Chase Sapphire Preferred - First Year Analyst

Anyone know if you can qualify for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card as a first year analyst? Any other suggestions for a card for analysts? It would be a my first credit card so I have no prior credit history.

 

With no credit history it will be hard. Its a great card though if you can get it.

Would probably just go into a branch, bring your offer letter, and tell them you have no credit but good income. They will get you something to start. After that, give it like 6months then trade-up.

Array
 
bolo up:

Definitely possible, do you have any credit history? Chase also generally lets you xfer part of another credit line to open another card if they aren't willing to extend you more credit so that's an option if you have the freedom or another chase card.

Other favorite everyday card is Starwood Amex - you going to be travelling much?

No, I'll be doing IB so I don't expect to be traveling much.

 

I have no credit history, so I figured I would be a long-shot. Any suggestions for cards to start with? I am still a student for another two months so I was thinking about applying for the Discover or Citi student cards.

 

I have good credit but don't know anything about credit cards. What's the big deal about this Sapphire? $95 annual fee worth it? I don't think any of my current cards have annual fees, could be wrong though.

 

2 points on travel and dining, which is most of my expenses. and if you know how to use the points correctly, you can yield anywhere from 2-20 cents per point (look up some travel reward blogs like thepointsguy). So let's say you can redeem for 5 cents per point, that's equivalent to a 10% return on your initial travel/dining spend. Also the large signup bonus 40,000 points is great. No international fees also helped when I was abroard

 
Best Response
Sil:

There are better credit cards out there. Stick with cashback cards unless you are going to cancel the miles card after getting the signing bonus. With cashback you will always come out on top (assuming that you use the cards with the highest cashback percentage).

This is not true. Different cards are better for different people and what you hope to achieve, no card is inherently better - it depends on your spending / goals. For instance, using the Chase Sapphire Preferred at a restaurant you receive 2 pts per $1, with those points being valued at at least 1.5c per point, giving you 3%+ return. The highest return a cash back card will give you is 2%. If your goal is simply to get cash back, then yes I would go with the Citi double cash card (2% return). But if you want to redeem for travel you can get a much better return than that, not to mention the fact that milage cards like CSP offer sign up bonuses of 40k+ miles where cash back cards offer at most $100 signup and often times nothing.

 
jss09:
Sil:

There are better credit cards out there. Stick with cashback cards unless you are going to cancel the miles card after getting the signing bonus. With cashback you will always come out on top (assuming that you use the cards with the highest cashback percentage).

This is not true. Different cards are better for different people and what you hope to achieve, no card is inherently better - it depends on your spending / goals. For instance, using the Chase Sapphire Preferred at a restaurant you receive 2 pts per $1, with those points being valued at at least 1.5c per point, giving you 3%+ return. The highest return a cash back card will give you is 2%. If your goal is simply to get cash back, then yes I would go with the Citi double cash card (2% return). But if you want to redeem for travel you can get a much better return than that, not to mention the fact that milage cards like CSP offer sign up bonuses of 40k+ miles where cash back cards offer at most $100 signup and often times nothing.

You would have to spend $9,500 at restaurants to make up for that yearly fee. Not saying that is not doable, but that is a lot just to make the card worth it.

 

Are you guys thinking of this the right way? To justify the annual fee, you only need to get >$95 worth of stuff from the points. What you should be asking is if the Sapphire can get you $95 more worth of stuff than the Fidelity AMEX. And since booking travel through the Chase website gets you a 20% discount on the amount of points you have to use, AND you only need to spend $9,500 per YEAR on the card to even it out anyway.......I'd argue yes.

And of course, if you use the card fairly often, you can often get the annual fee waived. The bonus points cover a few years of annual fees regardless.

 
Banquero:

Do you have any student loans? You should pay those off before you look at getting more debt vehicles.

I am surprised people are this clueless on a finance forum. Why don't you wait until you have a big boy job before you think about opining on things such as personal credit to a forum full of finance professionals.
 

I'm gonna give you a silver banana for being such a big boy. Mother would be proud! Just because you make a decent amount of money does not mean you know how to handle it, let alone how to prioritize. Especially coming out of college and never having made any decent money. Also according to FINRA I am a licensed professional, thanks.

 

Why don't you just apply and find out? I have it, the 40,000 bonus at beginning was nice, also got another free flight out of it because i spent way too much at bars last year haha. They just charged me the annual fee and i'm debating canceling now tho. Not to thread jack but what do you guys think of the platinum amex? My consulting who travels a ton swears by his, it also looks baller.

 
hopefulbanker99:

Why don't you just apply and find out? I have it, the 40,000 bonus at beginning was nice, also got another free flight out of it because i spent way too much at bars last year haha. They just charged me the annual fee and i'm debating canceling now tho. Not to thread jack but what do you guys think of the platinum amex? My consulting who travels a ton swears by his, it also looks baller.

Its great if you fly out of / through one of the airports with the AmEx centurion lounge (DAL, LAS, SFO, LGA, MIA) as they are incredible. Free top shelf alcohol, upscale decor, Michelin quality food for free. The rest of the card is ok, you can get a lot of value out of the FHR program if you stay at the Ritz, Waldorf, etc. level hotels often. You get the $200 airline credit which helps balance out the fee - but overall probably not worth it if you do not use the Centurion lounge at least a few times a year or if you can get the 100,000 mile signup bonus. If you get that than it is well worth it even if you just sign up for a year and pay with points ($1000) minus the $450 first year fee will net you $550.
 
Feasbyy:
hopefulbanker99:

Why don't you just apply and find out? I have it, the 40,000 bonus at beginning was nice, also got another free flight out of it because i spent way too much at bars last year haha. They just charged me the annual fee and i'm debating canceling now tho. Not to thread jack but what do you guys think of the platinum amex? My consulting who travels a ton swears by his, it also looks baller.

Its great if you fly out of / through one of the airports with the AmEx centurion lounge (DAL, LAS, SFO, LGA, MIA) as they are incredible. Free top shelf alcohol, upscale decor, Michelin quality food for free. The rest of the card is ok, you can get a lot of value out of the FHR program if you stay at the Ritz, Waldorf, etc. level hotels often. You get the $200 airline credit which helps balance out the fee - but overall probably not worth it if you do not use the Centurion lounge at least a few times a year or if you can get the 100,000 mile signup bonus. If you get that than it is well worth it even if you just sign up for a year and pay with points ($1000) minus the $450 first year fee will net you $550.

I've done research on credit cards and this is a good post on the Platinum. Besides lounge access, FHR and $200 airline credit, the other large benefit is the concierge service. It's almost like having a personal assistant, they can do anything for you (as long as they can do it from their PC). Make lists of X in the area, get hard to get reservations at restaurants or even tee times at golf courses, send gifts, etc.
 

The Amazon.com card has treated me pretty well. Decent rewards with no annual fee.

3% back on Amazon products 2% back on restaurants and gas 1% back on everything else.

You can pretty much buy anything and everything on Amazon so it pays pretty well. Also, if you have Amazon prime, you get free 2 day shipping on everything. When you're working long hours shipping everything to your apartment can cut out needless time at the drug store, etc.

This was my first card and I didn't have a problem getting it.

 

I was approved when I was sophomore with just 1 yr credit history. The 40k signup bonus definitely worth it, and you could downgrade to Freedom when the annual fee comes.

 

If you have a bit of credit history, I don't imagine it would be that hard.

I have that card and I think it is pretty great. 2% back on dining and travel, or 3% back on travel you book through them, plus a 25% bonus for using points to pay for something. I have not had the card for long and already booked two trips on it just using points. Definitely worth it.

 

Assuming you pay off your balance each time (so I'm not paying attention to APR), the best value credit cards are: Citi Double Cash -- you get 2% of your purchases back in cash, on any purchase AmEx Blue Cash (Preferred costs $75/yr) - 3% back on groceries (6% on Preferred, worth it if you buy more than $2500 of groceries) Amazon Visa card -- 3% back on all Amazon purchases, default payment option on Amazon except for Oct-Dec. Chase Freedom or Discover -- 5% back on select purchases, rotating by quarter. Chase has 5% on Starbucks now, will have 5% for gas in the Fall, 5% for Amazon in Oct-Dec. Discover had 5% back on all transportation (gas and Metrocards included) for Jan.-Mar.

I have all of those cards and only carry my Double Cash and AmEx. I will use Chase/Discover only if the purchase qualifies for 5% back. Sapphire as far as I know has no special perks as 2% reward on dining and entertainment can be gotten on the Citi Double Cash (all purchases qualify for 2% back). Almost all of those credit cards, except Citi Double Cash, has bonuses for sign-ups and they vary. The best recurring sign-up offer is Chase Freedom, spend $500-1000 and get $200 back in first 3 months, that offer shows up a few times a year. AmEx, if you're very patient, you can snag $250 by spending $1000 in first 3 months -- that deal is pretty hard to come across though. Discover standard offer is maybe $150 back after spending more than $1000 in first 3 months.

 

I see there is already a ton of traffic on this but wanted to weigh in since as a consultant doing 200k+ miles annually, I've spent a lot of time analyzing credit cards and rewards programs...

Two part recommendation:

FIRST: Which cards are best, irrespective of credit score:

-Chase Saph Perf (which gives 2x points at all restaurants and travel expenses, even trains and taxis; points can be redeemed for lots of stuff, I find rental cars and hotels the best deal)

-Amex Gold Pref Charge (which gives 2 at all US grocery stores and gas stations, and 3x on all plane tickets; points can be transferred to a number of partners, incl. Delta Skymiles 1:1)

-Chase Freedom which gives rotating benefits on Amazon and other retailers, and the points can be blended with the points from Saph

Between the first two you have 2 - 3x on basically everything consumable that you buy, and the third gives you a back-up in case you leave your Saph card at a bar, not to mention points on major purchase

SECOND: How do you get the score to get them?

-Check your own credit to make sure it is accurate, and you don't have any outstanding debts like unpaid parking tickets which basically kill your score, but go away as soon as you pay them -Without a mortgage, your credit score is most effected by your ratio of credit card balances to credit card limits on both card by card and aggregate basis. Keep this at ~720, apply for the aforementioned Top 3 cards and start enjoying all the points.

 

I'd always suggest the Fidelity Amex. For all my non-amex general purposes I use the Barclays Arrival +

As to whats generally in my wallet, - Fidelity Amex 2% cash back to everything that goes straight to my Fidelity Cash Management Account - Barclays Arrival+ 2.2% when redeemed for travel. This carries a bit higher of an APR so I just use it mostly linked to my Uber account -Citi Forward (The reward structure was from the old card) 5% at restaurants and Amazon/bookstores. points go to paying off student loans -Company card of course -Citi American Airlines Exec (black) card - I used to have the platinum but as I travel a lot on American, this does the trick for me, plus I got it when American was having a 100k bonus.

 

For me I have the Amex PRG, Platinum charge and Delta Reserve. They all serve well and I can transfer 1-1 Amex rewards points to Delta miles.

JP Morgan Ritz Carlton Card - Grabbed this one late last year on a sweet 140K bonus. Way easy to meet the spend requirement so no brainer. IF folks like heavy cards then plop this on the counter and hear the clang. Nice airline credit also.

Chase Marriott Premier Rewards - Was a decent bonus but good points earnings when staying at properties, etc.

+1 @Bankster808 on the Citi AA Exec card. A friend carries that one and loves the perks and that 100K bonus.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
 

Meant to add this for anyone flying Delta. Link your credit cards to SkyMiles dining. It's an EASY way to gain miles with things you are going to be spending on anyway. This stuff adds up fast with 3 miles per dollar (when you get started). I'm now getting 5 miles per dollar spent.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
 

I'm exactly in a similar position, since I am an incoming first year. I applied a couple times, but you have to have credit history (which you don't have), high enough income (which you will have) and a high credit limit in previous cards (which you don't have). So I'd say get a crappy card either at your current bank or at chase, call them and ask for credit raises every 4 months, and spend only a couple dollars on it per month. Then, when you have both enough credit history (i.e. probably 9 months, and at least a 720) and once you start FT, then apply for saph pref.

 

Qui rerum necessitatibus tenetur totam. Aut qui qui esse nostrum qui. Aut repellat eligendi aspernatur illo tempore saepe similique ut. Eos aperiam nesciunt dolorum. Blanditiis non et nemo. Fugit at incidunt quis dignissimos sunt totam iste.

Est aut sapiente cumque distinctio doloribus incidunt. Quia fugiat dolor aperiam tenetur blanditiis.

Est autem quidem quidem doloremque modi. Voluptates reiciendis voluptatum voluptatem ut nam. Ut suscipit voluptas natus explicabo. Eius deserunt voluptatum sequi quia et autem. Pariatur suscipit voluptatem nam facilis dolorem dolores dolor eum. Vel sint omnis magni eaque quis quaerat.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
 

Sunt officiis dolore nesciunt possimus deleniti possimus. Sunt itaque sit cum veritatis quis. Consequatur occaecati nihil nemo quia numquam eos.

Nulla numquam voluptate neque quo. Nostrum quibusdam mollitia ut reiciendis. Consequuntur corporis consequatur nihil eius.

Consequatur in laudantium adipisci qui nostrum quis amet ut. Quisquam et atque rerum rerum quo eaque sed. Et quos id magni. Culpa non sequi quo ipsam ea ab et.

Sit in consectetur sapiente et iste. Eveniet quaerat unde voluptatem molestiae et et nisi nisi. Ex est placeat commodi et.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (85) $262
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (65) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (198) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
9
pudding's picture
pudding
98.8
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”