Questions and Answers

Hi Ben-

I’m looking to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card soon. The only issue(?) is that I’m 20, and I know that there is a hoop or two to jump through for an applicant under 21. Am I right in thinking that I either need a co-signer, or proof of full-time income to be accepted? I’m in college and don’t work, but I’m fortunate enough to have plenty of savings and money coming in to pay off any debt I might incur. The truth is I’d rather not have someone co-sign. I’ve read that companies sometimes accept a bank statement copy or something similar if a person has no income, but plenty of money otherwise. Do you know anything about this? Or maybe about how I might express this to Chase?

Appreciate it!
-Henry

Henry TCT – I’d apply for something like a department store credit card – even if you need a co-signer and buy something with it then pay off the bill. Maybe do that for 2-3 months in a row to establish a credit history.

Then maybe apply for a credit card with no annual fee, like the Freedom. Use that for a few months and then apply for the CSP. The Freedom is a card you’ll probably want as a keeper so let it help lengthen your average age of account.

While it’s tempting to jump right into the credit card pool, if you have no credit history you want to build a good base so that you can “play this game” for years to come.

Henry, if you don’t have any established credit the chances of you actually being approved are pretty much slim to none. I wouldn’t waste the hard pull on it. As MidSouth said, apply for the Freedom, establish some credit history and apply for the CSP in 6 months or so. Chase usually bumps the CSP sign up bonus to 50k each year in May as well so you can still get the better sign up offer at a later date. Any “cash back” you’ve earned with the Freedom will become Ultimate Rewards points when you get the CSP.