Over a year ago, when I had a total of @60K CL with Chase, my app had to go to a Senior Credit Analyst, despite the Recon CSR recommending approval, because "you have so much credit with us". I lowered my total Chase CL to $25K, and have gotten instant approvals since then. But I haven't applied in the past month, so not a recent data point.

Still pretty sure that if you lower your total Chase CL to under 30K you will have a much easier time of it the next time you apply. ;)

Far from dead
 

Thought I'd give an app a shot despite all the data points that have been posted since I had some inquiries to spare. Auto-approved for two separate chase personal cards (Southwest and United) today. 20+ new accounts in the last 24 months, but only 4 inquiries (all on EX) in the last 6months and no new chase cards in 2015 prior to these apps. Currently have Freedom and INK accounts open. Recently closed CSP and Hyatt near their anniversaries. ~6year banking history with Chase.

I'll let you all speculate on why my experience was different from some of the other posts. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Thanks billybayswater for your data point, this is very helpful. I wonder after the associate ignored your request to reallocate, how they end up approving your card? Is it after they sent your application for a senior analyst to review?

Some data point of mine to share. I just applied the UA personal and Ink last week and few days later already got the denied letter stating that too many requests in past. I was surprised as I don't usually get the letter so soon, it seems the process tightened and they can quickly reject applications. I still haven't received a denied letter for the Ink application, don't know if that's a good sign or it just takes more time.

Now after reading the posts I worried to call and get the reject message again. Thanks billybayswater for your success story and I am hoping to learn what you did so that I may do the same and get approval for the UA card also.

Thanks very much for any tip and help :)

Is that 9 new Chase cards or all new combined?

Got denied today - rep cited 16 new accounts over 12 mo. It appears they look at actual accounts rather than equifax pulls. Good score, income, history with chase etc etc - no effect.
Will call again but its not looking good...

I wonder how picky is amex these days - i d rather get more mr than citi cards...

I had a similar experience to yours. And I know why. Chase looks at each customer in toto. You and I make money for Chase, so Chase like us. Others? Not so much. :eek:

Just got denied for CSP card. Rep mentioned 6 new CC in past 24 months. I did get approved for United card on the same day. Will try to call reconsideration line after I get the letter.

Only need to reallocate line, nothing else ever mentioned
 

I am trying to be detailed so to give a clear picture to the readers when it comes to determine profitability to Chase or such.

Did the UA Explorer 55/5/$50 around noon. As expected, got a deferred screen without reference number as I am at the range of maxing out total exposure with Chase. (it would change in a few months but right now I want to keep all my cards - Freedom, IHG, Marriott, UA Biz, Ink Plus, Ink Cash, total 56.9K line. Unfortunately cannot wait till Jul or Aug given this offer expires today or soon after.)

Called recon around 3:30pm. Preempted the rep that I always seemed to need to reallocate line whenever I wanted a good card from Chase. Rep pulled up app via SSN. He agreed reallocation line was needed - whichever way I want - I could either do it by swapping a card out or moving line from another card, but he said it needed to be personal to personal, and preferred taking it from one card.

NO MENTIONING OF ANYTHING about new accounts nor the existing UA Biz card.

Let him take 5K from a 15K Freedom to open UA for 5K. He said to give him a few minutes to see how it went. Presumably whether it needed further review or not. Fortunately he came back quickly and said everything was done, Freedom is reduced to 10K and UA gets the 5K. I did not see the Freedom line went down even logged out and logged back in so I asked. He said it would be updated and I would see the UA card in 2 days.

I took the opportunity to ask the rep, would it be better for me to trim some of my unneeded credit lines so I dont have to go thru the recon process each time applying a Chase card. The Rep said ABSOLUTELY. He told me I can call customer service to lower the CL. (We all know that.) So there, another data point on actively manage one's CL.
Just of note, an FTer friend got her UA card instantly approved for a very high CL, after she took my advice to trim out 2 existing cards leaving 3 cards open and lowered the total CL down to below 30K. She has over 12 new accounts in 2014 and 5 or 6 new accounts in 2015. She has since lowered the new UA card CL to 1/2 at activation in preparation for a Marriott or Hyatt couple months down the road.

Logged back Chase online 5 min after hang up - UA card already shows up online!

Low usage of my Chase cards. Ink Plus is used the most but still only about 12K in 2014 and less than 1K in 2015. UA Biz is used for dining on international trips. Freedom the usual quarterly categories only when possible. (this quarter's restaurant spend is downright miserable given we would never spend 500/month in restaurants, coupled the fact we were out of the country for 40 days, making spend on Freedom less than $50 this quarter so far). IHG saw one single hotel stay in Mar that I had to request the extra bonus because the franchise in Turkey did not bill in Crowne Plaza name. Marriott only has 2 dinings on it in 2015.

However, Freedom is 7 years old. IHG is 5 years old. Ink Cash 3 years old.

Both UA Biz (close to 2nd anniversary) and Ink Plus (just saw the 1st anniversary fee billed) have gotten statement credits to offset 2nd year AF on first call. Paid the $49 on IHG and it is on its 4th year. Remains to be seen if there is any retention on Marriott, else the card goes out.

Have both personal and biz checking accounts both with low balances though. They were opened under 25K CO promotions several years ago with easy to do task to avoid monthly fee so I keep them, despite it also means missing out the sign up bonus on checking account that seems like $200 every year. Also have a saving account opened on a $175 bonus back in Feb.

9 new accounts in 2014, 2 from Chase (Marriott personal and Ink Plus, applied on same day end of May 2014 - Marriott required recon, Ink Plus showed up without me doing anything though Chase took 5K from Freedom to make Ink Plus a 10K card).

2 new accounts in Apr 2015 both are BofA AS cards for a total CL of 20K.

Obviously I hardly am a profitable customer to Chase, but a rather average stable customer with some history.

Thanks for posting, Happs. I don't see anything on this thread to keep me from trying for a Chase card in the near future, despite my many other cards in 2015. The reward is too great. I do, however, have lowered expectations of approval. But that is always the case with Chase.

I see many try to rationalize this but i cant identify clear trends especially when you speak to rep.
i got fairmont card 2-3 mo ago but got shut down for ua yesterday. About same history in both cases.
Iirc fairmont was autoapproved but reps look at all accounts rather than pulls so this situation really reminds me of barclay.

This bears repeating. Thanks for making the inquiry.

My experience today was almost the same as Happy's, except our apps were a few hours earlier and it seems we may have used our existing Chase cards a bit more, as we had heavy Ink usage for hotels and other lodging on a recent trip to NZ and Australia.

As Happy found, our analysts seemed to really want to use existing credit lines rather than add to them. I sensed this on first call, and thought "Who and I to argue?". However, I was surprised since in March I had undertaken to clear dead wood on existing Chase cards and others, closing some accounts with no future value and reducing credit lines with others. I haven't gone back to add it all up, but I bet six months ago we had 20k more in credit lines with Chase, and maybe 40k total with the world than when we applied today. Yet Chase seemed to want to use existing credit. Some speculate that this "policy" may only apply to non-affiliate cards (eg. CSP, Ink, etc.) but I haven't seen convincing data so far.

Both apps approved after moving credit from other cards. So the new policy over apps everywhere over XXX months, if there is one, is not hard wired, at least for UA Explorer cards.

After Chase, went over to get a couple of AS cards before the backlash from recent blogger braggadocio sets in.

I would say keeping the total credit line under 40K definitely would help the course. Enough data points show this greatly enhances the chance of getting instant approvals. While there are nonbelievers, and there are folks hung on the old book that having existing line would enhance one's chance in recon - this CLEARLY NO LONGER THE CASE based on the latest data points. The preferable path is NOT to have to go thru recon which has become increasingly difficult for many.

I also think that calling sooner is better - the system may not have spit out a rejection before the analyst looks at the app would be my guess as the reps always first go with what the system "said" (flagged) to determine if s/he would review further.

It is not new that the recon reps look at new accounts in the past 12 to 24 months. When I opened my UA Biz card almost 2 years ago, the rep grilled me for 15 minutes - one thing he kept harping on was, "You still want more credit AFTER opening 11 accounts last year?" I told him I DIDN'T want any more credit, but I DID want the benefits of UA biz card. As for the 11 accounts opened, well, they each has unique benefits - if Chase issues an AA card or an SPG card, I am more than happen to give the biz to Chase... As an educated consumer, I choose what works the best for me. He spent a little bit time on the business itself and probably was startled to hear that there would be no growth as I did not want any so I could keep my schedule of pleasure trips. :) He ran out of questions to grill me. :p Even after he approved me, WITHOUT needing reallocation from existing card, he still quipped, "you think 5K is enough AFTER opening 11 accounts last year?" So there, they do look at all your new accounts in past year when they feel the need though it has been rare in the past - just so now it has become prevalent (and app being sent to further reviews), people thought it is something new. It is NOT as yours truly has the experience as early as in Summer of 2013!

What really puzzles me is not that I got declined for CSP due to the too many new accounts in last 2 years message. It is that when I called recon and offered to reallocate my CL from other chase cards like UA and IHG so that they do not need to extend me any new CL, the analyst simply could not, or was not willing to do anything about it.

I just applied online for the Freedom card, I currently have Ink and 2 airline cards. I wasn't auto approved and the email doesn't have a reference number. I don't want to wait 30 days for the letter! Would I call and just beg at this point?