misterfahrenheit

Found out today that my account was closed for my US Airways Barclays Card. I called them to see what happened and they said that I had too many inquiries in a short period of time and I would be losing all my points as well (40,000 from sign up bonus).

I tried making my case to them and after being transferred back and forth I was hung up on. This sucks. Is there anything I can do?

I've had the card for a little over a month. About 6 weeks ago I did my first app-o-rama, so I'm new to this. I applied for 6 cards and got all 6. I was pretty happy because it was my first time and I wasn't sure what to expect.

Edit: Adding: Is closing of accounts common? And anything I can do in the future to avoid it?

augustus21

Barclays seems to place a lot of emphasis on the frequency of hard credit inquiries when approving or denying credit. They monitor credit reports too, so if you get a little too app-happy, they do stuff like this.

wcj

There are people with more experience with me, but I will try and help. In reading, Barclays is known for being a little persnickety with too many inquiries. That said, people do put them in AOAs and still get approved. This makes me suspect a thin credit history and a little too much aggression, which they deemed risky. You may wish to provide a bit more information on the other cards for which you applied, the cards that you had open prior to the AOA with the length of time they were open, etc. Do you have any idea what your credit score was before the applications? Then those who have been around longer can provide more insight.

I've not seen any other advice give other than hang up, call again. Good luck!

Welcome to FT

iqbalt80

Conflicting information here. It seems like you didnt include the card in the App o rama? You got the card a month ago and the app o rama was done 6 weeks ago. Why did you do that? Average credit card age? FICO score? All these play a role when the CC companies do a hard pull.

Also do you know if the CC companies only used one bureau to pull your report or you made sure to spread them out between Equifax, Experience and Transunion?

misterfahrenheit

Thank you for the response. I think you're right, thin credit history might have had something to do with it too.

Cards I got in my first app o rama. Keep in mind I hadn't been to this forum when I did it, got info from other sites:
Barclays US Airways
Chase Sapphire Preferred
AmEx Premier Reward Gold
AmEx Starwood Preferred Guest
AmEx Gold Delta Skymiles
CapitalOne Venture

Cards I had prior:
Mission Federal Credit Union Student ($750 limit)
Wells Fargo ($800 limit)
Macys ($500 limit)
Express (I think $1000 limit)
Old Navy ($2800 limit)

Average account age was around 2.5 yrs. I'm 23 years old.

According to Credit Karma my score before app o rama was 742. Now Credit Karma shows 699, Credit Sesame shows 709.

misterfahrenheit

It was included in the app o rama. See my above post.

Hmm, I didn't even think about selecting cards based on which bureau they pulled from. I'll keep that in mind for next time, thanks.

webazoid

what's ur income? i'm surprised that at 23 yo and limited history, u got approved for signature cared like sapphire preferred. did they revoke miles that had already been deposited to us airways?

longhorn11

Yeah I would definitely say your lack of credit history has something to do with it. I would also be careful with Amex, 2 year credit history (it rounds down) and 3 amex cards in 1 app spree could spell problems. I would lay low for a little while, 6 cards (now 5) is more than enough for your profile. This has been said time and time again, remember it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Good luck with Barclays, hopefully you will find some way to get the miles back. I would research this site now that you've found it. Just a quick heads up, you usually want to skip CapOne. They usually pull all 3 credit reports and for 10k bonus points, it's not worth it. Also you need to find a FICO score somewhere, you usually want to stay above 740 AFTER your new accounts and inquires hit. Just take your time and welcome to FT!

misterfahrenheit

When I called them they said all my points would get deleted. But I just checked US Airways and my points still show... Maybe I only lost the points from my current statement? That would be awesome, because I got the 40,000 points from my last statement.

misterfahrenheit

Great advice, thank you!

So you don't think I should apply for anything new for like, what... a year???

And yeah... I realized CapOne was a bad choice afterwards.

robertw477

In general I think there is a misunderstanding of scored themselves. Some here post what are decent scored on the surface 720-750 etc but they have very limited lines. Then if they do a single apporama like this and they have success, I dont think the normal rules apply about waiting for 3 months etc. The card companies will not keep extending further credit. The aco....s need to be seasonsed and hopefully payment historys. Barclays is a PIA, but Chase can and will do the same thing. Chase is the company IMHO most likely to close accounts in this manner

wsflyer

It's likely that you will get to keep your 40,000 US miles. Usually when phone reps say, "You will lose all miles," what they mean is that you will lose any pending miles that have not posted yet.

jjmiller69

I agree you'll probably only lose the points on that statement. Credit hx and credit apps are a very tricky combination. The shorter the hx the longer you want to wait between apps. I would say 6 months or more is probably right if your credit score rebounds like it should and you keep paying all bills in full. Most people that are doing apps every 3 months have a longer hx and therefore take smaller hits and recover faster. In my case my credit score usually only goes down 3-10 points after a app and rebounds in 4-8 weeks?
Welcome to FT and the one most important thing you can do for yourself is read, read and read. You'll see many patterns repeated both with good results and bad. By comparing you'll see which ones will work best for you. Good luck and enjoy. ps stay away from Cap1 usually not much there $100 for a credit pull just isn't worth it.

longhorn11

I would probably wait until next summer, by then your AAoA (average age of accounts) would have recovered and you would have another year of credit history. I would probably only do 3-4 apps next time depending on the issuer and inquires.

Jetsfan

Another thought. While those are mostly good products (in my view) that you applied for, they represent many different kinds of miles and points. There is time to get them all, but for your next round (after you build a record of paying on time), you may wish to focus on what your near term travel aspirations are when you pick your apps. I hope you enjoy a great trip wherever you go!