I applied for Citi last week with their "preapproval" over the phone. I saw them hit my CR. I have no negs, no inquires, score was 698 and dipped to 694 after their inquiry Score would be higher except for higher balances. Applied for balance transfers to the tune of $7,000. mostly for Providian. Anyone know what the outlook might be? Also because I am waiting for Citi, I don't know what to do with my Discover "preapproval app" which I must respond to by end of today. Should I ask Discover for the same balance transfers I submitted to Citi in case Citi doesn't approve or appoves only a 2 f the four etc? What happens if Citi approves what happens to the Discover Balance Transfers? THANKS IN ADVANCE!
You can still apply for discover, but just don't BT with the initial application. I would wait until you found out if your BT with Citibank went through. Discover will take you application without the BT, just tell them you need to go through your accounts and will BT at a later date. Don't worry, if you are approved, they will ask you to BT when you activate the card, they will call you on the phone, send you lovely letters etc, you get the picture
I would wait on doing the Discover BT thing. Say you are approved for Citi and you have a pending application w/ Discover. You can't stop Discover from not doing the BT....the wheels are already in motion. If that happends, then you'll have a credit balance from Providian and you'll have to call and request a credit balance check....and knowing Providian, that might take a long while to receive. So, if you do decide to apply for Discover, don't do the BT. If you are denied Citi and approved for Discover, you can (I think?) take advantage of the special BT rate them. I'll call and see first.
If/when you do get the Discover card - they will call to "welcome" you after you get the card. At that time they will try very diligently to get you to do a BT. THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO INCREASE CL!! They approved us for $5k - and when they called I said, "oh no, can't do that, would mess up my ratios..." and the guy doubled the limit to $10,002 (I don't get the $2) if I would do a BT. That was an easy decision. This all happened back in '00, so times may have changed. -mj
