Getting Approved For The Chase Sapphire Reserve With Limited Credit History

My CSR was approved earlier this month with the SL of $25,000. I have only 9 months of credit history. I was approved a Chase Freedom 9 months ago with the SL of $500. Chase likes their own customers with excellent repayment history and low utilizations.

@Lucky: By "fairly limited credit history", do you mean PERSONAL history based on a credit card where one is the primary card holder? As I mentioned in another comment of mine, my son who is just out of college will apply soon for his first credit card. Since he has been an authorized cardholder on several of our own credit cards, his credit score is very good, and on his credit report all those cards show up. Would you say that that credit history is sufficient to get approved for his first card? Thanks.

@ Daniel B -- It all depends on how it shows up on the credit report. In the past Amex often backdated account history for authorized users, which was great, but they're not doing that anymore. For your son, how many active accounts does it show, what does it show as the average age of the account, and what's the score? In general if those numbers look good, then he should have a good chance of approval.

What if I get approved for the CSP? How easy is it to product change to the CSR after a year if my CL is $10,000 on the CSP?

@ JC -- It's readily available at that point, and virtually everyone in good standing should be eligible.

@Lucky. Thanks. I will check, but this is what shows up for him even though he is just an authorized card holder: a Chase Marriott card (4 years), SWA Premier (3 years), Citi AA Executive (1 year). Also was on my wife's and my Citi AA Platinum for 4 years before we cancelled it because we both got the Aviator card.
You mentioned that the Amex cards seem to be the easiest to get. Would that include the Delta co-branded cards too? Thanks.

@ Daniel B. -- Yep, it does. If he hasn't applied for his own card yet, I might recommend first getting him an Amex Card since that's the easiest to start with.

@Lucky: Will do. Thanks.

Oooh this looks great. I'm moving to the states next year so I applied for an Amex in New Zealand and I'm hoping to be able to get approved for an Amex in the US so I can start building some credit history. I remember one of my friends had a Chase credit card and got such great rewards- much better than us kiwis have ever been able to get!

Hey Lucky,

Does having checking/savings/investment accounts with Chase influence them being willing to extend you credit at all?

Say you have 5k in a chase checking where your monthly paycheck hits, and another 2-5k in a savings or investment account with them.

@ Jenn -- Generally speaking not really, unfortunately. In the past they sometimes made exceptions for those in the Chase Private Client program, but even that doesn't seem to be happening anymore, so I'd say there's even less hope for others, unfortunately.

That’s odd. If anything, it’s collateral in case something goes wrong.

I’ll have to ask my friends who just moved from Europe to the US with no credit history how they got their cards, cause they’re running around with a Reserve and a prestige each... figured it was a large lump sum sitting in their accounts.

@ Jenn -- It really does depend on the particular situation. I'm not sure what your situation is, but there are good odds you may be approved for the card as well. The more data points, the better.

I applied for the CSP with 6 months' US credit history (6+ years in another country) and was denied. Am waiting until I have 1 year US history this June, then going to try for the CSR. Bugs me that credit history from outside the US should be deemed automatically not good enough. Of course no other country can compare to Merica.

I got approved (somehow) for the card at age 20. I only had 1 previous card, and some credit history from financing a pair of tires. On the application I listed my income as $7,500. But they gave it to me anyways! Maybe I'm just *lucky*.

Applied for CSR one month ago with 7 months credit history(all good and current) and only one CC(Cap One Venture One) and one auto loan, also through Capital One. I'm also an AU on my wifes AE Blue Cash card. Never had any relationship w/Chase at all. One night just decided to go for it.

INSTANTLY APPROVED W CL OF $24,000

Things of note- FICO 8 of 740. Annual gross income of $93,000. Sixty years old(does that even matter if your credit age is 7 months?).

Actually for those, who just moved to the States and don't have any tax return to proof the income, even an Amex card could be hard. I was declined for the Amex Gold and Everyday Cards since I didn't have a salary record with the IRS that they can access (I think it was Form 4506-T that they requested).
I instead applied for the CSP (no relationship with Chase) and got approved with a >30k CL and wonder if I could have been approved for the CSR if I had gone for it.

I'm 21, I was denied for the card. I'm hoping after another year I can build up enough history for a decent credit limit. (Esp. since BMW Financial gave me a $130,000 loan).

How about10 month over all credit history and everything is lower then 10% and credit Karma say very good approval odds?