So I want to apply for the US Bank Altitude Connect later this year, it will be my first card with them, and I’ve seen several people say having a relationship with them will improve your approval odds. So I pulled up the website, tried to make a checking account, was asked for my zip code, which is in Georgia, and since I wasn’t an existing customer was immediately told they don’t service my area. Cool, I guess that was predictable, but I don’t want to have no relationship when I go to apply for the card in the future, so I started looking for work arounds.
I found someone say that brokerage accounts aren’t geolocked, you can open one with them from anywhere, and that will make you an existing customer so that you can open a checking account and then close the brokerage account to avoid the annual fee. The problem is when I went to try and do that via the website, it would only bring me to a log in page saying something like, “If you’re an existing customer log in to speed up the application process,” with no option on what to do if you’re not an existing customer.
Frustrated at this point I poked around a little more and it seemed like I could open a CD if I wanted, it didn’t ask me for my zip code immediately, rather it showed me an application form that looked like the one I’ve see others who are in the service area use to make checking accounts. I put a pin in that to ask here, is opening a cd with US Bank the only option, aside from applying for and potentially being denied a credit card, to become an existing customer?