My relationship with Chase was when they bought First USA ($6,000 limit) and then Bank One ($1,000 limit). I was in over my head at the casinos and went over the limit on both cards plus Discover ($5,000) and Citi ExxonMobil MC ($6,000) mostly on cash advances. That was when credit cards had the same cash limit as your credit limit and I was paying basically the minimum payment for 10 years and not making much of a dent especially with my 30 hour work week solely delivering pizzas. I was trying almost every money making scheme that came in my mailbox and would always get burned. I finally told my co-worker about this in April 2005 that I never told anyone else and he just told me that I should buy a brand new vehicle, finance it and then just ignore the debt on the credit cards but always pay the monthly car note so the creditors wouldn't go after your vehicle and just file for BK before the new law took effect. I've already changed my mailing address many years prior to a P.O. Box so the credit card statements would go there and then in early 2005 changed all my contact phone numbers on the credit cards to my cell phone so my parents wouldn't find out. Then I stopped paying on the credit cards and soon the creditors started calling my cell phone. Four months later, Hurricane Katrina hit so the credit card companies left me alone for the time being. As a result of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, I found a temporary (2 year) lucrative job as debris monitor.

The collection calls resumed in early 2006. I finally started answering my cell phone in early 2007 after saving enough money but the new BK laws had already taken effect. I chickened out and wasn't going through with BK. I settled with Chase, Citi and Discover for about 50 cents on the dollar by March 2007.

I've worked hard since that time to rebuild my credit and have not missed any payments. I've pulled my credit report from each of the three agencies (one every four months) for the past year and all show the same info being almost spotless with only a few dings with two hospital bills that one was paid in full and the other settled for less than full. The loan from Toyota Motor Credit Corp on my 2005 Tundra has three 30 day late payments in 2008 and 2009 before I finally paid it off in May 2010 after 60 months. I will consider writing to them to see if TMCC could forgive and change the negative reporting info.

A year ago I tried to apply for a Chase United Mileage Plus card and put in my father's name for a second card at no extra cost but I got denied stating that derogatory prior relationship even with a 700s FICO score.

I do have a Chase joint checking account with my father since January of 2009. My father has a totally spotless credit record with no prior negative report whatsoever and he had up to 4 Chase cards (United, Continental (cancelled), Freedom and Amazon) with me as an authorized user and that info is on my credit report.

Now my father opened a Chase joint savings account 7 weeks ago to get the $125 bonus with a $10,000 deposit. $10,125.05 is still just sitting there.

My friend is getting married in Tampa in 4 weeks. The cheapest airfare was on Southwest Airlines and of course their credit card is issued by Chase. I tried to apply for just myself last night and they will have to send me a response in the mail in the next 10 days. What are my chances? I just checked one of my credit reports and all the old negative info from 2005 and 2006 have since aged off.

With my current 714 FICO score (peaking at 728 last May and 720 last month), I have no trouble in getting credit from the other banks in the past year (Capital One, Walmart Discover, Barclays and my Best Buy cards are now with Citi) and even a joint Hyundai Motor Finance auto loan with my father in late January 2013 that was immediately paid off in the first month. Would the $10,125.05 in the Chase Savings account increase my chances of approval or will it not even matter?

I was young and naive back then being so reckless with credit. Oh how I regret those foolish decisions to this day as a major setback in my life and now I need Chase to get the 50,000 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points.