In this article, I'll be going over my recommendations on what to do prior to a credit card application.
1. Determine if a credit card is right for you right now.
2. Determine what your credit score is.
3. Clean up your credit & lower your utilization at time of your next statement before application if you have >5% utilization on any card or >5% DTI on credit cards.
4. Get an expert recommendation.
5. Use your cards with the same issuer that you are applying with if you already have a card with that issuer.
6. Consider business options.
7. Check your approval odds.
8. Seek an offer better than that which is publicly available.
9. Apply
10. If denied...
11. If your credit limit is too low...
12. Get no hard pull debit cards to fill in gaps.
13. Setup alerts & autopay.
14. Use a free budgeting & credit card management application.
15. Keep using cards.
16. Re-evaluate a month later if sign-up bonus desired is downgraded.
17. Boost learning & resources on cards.