So I just called recon about my wife's application for an IHG card from the other day. Did two apps at once, she got instantly approved for the United Explorer but IHG went to pending (I didn't have a chance to call recon till just now - and it turns out between the application and today IHG got denied). The rep asked for reference number but I didn't get the letter in the mail yet so I gave her my wife's social. She then quickly started to grill me on all of my wife's recently opened accounts (which I must admit there have been a lot across multiple issuers over the past 90 days). And then she said "I see she has multiple accounts where she is an AU" and asked who the AU was so I had to say it was me. She asked about why my wife needed so many cards and I tried to concisely describe the benefits my wife was looking for from each different card and why she applied for them but she didn't seem to really care. She was definitely hung up on there being too many recent inquiries.

After about 5 minutes she was firm that there was too many recently opened accounts and she said "your wife has enough cards". I even asked if a we could do a credit line shift from one of my wife's other Chase's cards but no go.

My question is should I wait till the letter comes in the mail with the reference number to try again? Would that help a bit to focus more specifically on the denied application at least for long enough for me to get some ground to stand on? Cuz it seemed like the instant I gave the rep my wife's social that opened a can of worms and I was on the defensive from the very beginning.