Credit Tips: Low APR Credit Card

Posted On: July 1, 2005

Author: ero2b
Title: Low APR Credit Card
Date: 3/5/2003 8:46 pm CDT

If I have a fico of 760 from experian and annual income my self of 10,000 (college student) and just got approved for a blue from amex what are my chances of getting this or another card with a very low apr like this?

also, how bad would it be to cancel my card that I have had since high school? this is my oldest card. how much would it hurt my credit? becasue I called cap one and asked them to upgrade my account and they said they could raise my credit limit but could not lower my apr and said I would just have to apply for another card, I haven’t used this card in about 8 months and would like to have a card that I would use as a backup to my blue from amex but with a lot lower apr than 19.80 percent. what other cards could you recommend that have an apr around 8-10%?

Author: Verneb
Title: Low APR Credit Card
Date: 3/5/2003 9:44 pm CDT

GM, Chase, Citibank, and Bank One usually have very low intro rates. Sometimes 0% to 6.9% to start, that goes to 9.9% later.

Of those, GM (Household) is the easiest to get credit with.

Author: ero2b
Title: Low APR Credit Card
Date: 3/5/2003 10:42 pm CDT

I have a loan for my truck through chase and they send me pre-approved platinum offers like almost every week, but does that mean I necessarily even have a chance with them? Should I still leave my cap one open because it is my oldest card even though I am not going to probably ever use it again? I know I ask a lot of questions but having good credit for when I am older is really important to me and I appreciate all the responses.

oh and Verne what are your opinions on Fleet?

Author: Verneb
Title: Low APR Credit Card
Date: 3/5/2003 11:15 pm CDT

Ero,

Keep the CapOne account open so you have more available credit and one more card to work with. Having less than 3 cards hurts the score (with all the CRA’s), 4-6 is optimum, and more than 6 will hurt the equifax score.

Be careful with that Chase Platinum offer when you already have the truck loan with them. I know that Chase co-mingles or shares information from one part of its bad self to the other, and they will compare (or a computer will compare) your truck loan application with the platinum card application. If they find any discrepancy they may find reason to deny the current application and even change terms on the existing loan. Yeah, Chase is that sneaky.

But in spite of all that, if your scores are good, debt ratio low, and income good, you will want to go with pre-approved offers first - like Chase. The offer may say platinum but they can “downgrade” that if your income doesn’t meet their requirements. Income is a huge factor in pre-approved applications.

Have you checked your scores lately? creditexpert.com (experian.com) and equifax.com are offering 30 day free trials. This would take some of the guesswork out of it.