My husband and I have almost identical credit reports and scores since we've both held the same cards for the same amount of time, though he is an authorized user on our two main ones rather than the primary. Here is a basic rundown of what has happened with approvals and denials in the order they happened:

1. Chase BA Visa: both instantly approved

2. Chase CO Visa: both denied. I was later approved by adjusting credit limits. Ey husband was denied for not having a long enough credit history, even though they'd just given him the BA one. They didn't see being an authorized user as being sufficient history.

3. Citi AAdvantage Visa/Amex: I was instantly approved. He was sent a email saying they couldn't verify his contact info, and he had to send in bank statements, cell phones bills, and paystubs. Big pain. Later he was denied both since an address on one bill didn't match since we are temporarily at a different address than our permanent one due to job training.

4. Amex Gold: He was instantly approved. Applied in order to fix the credit history problem from Chase since Amex grandfathers in the oldest date.


So he was denied for three cards: one Chase, two Citi. We're trying to fix the credit history problem by getting him his own Amex and making him a joint owner on the other account.

What we want to know is how does this affect future applications? How long does he have to wait on Chase and Citi before applying for other cards? Why would I be instantly approved for them all and he is getting denied when our credit is so similar? Is it worth calling again to try and reverse the denials? They were both pretty adamant about him not being able to get any of the three cards. I'm so frustrated by this. Please help!