wow! They are quoting cards from last 2 years?? If they are going to go back to 2 years I think most of us will have to stop applying for barclays cards. Barclays would be as good as dead for most of us :(

People have reported that Barclays recon is not easy. Do you want to risk inquiries on all 3 bureaus with a low chance of success? Can you tell us more about your barclays relationship? How long is your oldest with them and your usage?

The best course of action might be to stop playing the game for a year or even two. That should put you in great shape for the next *truly* great offer. Just a thought.

Just another data point to say that my wife and I (well, me) have been denied on Barclays card applications as well due to number of new cards/etc. I am itching to hit this card and I'll probably do an app for it during a weak moment of not wanting to wait longer but have a strong suspicion I'll be declined.

In the neighborhood of 5-8 new cards over the past year ourselves (wife and I each... (well, me)). More than sufficient income and FICO scores.

Data point: I was approved for the time by Barclay's after 5 previously unsuccessful attempts in the last 3 years. I got the platinum version with a measely $2000 credit limit. It is the lowest limit I have received in the last 15 years. But I did verify that I will get the 20K miles after first purchase and another 30K after $5000 in spend. Citi, Chase, BofA, Cap1 and AMEX have yet to deny any of my approximately 30 apps in the the same 3 year span. FICO in the 770's. I guess I should feel fortunate.

The reports here are very consistent. Barclays does NOT like to see 8, 10 or more new credit card applications in the past 12 (or maybe eve 24) months. Your credit score/history, your income, or your experience with other credit card issues does not seem to make any difference. They just do not like to see lots of credit card sign ups, period, end of story.

This must make bloggers cringe in pain.

It also makes me cringe in pain as I waited 6 months just to get hold of more barclays cards. I did get the 2x40k US air cards so I should count my blessings.

I think the lessons here are...

1. If you're going try and game the system, be sure you get your Barclays card(s) early in your app-o-rama history. If you're like many here, and you've been routinely churning chase, citi & amex cards with positive results, then you turn your attention to Barclays, you'll probably be OK getting your first and maybe your second card (of any type) from Barclays, but getting each subsequent card from Barclays will become increasingly unlikely or impossible. Getting a 2nd or 3rd copy of the same kind of Barclays card that you have also seems to crank up the difficulty a bit more.

2. If you've been churning other cards, you can try to "cool it" for a while in hopes of making approval more likely for your next barclay card, but you're probably going to need to be more patient than you think. Sitting it out (or "only getting one or two cards") during a few months doesn't look like it will move Barclays much - they seem to be scrutinizing your record going back 12 or maybe 24 months and counting the cards you've opened. So "sitting it out" may require sitting it out for a full year or more (which many of us find difficult).

3. It just may not be worth it. Yeah, you could check out for 18-24 months and let your credit report completely cool down to the point where Barclays is happy to extend a new card to you, but during that time you would be forgoing a lot of lucrative offers from other issuers. How badly do you really want that Barclays card?

4. Barclays ain't Chase (or Amex or Citi or BoA). They seem to operate quite differently, and you definitely should not expect your previous experience with other issuers to predict how Barclays will behave.

This is not an exact science. There are exceptions (both ways). We're all just making guesses. But I think the above points do seem to be generally true for most people.

thanks for recapping. I've started spending a lot on my US Air cards. So I'm going to try and get 1 Barclays card. I don't value a TU inquiry that much and I'll lock down EQ/EX when I apply.

Trying to give this a go for my wife because she was just approved for a Delta & AirTran (guess it's turning into a mini-AOR) and for the life of me I can't submit the application... without a miles & more account, one can't apply - and trying to set one up it blows up with a "please contact our help desk".

Anyone else experience this?

edited: I was able to sign her up via Chrome. Also, I didn't notice the second link with the lower spend ($2500 vs $5000) so just an fyi for anyone attempting.

I applied for the Barclay Arrival card in May of this year. At that time, I had 10 new card in the past 12 months. I was not instantly approved, but when I called in, the rep mentioned that they appreciated the spend I was putting on the Barclay Sallie Mae card (~$1,000 per month for close to 9 months). That might have been one of the reasons I was approved since he did ask about all of the inquiries on my credit report.

Got denied for the card with the reason being, "You did not respond within the time period specified on the offer. Subsequently, the offer has expired."

Has anyone got this before? I'm pretty sure I used a direct link from barclay's website. No Credit pull occurred.

I will say this, after getting 3 instant approvals for various airline cards for the wife (turned into a mini-AOR) I tried this one with her and she had a denial listed on the check application status the next day. That has never happened, usually it takes a good 5+ business days before I see an approval or rejection. I wouldn't be suprised if the denial letter cites what you're saying. (I'll make note if it does, otherwise just assume it was b/c of too much new card activity because I bet that's what it is!)

Data Point: I have applied for 3 cards over past 3 months and pulled the trigger on this one before it expires. I was instantly approved with a generous credit line. I had a US card a year or so ago with a paltry $2,000 credit line...so was suprised to see they increased that nearly 6x. Barclays is picky to say the least and you never know what their mood will be the day you apply...

Same experience as many others- have two US cards (last one instantly approved in march of this year), and fairly active churner (9 new cards in past year that they could see). Denied at first call to recon, and wasn't prepared for the level of skepticism I faced- the analyst gave me a bit attitude and pretty openly accused me of churning. Tried calling again, but prepared more for the call, and even escalated to a supervisor (who was at least cordial)- still no dice even after threatening to close my two open cards.

Seems like we only have 2 bullets to use with Barclays, so choose your offers wisely.

Has anyone been able to get two of these cards yet? Applied for this on 5.8.13. Met spend. Got all 55,000 miles posted to my M&M account. Paid card off. Any way I can get 2 at the same time like with the US card?