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Recent Grad Needing Advice

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Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

1 or 2 inquiries will not kill you Smiley Happy . The Freedom and the Discover have a nice mix of 5% categories. Go for both! 

Message 21 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

Not to complicate matters for you, but if you eat out alot, and are willing to join Navy Federal via the Navy League method (It's a bit of a pain to apply, but a great CU to belong to), you could get the GoRewards card, which will give you 3 percent cash back on restaurants, likely a great credit limit and frequent soft pull increases, AND hopefully a really nice APR.  Mine is 11%.   

 

Also, on Discover, you can save a ton with their "discover deals".    For example I just bought a pack on The North Face, but searched their dealsk before buying and, sure enough, a 10% cashback offer for their site.  I really love Discover.  

 

So, if it were me,  I would do 3 apps:

 

1) Chase Freedom Unlimited (for daily random spend and also just to start building a Chase history)

 

2) Discover It (great for any spend and especially online shopping with "deals"

 

3) NF go rewards for restaurants

Message 22 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice


@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for all the advice! I guess my only dilemma now is to decide what I really want to apply for. Discover sounds like a good bet for now what with the double cash back the first year, but I also like the idea of Freedom or CSR. I know my mom still wanted to get the credit union to do the pull to increase my CL, so I just don't know what the best course of action is... whether or not to wait before applying to any credit cards until we do the CLI credit pull. If not, do I risk applying for multiple cards and have multiple inquiries with the chance of one or multiple getting denied

Dont think too much into it.  Just ask the CU what type of increase is possible with a HP.  If its going to be anything significant like 5-10k then sure do it. But you are already an AU on cards with decent limits so I doubt it will make a huge difference.  Also ask them why the card is not reporting on all three bureaus, may be an error.  Like i said before, if you could go in to the CU asap fix the reporting issue, get the limit up, and get that to push to all 3 bureaus then do that first.

 

U arent going to be denied for anything mentioned in this thread.  Go app for the CSR and the Freedom right now,  I'd wait for those to report to your bureaus before applying for anything else. I am gambling discover would give you a higher starting limit if they see the new CSR 10k+ limit reporting paired with the same discover AU high limit, should warrant a higher starting limit, but maybe not, no guarantees.

 

You are thinking too much about this.  What are your credit goals?  Your scores are already good enough for a home loan which you dont need.  Use your scores so the banks pay YOU not the other way around.  If you want to use your credit scores to save you the most money then you need to focus on cards with higher signup bonuses first and leave the others for later.  5 or 10% back doesn't even compare to the CSR, its more like 30% back if not more when redeemed for travel.  If you realize paying the 450 AF the 2nd year doesnt make sense, then downgrade the card to a freedom unlimited or no annual fee CSP.  

 

I would also plan on getting the CSP bonus in the next 3-6 months, hopefully its still 40-50k, thats another $500 free right there.  Then downgrade the 2nd year.

 

You can worry about cards that are 3% or 5% cash back later on.  You can use cards like those when you are not working towards a sign on bonus.  Open up a high yield checking account and move the bonuses there as cash if you dont plan on traveling. 

 

I mean yes this is a little crazy to get a high annual fee card like this for your first card, but the fact you can pay your rent with a credit card, if you are responsible and pay these cards off every month, will only get you more bang for your buck.  You arent locked into the high annual fees.

 

Its not like you are 18, with scores in the high 600's, and have a issue grasping finances.  You are well educated, have multiple outlets of meeting spend (either rent, monthly expenses, or at parents).  It may come off as a little out of the box, but what is so wrong with that?  Its not like you are going to be doomed the rest of your life if you got denied for the Reserve, you still would get approved for the freedom either way.  You may even find in the future it makes financial sense to keep the Reserve since the AF is basically $150 and you get 4.5% return on dining and travel when redeemed for travel, plus 7.5% return on the freedom categories when redeemed for travel.

 

And for scoring reasons, ideally a person should have 3 cards in their name anyway. 

Message 23 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

Wanted to send everyone the same update I sent jfriend33.

 

I got approved for Discover... for only $1,250. Absolutely ridiculous, honestly. I am probably gonna call Recon in a couple hours when I get off work. Does anyone have suggestions/experience with this?

Message 24 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice


@Anonymous wrote:

Wanted to send everyone the same update I sent jfriend33.

 

I got approved for Discover... for only $1,250. Absolutely ridiculous, honestly. I am probably gonna call Recon in a couple hours when I get off work. Does anyone have suggestions/experience with this?


gonna go ahead and post my reply that I posted to you lol,

 

that is exactly what I told you would happen.  They are notorious for low starting limits.  But in a year, the limit can grow tremendously.  Go apply for CSR and freedom.  What happend at the CU?  You need to take the wheel of this situation a little bit.

Message 25 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

All right, woohoo! Thanks for all the advice, everyone (especially jfriend33)! I got the dreaded decision pending message from Chase when I applied for CSR, so I went ahead and called the verification number on the backdoor page, to see if I could facilitate the process moving along by providing more information. So we went through my name, social, and address, then they sent a code to my cell phone that I had to repeat back to them. After that, I had to wait a minute for the application to process, and I was approved! Card will arrive in 1-2 weeks. He would not give me details on my SL or APR, so I thanked him, hung up, and called the automated app status line. It said approved, then said press 0 if needing an advisor, so I did, spoke with her, and she let me know I was approved for a 17k SL with 20.24% APR. I call this a win. Thanks, everyone! Hopefully I can get all the use out of it that I'm wanting.

Message 26 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice


@Anonymous wrote:

All right, woohoo! Thanks for all the advice, everyone (especially jfriend33)! I got the dreaded decision pending message from Chase when I applied for CSR, so I went ahead and called the verification number on the backdoor page, to see if I could facilitate the process moving along by providing more information. So we went through my name, social, and address, then they sent a code to my cell phone that I had to repeat back to them. After that, I had to wait a minute for the application to process, and I was approved! Card will arrive in 1-2 weeks. He would not give me details on my SL or APR, so I thanked him, hung up, and called the automated app status line. It said approved, then said press 0 if needing an advisor, so I did, spoke with her, and she let me know I was approved for a 17k SL with 20.24% APR. I call this a win. Thanks, everyone! Hopefully I can get all the use out of it that I'm wanting.


You made my day!  Call back and ask to have the card expedited. That way it comes in 2 or 3 days and you can have extra time to spend that 4k.  Go app for freedom!!!!!!! another 15k in URs plus 0% for 15 months, like I said by PM they dont view you as that big of a risk or else they would have only given you a 10k limit. Then you can move all 7k or a portion to the freedom if the limit wasnt as big, but I am betting it would be close!

Message 27 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

I am seriously shocked you got that limit with Discover! But congrats on the CSR that is AWESOME! Way to go! 

Message 28 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice


@Anonymous wrote:

I am seriously shocked you got that limit with Discover! But congrats on the CSR that is AWESOME! Way to go! 


Not to toot my own horn here but I have been on a roll lately.  I even got someone approved for the CSP with credit scores 630-660.  Its about gut instincts here.   A lot of my instincts came from Monoglot.  Majority of the accounts were AUs, they were old, and with decent limits, and right off the bat, and again and again got high limits with the exception for a few cards like us bank and discover.

 

My pushing of the CSR wasn't just because of the big bonus.  Its because after the first year, they might get future UR signup offers, or decide to just downgrade to a no annual fee card.  Regardless, by at least trying for this, it was going to be a big starting limit, which even though the OP didnt explicitly state thats what they wanted, that was the impression I was getting.  

 

Granted a card with a 17k limit doesnt mean all the rest of the cards are going to be 17k+, it will certainly help for future approvals not starting out with small limits IMO.  

 

I still say go for the freedom so you have more 5% cats, another 15k in URs, 15 months 0%, the ability to move 7k to that card if the limit isnt as big, etc etc.  Chase should always be your first stop for apps.  The level of cashback on these bonuses doesn't even compare to 5%.  That discover limit will grow with time when used responsibly.  If not, relax enjoy your two new cards, and in a few months, go app for the CSP.

 

If you do app for freedom, make sure its before all time zones reach midnight which is in 5 hours and 45 minutes.  The freedom may not even be around for rmuch longer.  Theres a good chance the inquiries should merge.

 

Just remember to not carry a balance month after month on these rewards cards. I know some here balk at the idea of paying interest on a rewards card, but the occasional month or two is not going to break the bank.

Message 29 of 31
Anonymous
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Re: Recent Grad Needing Advice

Lol back to back $1250 on Discover and $17k on Chase. Good thing the Discover will balloon while Chase probably stays out and not the other way around! Lol
Message 30 of 31
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