Chase not reporting authorized users
 

My 23 year-old daughter applied for the Chase Freedom Unlimited and was denied for a limited credit history despite a good income. She has been a long time AU on my Freedom card and this did not show up on their credit check. We conference called reconsideration and the agent/lender would not budge. Makes me want to go in and close all my cards except I would miss the three two week cruises that I have received from gaming points from multiple cards to the Sapphire Reserve. They really treated my daughter poorly and I am sure the two credit pulls they made won't help her limited credit profile.

You probably already know this, but making financial decisions based on emotion is usually not a good strategy. You did well in not closing your own accounts with Chase (and you shouldn't just b/c of this isolated unpleasant interaction). From experience in helping family members in similar situations with Chase (with similar results), I've learned that Chase doesn't like to be be the first one to "jump in the pool." I've had agents tell me that they would like to see the individual that I was trying to help get additional history with other issuers first and then come back in 6-12 months and try again with Chase. I'd recommend that your daughter perhaps try applying with someone else like Wells Fargo for example since they seem to be willing to extend credit more freely to make up for past indiscretions (check out their Propel or Cash Wise no-fee products). Credit card forums or others can/would probably provide better advice on other products that are better suited for someone with a limited history, but I would just say that this is just a temporary setback with Chase and your daughter should be able to build that history and try again in the not so distant future.

I'll say this more directly than the other poster; this would be a ridiculous reason for you to severe your personal relationship with Chase, assuming you are otherwise happy with the value you have gotten from the relationship.

Take a deep breath and come in off the ledge...

Regards

I agree 100%. And here is the cold hard fact, you are not "proving" anything to Chase by closing your accounts. They would not care. Also, you are not "gaming" the system by using Freedom, Freedom Unlimited and Sapphire....tons of people do it, Chase knows it and again....does not care

Thank you for the comments and we will look for a different card company but I think it is ridiculous for Chase to not give someone who makes almost 200K a year a (redacted) Freedom card even if they are only 23.with a limited credit history. What made me particularly mad was they did not report the AU status to any credit bureau. They initially pulled TU and denied the card. When we talked to reconsideration the agent suggested pulling a different bureau giving the impression that the AU status would make all the difference. But still no notification or approval and I assume two hard pulls. Part of the reason I put my daughter on the card in the first place was to get her some credit history and certainly bloggers like TPG gave the impression that it would.

HawkeyeFlyer with the multitude of signup bonuses for the various card iterations that we have received over the years I feel we have well gamed the system. But those days are over. Maybe its time to put everything on my 2% Fidelity cash back card.

Are you saying that they are still considering the application after the pull from a different CB? If that's the case and they are still thinking about it perhaps there's a shot. Have you tried reaching out to recon again? It can't hurt at this point and you may get someone more helpful. You can frame the call as a follow-up since they said they were doing another pull to take another look at the app and you just wanted to check the status.

P.S. In terms of your accounts I think the best revenge is to keep getting as much value from them as you've been doing ;) :D

If your 23 y/o daughter is already making $200K a year and this issue is her biggest problem, I think she is going to be fine.

Regards

halamadrid, The app is dead. They did the second pull while we were on a long hold and it proved fruitless.

NYC big law scale is 190K + bonus for first years. Its lots of hours but a good gig if you can get it.

I'll ask what seems obvious to me: why haven't you and your daughter pressed Chase to get the AU card reported to the bureaus? I'm an AU on some of my wife's cards (and vice versa), all of which are reported.

I'm sure many here would love to know how to convince Chase to NOT report AU.

Chase typically won't approve people that have under 1 year of credit history in their own name. I too find it surprising that they didn't report her AU card, though honestly I'm not sure how much that would have helped her odds of approval regardless of income.

roundtree, That is exactly what I just did. Called the Freedom card number and was sent directly to the credit department. The gentleman was very good. He quickly could tell it was never reported and the reason he gave was my daughter's address on file was the same as the billing address. Seemed pretty weak to me. All he needed was her current address and he said it would be reported today and would show up in three to five days on the credit report. In the past my daughter was also an AU on my wife's card and I assume that wasn't reported either. My daughter hasn't lived at the billing/my home address in over six years.

Probably should have insisted on the recon guy calling the credit department about the AU status while I was on the conference call. He just wasn't very cooperative.

Now do we want to call recon again next week or just go elsewhere?

Recon would have to pull again to see the updated status. You might be able to ask them to pull the third bureau which they haven’t pulled yet. That assumes they reported to that one, but would at least only leave one pull per bureau. They may not be able to pull from a specific bureau, but worth asking. I would wait more than the 3-5 days though. Maybe give it a full 7 instead.

Is she signed up for one of the free sites like credit karma? Good place to start to see what accounts are reported. But don’t have her sign up until the 7 days have passed as you only get one update per week, and the initial signup would be that first weekly pull.

Does the firm not have an arrangement with a bank that will issue cards to newly hired associates?

At the end of the day the bank is a business and they will look out for themselves first. They have nothing against you or your daughter. Even with solid income, a low score or no history will result in denial especially with Chase. As someone mentioned Chase is not the ideal 'first' account. You can try Discover or Cap1 and I bet after a year of on time payments she will get approved for Chase.

Ok to end this my daughter told me she had a 746 score and wanted to know which Chase card to start with. She had been on one of our "free" two week cruises paid for by Chase and knew we had received great value from their cards. I never expected anything other than an auto-approval. Maybe we should have researched it better, but her older sister with a lower income was within the past year auto-approved for both the Freedom and United Explorer cards. Now that I think of it, her sister did have a Discover card and an auto lease payment so that must have made the difference.

I got my pseudo "pound of flesh" by selling my JPM stock this morning. It was a good day as the bank stocks were up with Goldman and BA reporting decent earnings. But those earnings were mostly based on a 10 year treasury yielding 50 basis points higher. With credit spreads tightening and the yield curve now pretty flat, banks will have a harder time making money by lending going forward. Anyway, I can rationalize that and smile about it and can always buy JPM back later when and if the stock price is lower.

Surprised to hear that Chase does not report Authorized users. I know that Amex always did when my kids were little and I have recommended to many friends that they add their kids to their Amex accounts as soon as they are allowed to. Back in the day they didn't have a minimum age. It's always funny when my oldest son pulls his credit (he is 40 now) and it says his oldest account was opened almost 38 years ago. :)

Same story for me and my SO/AU.

Chase has reported all my AUs (and me as an AU on wife's cards). When you signup an AU on a Chase personal card, they don't take the SSN number, so the reporting is simply by name & address -- maybe something was missed due to that?

creditscore.com will give you a free Experian report and score.

You can go to experian direct and get the score for free