building a relationship with chase before applying?

[Cookie2120987]

I check the pre quail sites for almost all cards every Sunday we've been on the fence with opening a savings account for a while now and on top of that a joint checking account to deposit smaller sums to so we're not tempted to spend the. And use them for savings mostly.  My problem is getting my foot in the door, once in usually the lenders tend to be nice to me but my credit profile is BAD. I'm really getting there in terms of rebuilding but I really want the slate for the BT option and last time I applied and recon they only reason for denial was the late payments the freedom I haven't applied for in over a year now but I would really like the rewards system they use. Right now I, working towards getting a mortage and all three of my best options, Chase My local bank, and my local credit union have the past relationship except chase. 

[Anonymous]

I don't think having a checking account with Chase helps get approved. I have three cards with them and no banking relationship.

[JSS3]

I've seen posters who claim to have hundreds of thousands in Chase accounts get their CCs closed for reasons such as "Too much available credit". Chase didn't flinch a bit when closing them. One poster stated even Chase's banker held his head down in shame because he knows of other cases.

Chase doesn't appear to jump through hoops for customers with a banking relationship. I've heard Citi is the same way.

[Anonymous]

One of the semi-insiders has said that having a substantial account helps some.   It won't overcome bad baddies (so a BK last year isn't offset by $500K in checking, at least not always) but can get more marginal apps approved.   Small amounts won't make a difference as it doesn't influence risk.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think having a checking account with Chase helps get approved. I have three cards with them and no banking relationship.

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Same here +1. I even cold apped, never checked the prequal page...

[bigbang91]

In my case, having banking relationship with chase has been extremely helpful. They approved me for United, 6k  at the tjme i only had 1 300$ secured card. And now 18 months later, 6 chase cards, so banking relationship definitely helps.  the banker and cr also confirmed that to me when i got approved. 

[lg8302ch]

I think for me it could have maybe even be the other way around. ... There is no way I  could have put an amount of money on a Chase account that could have lead to a positive influence. Their pre-qualifiers seem to be pretty golden.  But there are also members like me  that never get any results out of that Chase site and have to cold app.  So even with no pre-qualified offer you can get approved. Got all my 3 cards like this but have to  admit my first Chase card  the  Freedom was hardest.

[Anonymous]

Don't think its necessary. Had no prior banking relationship when approved for my first Chase card. Have since been banking with them from Oct 14 til now but transferred most of my funds to free Discover checking so balance was all of $26 with my recent approvals. Plan to close the account this month.

Maybe it matters for some but doesn't seem to have a huge impact. YMMV like most things.

[Anonymous]

It may not be necessary but I think it does help. I just got approved for a freedom with 1200 cl with a score of 640. 3 unpaid collections of over 4k and a couple charge offs about 3 years old. I've been banking with them for the past 2 years so in think that helped a good bit. I didn't think I was going to get approved though I did have to call and verify my identity.

[Anonymous]

People seem to be making a bit of a logical error here.

The OP is hypothesizing that if you have a preexisting relationship with Chase that you are more likely to get approved. People posting Chase approvals that they've had without a preexisting relationship doesn't disprove or even weaken his original hypothesis. This is a logical fallacy -- namely denying the antecedent. To clear this up, here's an analogy.

Assume the following: If your name is Jonathan you are likely to be male. By almost everyone's logic who has posted so far, that means if your name is not Jonathan you are likely to not be male. I am sure there is no shortage of male myFICO members whose name is not Jonathan.

To the OP, a Chase account will likely help you a little bit, especially if a recon is required. But it is not a sufficient condition, unfortunately. And it certainly isn't a necessary one, as almost everyone so far has been pointing out.