Should I wait to apply for student credit card?

Surfeit75

I have a default which will be 3 years old in a week or so and have read/heard many things about this but would like clarification if possible.

This post caught my attention from an old topic on here

Not that much in fairness, most lenders perform what is known as a 3yr search so if you're clean for the last 3yrs it will go unnoticed totally, if you had missed payments or something bad they would perform a full 6yr search and see it.

My mate sutton over here has 2 defaults (3yrs old) and recently got 2 credit cards and 4 bank accounts - only since they became 3 years old though, it means playing our game and applying to the correct lender at the right time and not being silly with delusions of granduer....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2561943

Is this actually true/proven?

And if so should I wait until the default is EXACTLY 3 years old or wait a further few days?

What are my chances here?