Remember credit reporting diversity
 

Hello everyone,

I am posting to describe the situation I have just experienced, and hopefully it can help someone.

In July of 2013 I did my first round of applications for credit cards. I picked the Chase Marriott, Citi Hilton (no fee one), and the American Express HHonors (also no fee one). I chose those based on getting some hotel points and I liked the no fees on the two Citi cards for my first go.

These were not my first credit cards, but my first round of applications since learning about the points game. CreditKarma has me at about 765 and CreditSesame has me at about 800 right now -- of course these are not official scores though.

I applied a couple of weeks ago for the Southwest Premier Personal and Business. I was approved for the business card, but declined for the personal one. I called the reconsideration line, and was informed that the specialist to whom I was speaking could not approve a new card because of my exposure and that she would have to elevate it to a senior specialist. After ending the call I was thinking about it and realized she was talking about my total credit limit with Chase (Which is now $25,200 between my two Chase cards -- the Marriott and the Southwest Business card).

I decided to call back and see if I could have them reduce the limit of one or both of my current Chase cards to make room for the card instead of them elevating to try and add more total limit. The specialist said he would see what he could do. When he came back, he informed me that he would be unable to approve me for the personal card because of the number of new credit cards I applied for in the past six months. He mentioned the two new cards from Chase that I have, one from American Express, and one from Citi.

Unfortunately there was nothing more I could do at this time and I thanked him for his time. They wanted to see more usage and time on those new accounts.

Once I got off the phone, I thought about it a little and remembered reading about trying to diversify to which agencies your hard pulls were going. Unfortunately I cannot remember where my pulls went for the Citi and Amex card, but if they did indeed go to Equifax (the agency noted in my decline letter), then I would have had 5 total pulls on Equifax in the last 6 months. Perhaps that is too much.

I was not cautious about which agencies my applications were using to obtain my data yet because I was only planning on doing maybe 6 - 8 applications in my first year or so of trying the points game so I didn't think it would matter. In any case, remember to think about which agencies your cards will check for your credit reports! I will pay more attention to this now -- failure to do so has cost me a hard credit pull with nothing to show for it.

I will try again for the Southwest Personal card maybe sometime between April and July -- whenever the 50,000 point offer is going in that time frame.

Any thoughts? Input?

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps someone to avoid thinking the way I did for my first year of applications :P

Chase has a limit of 2 CCs in the first 6 months for new customers as the rep told you. This is the reason they rejected your 3rd application, not the number of hard inquiries.

If they're looking at what accounts have been opened, the accounts show up on all 3 agencies so it doesn't matter which is used for the application pull.

Oh, interesting. The rep didn't indicate clearly to me that particular policy. I thought it was the hard inquiries since he also mentioned the Citi and Amex cards on my report.

This is actually very interesting. If that is indeed the policy, at what point do you think it is safe for me to apply for my third Chase card? If I waited until April or after do you think that's a safe time, or should I wait more until like June or July?

Are you sure on this? I got 3 cards with Chase within the first 2 months of my first card.

9/3/13
10/16/13
10/16/13

What's your oldest account and AAoA on your report?

Try using secure message. I had a similar situation happen in the past where they flat out denied me. I sent a secure message form my existing account with all of the information of the application and asking for a supervisor to look at it.

I also stated that I would be willing to shift my line from another card and how I was looking forward to the benefits of that specific card. 24 hours later I checked my online account and the new card showed up. They shifted existing credit from another card.

I would definitely try this if you are out of other options.

I'm not sure if you were directing that question to me or the person claiming Chase's policy.

My oldest account is 7 yrs 1 mo and AAoA 3 yrs 10 mos.

is it possible you snuck those two cards you opened on 10/16 through on the same day, then getting around that "no more than two" policy?

are you sure about that? I applied for the Chase United card back in October, Chase Freedom in December, and then CSP about 2 weeks after that and was instantly approved for all three and they were only maybe 2 or 3 months apart.

When I first got chase credit cards, I got 3 in 4months. 1st. one personal and one biz on same day. 4 mo. later a personal card.

who knows why he got rejected.

I also have never heard of this policy until reading your post… can you link to your source?