May of 2024 I ended up moving into an apartment all by myself and unfortunately didn’t plan it out as well as I should have. I live in San Diego so the cost of living is very high. Combined with other expenses, I was struggling hard and started to use credit cards to cover my basic expenses, at the time I owed maybe 16k in credit cards only.
I owed Chase about 11k, Synchrony about 2k and comenity about 3,000. I eventually was offered a hardship repayment plan where my accounts were closed and for synchrony and comenity my interest rate dropped to $0 with a minimum payment of about $50 each until it was paid off. I wasn’t offered a chase plan until October of 2025 where they brought down my interest rate to 6% and closed my account with a minimum payment of $200 a month.
I’d like to point out that a) I’m in a much better position financially than I was at the time. I got a new job with a significant change in pay and moved back in with my family until I got back on my feet. And B) I definitely learned my lesson about being financially smarter and am not looking for a lecture on the mess I got into.
At the moment, I’m now heavily paying down my debt, using the snowball method and will be debt free within the next 7 months as long as I stick to my plan.
I was curious however, what the odds are of getting approved for another Chase card would be in the future for those who have had to use these repayment plans. I could care less about the other cards as they were store mastercards. I feel like in a better future, I’d like to have just one solid card only for emergencies.
I am not at all going to apply for credit anytime soon. TRUST I have learned my lesson. but was curious if the circumstances changed in the future what the probability would be of approval and how it would look like based on anyone else’s experience.
CC Approval after hardship programs
byu/introvertedtree inCreditCards
Posted by introvertedtree
1 Comment
Perhaps counterintuitively, it may actually be a good idea for you to dip your toe back in the credit waters sooner rather than later. Rebuilding your credit history will be a marathon, not a sprint, and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll restore your creditworthiness.
Prioritize getting your debts under control, of course, but maybe then you should consider getting a secured card. I recommend the [U.S. Bank Altitude Go Secured](https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards.html#buildcredit) – U.S. Bank is a reputable issuer, and, unusually for cards aimed at folks with poor credit, the Altitude Go Secured offers the cashback benefits of a prime unsecured credit card, without charging an annual fee. Given that you’d be buying stuff anyway, why not earn cashback for it, without the hassle of using cash or the risk of using a debit card?
Having a record of *responsible* use of credit will be instrumental in restoring your ability to get approved for unsecured credit cards down the road.