What actually gets you approved

Card issuers publish a suggested credit score and almost nothing else. These are 444 real applications people reported after the fact — score, utilization, outcome, and the limit they got — across 28 cards. It is a snapshot of mid-2026, and it grows as reports come in. Every number below is shown with the sample it came from, because a median over six applications and a median over two hundred are not the same claim.

Approval odds by credit score

Approval rate rises from 14% in the 600–649 band to 94% at 750+. The steepest step is the first one: crossing from the 600s into the 650–699 band takes the rate from 14% to 60% — roughly a fourfold change for fifty points.

The limit moves with it

The same climb multiplies the starting limit roughly eightfold, from a median of $2.5k to $20k. Approval is not the only thing a score buys — it also decides how much of a line the issuer opens with.

Score is not the whole story

Utilization separates the outcomes more sharply than the score band does. Approved applicants reported a median utilization of 8% (n=293); denied ones, 38% (n=120). That is not a subtle difference in a summary statistic — it is most of the distance between the two groups.

Median utilization

8%approved · n=293

38%denied · n=120

Median hard inquiries

2approved · n=301

4denied · n=120

Median new cards, 24 mo

1approved · n=303

2denied · n=118

17 denials at 720+

Of 124 denials that reported a score, 17 came from applicants at FICO 720 or above — people whose utilization was a median 16% (n=14). Whatever turned those applications down, it was not a weak score or a maxed-out card. Pulling the other way, 12 applications below 650 were approved.

Approved and denied ranges overlap

On 6 of the 28 cards, somebody was denied at a higher score than somebody else was approved. The widest case is the Citi Double Cash: approved at 650, denied at 780 — 130 points apart, on the same card (n=12).

• Citi Double Cashapproved 650 · denied 780 · n=12
• Capital One Venture Xapproved 730 · denied 800 · n=18
• Chase Sapphire Preferredapproved 667 · denied 699 · n=20
• PenFed Platinum Rewards Visaillustrativeapproved 680 · denied 690 · n=9
• Amex Gold Cardapproved 670 · denied 675 · n=12
• Amex Platinumapproved 718 · denied 722 · n=16

The suggested score versus the real one

Every one of the 28 cards below approves, in practice, at a median score well above the minimum usually quoted for it — the widest gap here is the Apple Card at +108 points (n=11). The suggested figure is closer to a floor almost nobody is approved at than to a target.

Rows marked illustrative have fewer than 10 reported applications — read them as anecdotes, not rates.

Three smaller findings

Methodology and limits

Dataset

444 applications with a reported outcome, across 28 cards that cleared five or more approvals.

Sources

Self-reported applications from public credit forums and readers who confirmed their own result. Not issuer data — no bank publishes this.

Period

Reports collected through mid-2026. Automated collection is currently paused, so the set grows mainly from reader submissions.

Sample sizes

4 cards have 15 or more applications, 13 have 10–14, and 11 have fewer than 10 and are labelled illustrative.

Scores

FICO as reported by the applicant, usually the bureau the issuer pulled. Self-reported figures carry the usual recall error.

Limits

Starting limit at account opening. Charge cards with no preset limit are excluded from limit figures, never from approval rates.

What is missing

No breakdown by Chase's 5/24 rule: of the Chase applications reporting a card count, all but two fall in the same 0–3 bucket, which is too thin to say anything honest about the threshold.

Selection bias

People report memorable outcomes more often than routine ones, and approvals more readily than denials. Read the rates as rates among reports, not among all applicants.

Updated

August 24, 2026. Recomputed from the live dataset on every rebuild, so these figures shift as reports arrive.

Applied for a card recently? Add your result → Every report sharpens the next version of this page.

Approval data is crowdsourced from myFICO and verified clients, not the issuer. Not financial advice.