dljuna

Question for an alaska newb.

I just got approved for CSR and IHG last week. Do i need to wait 90 days for alaska? Or can I double apply for 2 alaskas right now?

beachmiles

I have been trying for days to have an online chat with B of A. Want to reduce credit limit. I know others have done it. Any tricks to draw them to me?

PowerMan572

Called in for my SO. Got transferred to the fraud department. Same thing happened to me, but they just verified my identity by asking for drivers license number and couple security questions from public records. Afterwards I was instantly approved.

For my SO they did the same. Got transferred to the fraud department, but at the end the lady was way more grumpy than the first guy. She explained that when you apply for a credit card, they pull your credit and she sees a lot of inquiries. She's like "you need to explain this to me and in detail!" I talked about maximizing my spending categories (which is actually legit reason) but also the free baggage since we fly Delta, American, Alaska, etc.

She was like "thanks for the explanation. I will submit your application for second review."

So does second review mean yet another set of eyes has to review his app? This is not looking too good The more eyes involved, the less likely it is to be approved.

I don't have any experience with BofA and their fraud department or their "second review" process. What are your thoughts?

yztim

Sorry, thought you saw the earlier one. No open accounts with B of A at all, but did just close the one 8/23. But even if they count that credit, only about $3000

tassojunior

There should be no relation between churning/applying for the personal and biz cards since one is BOA and the other is FIA. Do people actually have data points that say there are links?

The personal card seems to be plyable to multiple approvals on the same day. I got 3 in one day exactly 1 year ago. Have there been experiences of the same with the biz card?

nkp46

I have never applied any alaska cards before. I want to give it a try now. My question is:
it seems one can apply for multiple cards the same days. Is it better to apply for a personal card + 1 biz card, or 2 identical personal cards?
If I apply for two identical cards, will I get bonus from the second too?

philemer

Please review our wiki and you can also use our 'search' function.

yztim

[QUOTE=yztim;27143905]I cancelled the application when I called in to clear a ID verification because I was told it was a Platinum. The letter came today and is says "we are unable to off you credit on the terms you requested because you have sufficient credit available"; but none open ( I did close one 8/23 but it only had a $3000) limit. My total credit on experian says 101000 across all accounts.
I will call tomorrow and see if a supervisor can help, but if its cancelled don't want to reapply.

So I called today and they reopened the cancelled platinum app. It again came back at approval for $1200 limit. She said it was low because I have several closed accounts in the last year and those limits are somehow showing I have a lot of available credit?? I didn't make sense to me. She did then say I am at 3.6% utilization though?? The supervisor just said she could do nothing right now. For those that are getting 1 card every 3-4 months, do you have more than 6 inquiries in the last 6 months?

sdsearch

A tremendous amount of stuff has changed in the credit card churning world since 1 year ago. I would suggest not assuming that what worked one year ago still works today.

The consensus on personal cards today is that it's safe to apply for one 90+ days after the previous one.

sdsearch

Well, that makes a lot of sense to some of us.

See, if you cancel a card without lowering the credit limit first, it can take many months, in some cases (at other banks) maybe even multiple years, for the credit limit from the cancelled card to be "free'd up" for new card applications. (Don't ask why, but that's the way it is. Not just at BofA, but at lots of banks.)

That's why you should always lower the credit limit first (as soon as you can, but definitely at least before you cancel), and only cancel after the credit limit is low.

Credit limit that's lowered is made available to new card applications way faster than credit limit that was intact when the card was cancelled. (Credit limit lowering may still take weeks or even a couple months to have an effect on new card apps, but that's still a lot faster than just cancelling.)

For example, if you get approved for $17k, and you're only going to do the $1k minimum spend and not much else, even if you want to keep your utilization on the card to 30%, you could lower to $3500 or $4000 right after you get the card! That's why I mean by "as soon as you can": the sooner you lower the credit limit on an existing card, the more likely it will be available for your next application at the same bank, and if your initial limit is way more than you need, "as soon you can" can be "upon receiving the card"!

yztim

Thanks for that reminder. I would say the vast majority of cards I cancelled in the last 2 years had limits under $4000, but multiplied by say 10 cards thats a lot of credit (possibly) off the table. I will give it another 3-4 months and try again when definitely under 6 inquiries in 6 months.

deant

The other day my wife applied for an Alaska Air Business Card. Received a denial. However, in today's mail the official denial letter came. Instead of a straight denial, it had the following statement:

We reviewed your request and we weren't able to approva an unsecured credit card account. However, we have another option we'd like you to consider.
We can approve your application for a business credit card if you secure it with a Bank of America Certificate of Deposit (CD).

The letter also stated that she has an insufficient personal credit file. Her credit file is actually very long so it was just a "click the box" rejection.

Wondering if anyone else had heard of the approval based on opening a CD?

tassojunior

For Barclays I googled "Barclay Business Card Application Status" and the link came up. Probably same for BOA.

Thefirst

Thank you very much for this explanation. I had no idea that the CL was still visible to / taken into account by banks after the account was closed. This explains why I've had such a hard time being approved for a Personal Sig AS card for the last year or 2 (no sig approvals since June 2014 ). Although my CLs on BoA cards have never been very high (5k-7k max), I think my multiple AS Plat approvals (which were often immediately closed once the Sig upgrade was not an option) at 2-3k a pop have driven up my "extended credit" in the eyes of BoA. Will be conscious of this moving forward.

Does anyone know how long these closed accounts' CLs take to drop off from the bank's radar?

nkp46

Just applied my first AS card. CL is 17000, signature card.

In this case, if I apply again today, the chance to get signature will be low, right?
Can I call now to lower the credit limit? 17K is way too high and make the next application less possible to get signature.