- Day 1 – What’s Travel Hacking all about?
- Day 2 – Getting Organized
- Day 3 – Types of Miles and Points
- Day 4 – Credit Card Strategy
- Day 5 – Southwest Companion Pass
- Day 6 – Business Credit Cards
- Day 7 – Hotel Free Night Sign-Up Bonuses & Annual Certificates
- Day 8 – How to Apply & Track
Were you approved instantly for your first credit card? If so congratulations!
If not, you probably got one of two other responses – Declined or Application Pending.
Application Pending
If you got an ‘Application Pending . . .’ response after your submitted the online application – don’t worry. Most of the time you don’t need to do anything further. Your new credit card will just show up in the mail. The bank may just be verifying additional information.
If you can’t resist the urge to wait it out and want to find out why you were not instantly approved, you can call the bank’s reconsideration line (numbers below).
I usually just wait it out a response by mail – either the card shows up in the mail or a rejection letter is sent. But I have called on occasion to inquire. My call goes something like this:
“Hi, I just submitted an online application for Chase XXXX card and wanted to see if there was any other information you needed in order to process my application?”
The agent will then look up your application and give you some information. On one occasion, the agent just verified my address and said I was approved for the card.
On another occasion, I apparently had the maximum amount of credit from other credit card the bank was willing to extend to me. The agent said they could approve me for the card if they were allowed to reduce my credit limit on another card (basically transferring my credit line from one card to a new card). Of course I said yes and they were able to finish processing the application and approved me.
Declined
If you were declined, there is no downside to calling the bank and asking them to reconsider their decision. But you should be prepared, here are a few tips when making the call:
- From an earlier lesson, you should have an account at CreditKarma.com – have the site up and be logged in before you call so you can quickly reference how many accounts you currently have open, your approximate credit score, and any recent inquiries.
- Be polite and friendly.
- Make sure you have a reason why you want the credit card and don’t say “because of the sign-up bonus”. Banks are looking for customers for a long relationship – they lose money when someone only signs up for the bonus then quickly closes the card – it’s the reason why Chase implemented the 5/24 rule and American Express has a ‘once per lifetime’ bonus. A few reasons you can use:
I moved to a new city and airline XXX flies there most (if applying for an airline credit card)
I have a vacation coming up and we are staying at Hyatt and thought it would be good to get a Hyatt credit card to earn points
My friend has this credit card and told me all about the perks of the card, (s)he really likes the card and thought I would get good use out of it too
I have an overseas trip coming up soon and want a credit card with no foreign transaction fees
- Remind the bank that you are already a savings/checking/mortgage customer if you already have one of those accounts with the bank.
- Offer to lower your existing credit limit on a card in order to be approved for this new card. Or offer to close an existing credit card in order to be approved for the new card.
- If all of the above fail, your last option is to ask if there is a more senior level person who has the authority to review and reconsider the application.
If you still are declined, always ask what the reason why you were denied so you can reapply at a later date.
Reconsideration Lines
Banks don’t necessarily publish their reconsideration lines to the public, so they aren’t easy to find. Below is a list from various websites including Flyertalk. You can try these first – please let me know if any of them don’t work so I can update this list.
American Express
- 877-399-3083 – personal and business for new accounts
- 866-314-0237 – personal and business for existing account holders
Bank Of America
- 888-503-6092 or 888-231-6262 – for personal credit cards
- 800-601-3923 or 866-224-7803 or 800-354-0401 or 866-50507481 – for personal credit cards
- 866-458-8805 or 800-601-3923 – connects directly to a credit analyst for business credit cards
- 877-721-9405 – application status press #3
Barclay
- 866-408-4064
Capital One
- 800-625-7866
Chase
- 888-609-7805 – reconsideration
- 888-871-4649 – reconsideration
- 888-270-2127 – reconsideration personal
- 800-453-9719 – reconsideration business
- 888-245-0625 – reconsideration
- 800-432-3117 – application status
Citibank
- 800-763-9795 or 800-695-5171 – credit department
- 866-606-2787 – account analyst
- If you don’t have luck with the phone numbers, you can also try mailing a letter to: CitiBank Executive Review Dept; PO Box 6000, Sioux Falls, SD 57117
Discover
- 888-676-3695
US Bank
- 800-947-1444
- 800-685-7680
Wells Fargo
- 866-412-5956
- 800-967-9521
US Bank
- 800-947-1444 – reconsideration
- 800-685-7680 – reconsideration
Need to Knows
- If not instantly approved and your application is ‘pending’ – just wait it out – usually you will get approved without doing anything
- If you are declined – there is no harm in calling the bank’s reconsideration line to try and turn the denial into an approval
- Be prepared when calling a bank’s reconsideration line
