Originally Posted by
RVA110
I got both personal and business cards in August 2015. I was suppose to have cancelled them by now but in Nov 17 I helped my parents buy a fixer upper and up to this point needed the cards for repairs. So now I'm months behind on my second 2 year CP plan.
My cards balances are now 0 after carrying something for the last 6 months. However due to this house my credit took a ..... Went from 760 in July 2017 to 640~ now. Probably 680-690 when I originally applied.
I also have the chase reserve and ink cards that I use all the time for business and personal.
Four questions. How far apart from cancelling to reapplying should I wait?
Due to my credit is it possible I will be declined when reapplying? Even though I spend 10-15 thousand a month on the other chase cards
What's the promotions like right now? Anything to look out for?
I can cancel and retain my SW pts correct?
Thank you
1) When to re-apply for a Chase card has nothing to do with when you canceled that card. Chase will only give you a bonus if your application is more than 24 months from the date that you received your last bonus. Since you last applied in August of 2015, the latest that you could have earned those bonuses would have been in November 2015 (maybe early December 2015?). Since it is now much more than 24 months past that you are free and clear to reapply for a new Southwest card once you cancel your current card. However in your shoes I would probably cancel ASAP and wait awhile (2 or 3 months?) to reapply so that if they ask you can claim that not having this card has caused you to realize that you really do want it. YMMV
2) Anything is possible wrt credit decisions. There are sites on the web that will tell you the average credit score (or sometimes the scores of the "middle half") of successful applications for specific cards - see what you can find.
3) AFAIK the current bonus is only 40000 points. Keep an eye on this board (or regularly check Southwest.com) to see when a higher bonus is active.
4) Cancelling a Southwest credit card will not cause you to lose any Rapid Rewards points already in your southwest account.
When you are ready to cancel your current account you can choose to either just close the account or first ask to have at least some of your credit limit transferred to one of your other Chase cards. If you just cancel, your total credit exposure to Chase will be lowered, which tends to increase the chance that you will be automatically approved when you reapply. However, if you first reallocate some of your credit to a different card then even if you are initially denied for a new Southwest card you can call their reconsideration line and offer to move some of your credit from any of your other cards to a new Southwest card. I probably would do the latter in your situation as once a live human sees your Chase activity I think you would be more likely to be approved despite a lower than ideal credit score. Again, YMMV.
Also, I'm sure you know this but carrying balances will almost always cost you more than any rewards are worth. In your circumstances I would have looked for a card offering a relatively inexpensive balance transfer. As one example, I get offers every month on both of my Barclays cards for 1yr + of no interest for a 1% transfer fee - if I had to carry a balance it would be much cheaper to do this than pay the 1.5%+ monthly interest on a regular cc balance.
I hope this helps!