing Chase Credit Lines (and other questions)...

[Anonymous]

My BF just paid off/down the bulk of his credit card debt (he was repaid by a family member to whom he loaned money). This triggered Chase to lower his credit lines (although he has not yet received a letter with the change, it just showed up as different limits on the web site. He has not yet seen what CapitalOne will do.

He has no late payments, and no collections. He also had himself removed as an authorized user on two of another friend's cards, so this is his situation:

Before:

Discover Authorized User limit: $15,500 used: $15,574

Chase Authorized User limit: $5,100 used: $5,003

Bank of America 4 years old limit: $500 used $35

Synchrony Bank Sweetwater (0% production gear financing) 3 years 6 months limit: $4,500 used: $1023

Chase Slate 2 years, 11 months, limit: $9,800 used: $9,704

Chase Freedom 2 years, 11 months, limit $7,000 used $7,100

CapitalOne 2 years 8 months, limit: $5,500 used: $5,365

Now:

Bank of America 4 years old limit: $500 used $35

Synchrony Bank Sweetwater (0% production gear financing) 3 years 6 months limit: $4,500 used: $994 (it is $29 a month until paid off over 3 years).

Chase Slate 2 years, 11 months, limit: $4,900 used: $139

Chase Freedom 2 years, 11 months, limit $2,500 used $400 (reported at $0 and will report next time at either $0 or $35).

CapitalOne 2 years 8 months, limit: $5,500 used: $1,540.

He has two goals: Get an Apple Card with the highest possible starting line, and get a B&H Photo/Synchrony Bank 0% financing card (also with the highest possible starting line). He plans to ensure they never report over 25% utilization, so whatever exceeds that he will just pay off or pay with another card.

The Slate has no value to him at all, whereas the Freedom is 5% on Amazon this quarter. He'd like to move $2,500 from the Slate to the Freedom, but does not want to do anything if:

1. That will trigger another lowering of his limits on Chase (he does not need the credit, just does not want it to go away for no reason).
2. that will make getting the Apple and/or B&H Synchrony cards more difficult.

His FICO 8 score on Experian is 704 (they still show the Discover, the high balances on Slate/CapOne, and show the $0 of $7,000 on the Freedom).

Credit Karama shows 630 for TransUnion (with both Authorized User cards gone, and the old balances on everything but the Freedom) and 629 on Equifax (with the same infomation as Experian).

He does not need the Apple Card until September/October (when the new devices come out), but the B&H card would be nice to have earlier (again, not a requirement, just nice).

The only other cards that interest him (although neither is needed until post-pandemic) are the Sapphire Preferred (maybe reserve at some point) and the Mileage Plus Explorer card, so he also does not want to do anything that would make it more difficult to get them in the future.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Remedios]

I dont know much about Apple card applications, but I'd leave Chase alone for the time being. 

He just experienced balance chasing, and while that's not unusual when there are prolonged periods of high utilization, lenders typically need to see a different behavior for a while before they will approve new card. 

As far as moving limit from Slate to Freedom, in the light of balance chasing, I'd wait with that, too.

Less human eyes on his account is probably a good thing for right now. 

His utilization right now seems okay for Synchrony application as long as all three CRA are reporting new lower utilization. 

[K-in-Boston]

Very good decision to remove himself from those AU cards.  I would not attempt anything until the Discover card is either removed from the reports or paid down substantially.  The Chase cards will report $0 immediately if they are paid to $0.  Most of the limit from Slate can be moved to Freedom; it won't make any substantial difference even if the card were closed and a portion of the limit could not be moved.

The GS Apple account seems to be sensitive to new accounts and utilization; opening the Payboo card would likely not increase the chances of approval.  Is he open to other potential cards with 0% introductory rates rather than a specific card with financing on Apple devices?  For the B&H Payboo card, I don't believe they offer 0% financing, only the sales tax rebate.

If he is interested in other Chase cards, he'll definitely want to make sure that he does not go above 4 cards opened in 24 months, and he'll likely want to space those applications out well after any other approvals.

[Anonymous]

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@Remedios wrote:

I dont know much about Apple card applications, but I'd leave Chase alone for the time being. 

He just experienced balance chasing, and while that's not unusual when there are prolonged periods of high utilization, lenders typically need to see a different behavior for a while before they will approve new card. 

As far as moving limit from Slate to Freedom, in the light of balance chasing, I'd wait with that, too.

Less human eyes on his account is probably a good thing for right now. 

His utilization right now seems okay for Synchrony application as long as all three CRA are reporting new lower utilization. 

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Thanks. They left him with reasonable limits, just not on the right cards, but it is fine. He will just move one of our iPad data plans ($34.99 a month) to the Slate Card and it will go into a drawer.

Given the state of the world, I cannot imagine him caring about the Sapphire card before the end of the year at the earliest, so we are talking about a least 5-6 months. If they are not interested, there are certainly other cards that offer primary rental insurance, the benefit that is most interesting to him on the Sapphire Card.  There are some small benfits for a United card for him - enough to justify the fee, not enough to care about deeply (he is a lifetime United Club member and is a 1K, so it is only the 25% discount on wifi and some extra award inventory that matter).

His Slate does not close until Wednesday, so no way to know what limit it will report until then. His current balance shows as $135 and available credit at $3,062.82. The account details shows a limit of $4,900 (down from $9,800). Even if it reported $3,000, he would have a utilization of 4.5%, so that would be fine.

He has paid his Capital One card down to $1,500 (which is 27%). He can easily pay it off, but not sure if that would be better or worse, given the Chase reaction. Any suggestions on that?

Also, he has had the B of A Card for a long time and never asked for a CLI. The link has been there for a long time and since they now do a soft pull, we were wondering if it made sense to request one, once everything has reported.

[ccquest]

Has anyone had luck by calling Chase to get a limit reinstated after balance chasing? Could be an option to try and get the higher limit back and reporting. If it works, that could also encourage a higher line on BoA when he does that CLI and on the Apple (or other) card when apping there.

Chase also reports $0 balances if you want that to update sooner.

For the CapOne card, hard to say if they follow on the balance chasing. I think they would do that whether it was to 1540 or even lower, not again after another payment but who really knows.

[KLEXH25]

I would absolutely wait until everything reports and updates before applying for anything. I would also leave Chase alone in all aspects. 

As for applying for the two cards, keep in mind that approvals and limits for either lender seem to be leaning toward conservative, especially now. Luckily, Apple is a SP to see the limit and terms before accepting. 

As for Capital One, I don't think paying it down more will affect whether or not they will balance chase him or close the account. How long has it been since he paid it? I think any AA would be immediate, so he might be in the clear. If anything, paying it down (or off) will only help his scores more. 

[KLEXH25]

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@ccquest wrote:
Has anyone had luck by calling Chase to get a limit reinstated after balance chasing? Could be an option to try and get the higher limit back and reporting. If it works, that could also encourage a higher line on BoA when he does that CLI and on the Apple (or other) card when apping there.

Chase also reports $0 balances if you want that to update sooner.

For the CapOne card, hard to say if they follow on the balance chasing. I think they would do that whether it was to 1540 or even lower, not again after another payment but who really knows.

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I could be wrong, but I don't think his other limits will have any influence on any CLI that BoA might offer. If it's a SP, I say go for it once his scores update. 

I also don't think it will affect any limit GS will offer. I have 3 cards with $10k or higher limits and GS recently only offered me $5,000 with a 787 TU9. This is actually lower than the $6500 they offered last year (I don't  actually want the card, just curious). The APR did improve at least. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Very good decision to remove himself from those AU cards.  I would not attempt anything until the Discover card is either removed from the reports or paid down substantially.  The Chase cards will report $0 immediately if they are paid to $0.  Most of the limit from Slate can be moved to Freedom; it won't make any substantial difference even if the card were closed and a portion of the limit could not be moved.

The GS Apple account seems to be sensitive to new accounts and utilization; opening the Payboo card would likely not increase the chances of approval.  Is he open to other potential cards with 0% introductory rates rather than a specific card with financing on Apple devices?  For the B&H Payboo card, I don't believe they offer 0% financing, only the sales tax rebate.

If he is interested in other Chase cards, he'll definitely want to make sure that he does not go above 4 cards opened in 24 months, and he'll likely want to space those applications out well after any other approvals.

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Yep, he would not do anything until everything had reported and the Discover AU was gone.

He will not pay the Chase cards to $0.00 until the credit limit settled. :-)

He has no interest in any card with a 0% introductory rate. The Apple card is interesting for the 3% and 24-month financing. Given that we replace our iPhones and Apple Watches every year, it means that we do not have to front Apple the money and then get it back in trade-in value. Last year they offered a 6% deal around the end of the year, which worked out quite well on the Mac Pro he bought (using a friend's card).

He is not looking at the Payboo card, but B&H's 0% card. Saving 1%-1.5% is not worth it (CA sales tax on Post Production gear is 3%, paying with any 1.5% or 2% card would get it down to 1.5% or 1%).

How far apart would you think the Apple Card application needed to be from the B&H Card? He does not really need the Apple card until October/November, so even if he applied for the B&H card on 1 August, he would have two months, at a minimum (that could easily be if needed).

Other than those two cards and the two mentioned Chase cards, there really is not anything of interest (other than maybe an AmEx if travel ever happens again). If six months of good card usage is not enough to make them happy (realizing he never missed a payment or bounced a check to them, just had high utilization for 12 months past the 0% intro period), I am not sure it is a crisis.

[ccquest]

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@KLEXH25 wrote:

I could be wrong, but I don't think his other limits will have any influence on any CLI that BoA might offer. If it's a SP, I say go for it once his scores update. 

I also don't think it will affect any limit GS will offer. I have 3 cards with $10k or higher limits and GS recently only offered me $5,000 with a 787 TU9. This is actually lower than the $6500 they offered last year (I don't  actually want the card, just curious). The APR did improve at least. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Fair points. I was going based on some of my own where AMEX just happened to match exactly my BoA limit which was the only one reporting at the time but I did forget that there have been a number of posts regarding low limits on the Apple card.

[Anonymous]

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@ccquest wrote:
For the CapOne card, hard to say if they follow on the balance chasing. I think they would do that whether it was to 1540 or even lower, not again after another payment but who really knows.

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Well, after the payments cleared they show the full amount as available credit, so it probably makes sense to pay it off before it reports on Friday. That would leave him with:

Chase Freedom $0 with a reported limit of $7,000 and a limit they show of $2,500.

Chase Slate $135 with a limited shown on the app as $4,900 (used to be $9,800) and only about $3,200 in available credit showing. It reports tomorrow.

B of A $35 with a reported limit of $500.

CapOne $0 and a reported limit of $5,500.

Synchrony $994 and a reported limit of $4,500. It reports today or tomorrow.

Does anyone have enough experience with Chase to guess if 6 months of these kind of numbers (possibly with two new cards that stay under 25% utilization) would make them happy enough to let him get a Sapphire Preferred card?