Well IME it seems that Chase is either getting tighter, or maybe you can just randomly hit someone who is more hostile.
I recently applied for the IHG MC. Got the message asking me to call in ASAP to complete the process. Not a biggie, I think I know this drill. Called in, friendly CSR asked how much additional credit I was looking for. Not much, I replied, just $5K would be plenty. No problem, he says, can do. Done. Quick & easy.
Friday night, the wife did the same application (as part of a mini AOR with 2 other cards). She got the same screen. She has been sick this weekend, so almost 2 days passed before she felt up to calling. To her (and my) surprise,. the CSR was much more standoff-ish - not exactly hostile, but a much less friendly, less encouraging tone. He asked the usual ID verification questions, then started probing on income, why this card, etc. Put her on hold for along time. Came back and said she already had all the credit with Chase he could extend, and that to process her application, he would need to forward it to a "senior credit analyst" and that she would need to fax in proof of income - something neither of us have ever had to do before. She said she really didn't need any additional credit, she would be fine with moving some credit from one of her existing cards (she has multiple cards with CLs of $20K and up), she didn't need a lot on this card, could he simply move $5K from one of the other CLs? No. He wouldn't do that. Really? Yeah, he said he couldn't do that, she would need to provide income verification. He wants her W2.
So, long story short, now I'm not sure how much to push this. We have always reported our combined household income (we live in a community property state) - which we have reported accurately: hers + mine + proceeds from stock sales related to my job. The numbers do add up to our reported income, but the number on her W2 will not reflect that total.
OTOH, I'm doing our taxes right now, so I should have a fresh new form 1040 that shows the combined household income that matches what went onto the form. That will be a few days before its done. I'm inclined to let this just sit until then, rather than pushing it right now and having to explain the numbers.
Anyway, IME this is entirely new behavior from Chase. I'm hoping we just got somebody in a bad mood, rather than this being a new approach they are taking.