Dan’s Deals gives some good advice on credit card ‘reconsideration’. With most card issuers you don’t need to be approved right away or automatically in order to get a card. You can be denied initially and still wind up with an approval.
The best bank for reconsideration in my experience is Chase. If you have existing credit lines with Chase you can usually horse trade — either cancelling an existing card to get approved for a new one, or offering to shift some credit from an existing card onto the new one.
The basic principle here is to demonstrate that you aren’t increasing the bank’s exposure to loss by their approving you for a new card. In the case of cancelling an existing card or shifting credit from an existing card, that usually comforts Chase because while they’re approving you for a new card they aren’t actually giving you more credit than they were already comfortable doing.
So anything you can do to show you aren’t a risk, like that you pay your bills in full each month always, helps the case as well.
You may need to explain why you why you want the new card, such as because the benefits of that card are really valuable — be it free checked bags or early board, help towards elite status — or because you want to keep various kinds of expenses separate.
Dan even points to posts like this one where folks have been able to seek reconsideration online, via Chase’s secure messaging system instead of calling. I hadn’t heard of this technique before, and I am not aware of successes with other banks pursuing this method. But the same request in the post is,
Hi there.
I’m writing so that you PLEASE reconsider my Southwest Application card.
I really like SW and wish to have their Credit Card.
I UNDERSTAND that I’ve opened many cards in the past, but PLEASE understand me. I don’t need any NEW credit from chase, so I’m willing to have credit lines moved around to enable me application to be approved.
If needed, I’m even ready to close my United card, as long as I get approved.
I have a good credit history with chase, never once had a late payment, and I also have a checking account with chase with around 2000 dollars.
Please get me approved, and THANKS in advance.
Personally I would use so many CAPS but that’s a stylistic thing. 🙂
At this point, having been moving from credit card to credit card for the better part of 15 years, I’m often not approved initially for cards — at least by Chase since they already extend a great deal of credit to me, and because I’ve had more cards from them than anyone else (since they do tend to have the best products). But eventually I get approvals.
I recently applied for the citi business advantage card and was denied because my business is too new to evaluate. I’ve applied for business cards before and not had any issues. Any advice on trying to get this approved? Service reps have been less than helpful this far.
Using the SM feature is a good idea. But good grief! That email needs a bit of editing. I’d be fired on the spot if I ever composed an email like that (I get enough grief for my typos).
It’s okay, the person reading the SM might not be a native English speaker either 🙂
Gary, do you have a list of all current reconsideration lines by bank?
Thanks!
I agree the caps is annoying.
Btw you can use secure messaging to close cards too. It’s handy for those instances where you really don’t want a retention offer.
You probably WOULDN’T use so many CAPS, right? 🙂
I am speech impared so the person on the other end of the phone would have a difficult time understanding me. SM would be handy for me.
I recently called the recon lines for both the personal & business SWA cards. The person on the other end was very patient and I got both cards approved!
I would still call the biz recon line for the biz cards since they usually ask alot of questions about the business. (Revenues, profits, year established, etc. They usually end up some CL from one of the personal cards to the biz card to approve.
Gary – for your case have you ever tried deliberately reducing your credit line before applying for something new?
i.e one of your old cards has $20k limit. Call and get this dropped to $10k. Apply for a new card. You are already ‘good’ for $10k over what is currently extended to you etc. If this fails you still have $10k line to play with.
i’d rather keep the credit and trade it for an approval than give up the credit and possibly not get it back
In my experience calling and asking to move credit around or cancel another card is a very simple process. I typically prefer to do most things by email, but frankly talking to them on the phone is better in a case like this so you can gauge what their issue is and negotiate a resolution. In general I think they WANT you to have the new card as much as you do since they know you are going to use it at least to meet the spend requirement. So there shouldn’t be any fear in talking to them.