open a chase checking account, in your account they will sometimes provide pre-approvals so you can know with confidence you'll likely be approved
there's both a $300 and $900 offer (checking and savings) currently
that's what I would do if I was you right now
you can also sign up for Chase's free credit monitoring with Credit Journey and you could potentially see the same pre-approved offers
@daveg38 wrote:Chase is 100% all about having some sort of non-credit card relationship with them when you go to apply for a card.
I have my Subaru lease with them and was able to recon an approval for the Southwest Visa, $2k, with one sub-600 score.
That has not been my experience with them at all. My experience has been that Chase doesn't care how much other business one does with them.
@gmonty wrote:Hi!
im looking to replace my American Express Platinum with the Chase Sapphire Reserve for travel. I've heard they're really difficult to get an approval on. Do I have a chance?
- EX 791, TU 775, EQ 773, myfico version 8
- Income: 415k/annually
- Revolving Debt%: 28% (7 open accounts, all but one less than 20% util) on EQ and TU, 12% on EX because one account never reported
- BofA at 75% (28k) due to balance transfer and paying quickly
- 2 year old auto loan (down to 49 from 71)
- Mortgage- one student loan less than 10k (paying off soon, I know)
- one loan for the solar and batteries on my house with 30k remaining
- one inquiry on TU and EX from chase one year ago applying but not researching first, but I've paid off multiple cards since then.
If not, any recommendations on what to take care of first?
Assuming you don't have a lot of recent inquiries and new accounts, I would say you have a decent chance, but would have a better chance when you get your utilization numbers down. As to what to take care of first, I would try to reduce the 75% account, and any other revolving accounts, to 28%.
@gmonty wrote:Hi!
im looking to replace my American Express Platinum with the Chase Sapphire Reserve for travel. I've heard they're really difficult to get an approval on. Do I have a chance?
- EX 791, TU 775, EQ 773, myfico version 8
- Income: 415k/annually
- Revolving Debt%: 28% (7 open accounts, all but one less than 20% util) on EQ and TU, 12% on EX because one account never reported
- BofA at 75% (28k) due to balance transfer and paying quickly
- year old auto loan (down to 49 from 71)
- Mortgage- one student loan less than 10k (paying off soon, I know)
- one loan for the solar and batteries on my house with 30k remaining
- one inquiry on TU and EX from chase one year ago applying but not researching first, but I've paid off multiple cards since then.
If not, any recommendations on what to take care of first?
Welcome to My FICO forums, @gmonty. 
Good + FICOs? Check.
Sufficient Income? Check.
At least one $10K card (minimum for CSR Visa Infinite)? Check (reading through the lines.)
Favorable Credit Card Utilization? Ouch. No way, especially in this economic climate and with any card reporting above that average 28%. Some credit card so-called "experts" say to keep utilization below 30%. Well, that's better than 50%. But it's still concerning to lenders and will inhibit your FICO scores. Moreover, when Chase runs your DTI including not only the credit card debt but also one-year old auto loan, student loan debt, mortgage debt, and home solar debt, it may raise some concerns.
So I would prioritize paying off most if not all of that revolving debt before applying. At stated income, I would hope you could do that pretty quickly. But it concerns me that with that high of an income, you've managed to accumulate that much debt. Barring some special circumstances, I would encourage you to reevaluate your use of credit cards and make sure you are managing them well and paying them off fully as you go. The good news is that utilization doesn't have a lingering negative affect on FICO or credit reports so once it is paid down it will be behind you. If you need some help figuring out a repayment plan, please give us all the details on those cards - the lender; current balances; the APR applied to those balances; any expiration of special financing; credit limits on each account, including those not reporting a balance. Also, some insight into monthly budget and how much is available to apply towards monthly repayment.
Yes, opening a checking account and establishing a customer relationship might help to put you on their 'radar' but I wouldn't bite on any offers until you clean up all that debt. Those offers are more marketing and probably won't screen for things like high utilization which would be an eliminating factor. Only open the checking account if it makes sense for you and you plan to actually use it. Opening an account and parking a nominal amount of money there is a wasted effort.
