I can see for miles

As we all know, with some CC issuers -- I'm looking at you Chase -- the time span between CC application and decision can be weeks if the applicant doesn't call. If, hypothetically, an applicant applies for a CC on the first of the month but the application goes to pending status and, thus, is manually reviewed weeks later, does the CC analyst look at the CC report pulled on the first of the month -- or on the day, weeks later, he reviews it to make a decision.

I've been waiting for a Chase decision before applying for a CC from another issuer, thinking that would add one more inquiry and potentially another new credit line on the report. But if the report from the day of application is reviewed, waiting isn't necessary. Which is it?

garykung

The credit report is pulled based on the date of receipt of the application (which is first of the month in your hypothetical case).

sdsearch

But if the bank's decision is denial, and then you call recon (reconsideration), depending on the bank and/or how long it's been since your original application, recon may generate another pull.

garykung

In that case, a verbal consent will be required (assuming calling is the contact method).

I can see for miles

If I understand correctly the CC issuer only uses the report from the date of application (with the possible exception of a reconsideration), which surprises me, then the smart play for CC churning with Chase would be to apply for a Chase card first, wait (at least one day, I guess), then apply for whatever other CCs you wish. Even if Chase takes weeks to process the application, if it's using the report from the date of the application, it won't see new inquiries and new trade lines since then.

Correct?

sdsearch

Are we sure that the credit report is pulled on the date of the application even if the application isn't processed on that date but just goes into a queue? Ie, I'm not disputing that the credit report is only pulled once, but I'm wondering whether it's really always pulled immediately?

And your whole scheme seems to be based on the assumption that the credit report must be pulled immediately. If it's actually pulled whenever they get around to first looking at your application, this whole scheme would backfire.

For example, is it not possible that in some cases at the moment of your application the communication with the bureau is temporarily down, so they put the application aside to handle it later (but not necessarily as soon as the communication with the bureau is restored)?

Or if you mistyped your SSN, that may get fixed later, but that would stop the successful pull of your credit report at the time of application, wouldn't it?

I can see for miles

Possible glitches aside, this brings us back to my original question -- or at least what I had intended to ask. Does the analyst look at your credit report as it appears the day of the application or on the day he reviews the report to make an application decision?

garykung

I would say so.

You seem to forget there is a thing called "Instant Approval".

If the report is not pulled immediately on the date of the application, how can an issuer determine if the application should be approved immediately or need further review.

sdsearch

You seem to think those are the only two options.

Perhaps because I've churned at Citi more than any other bank (because Citi allowed "fast" churning on Hilton HHonors cards consistently for years and on AA Plat cards intermittently for years), I'm terribly familiar with Citi's very-instant "there was error processing your application". This comes within a few seconds after hitting submit, way way way faster than the half-minute-to-minute process of trying to see whether you'll get instantly approved.

So at Citi, sometimes I see it taking a good chunk of a minute to see whether it can "instantly" approve me (in that case, it undoubtedly did a pull). But many other times I just get the much faster "there was an error processing your application", and both the wording and the super-fast timing implies that in that case they weren't able to pull my credit report (for whatever reason) in that case..

I don't know if other banks throw out "there was an error processing your application" left and right, but since at the very least Citi does, that begs the question at least about Citi whether their systems are able to pull the credit report automatically in those cases, or whether the process indeed got terminated after just a couple seconds and has to be restarted (and the credit report finally pulled successfully) later when a human gets involved.

But since I don't care that much about either the number or timing of my pulls, I never bothered to check when Citi's pull showed up on the bureau in these cases. So I can't "prove" it one way or the other.