Denied…
3rd November 2005
Somewhat surprising… Both of the credit cards I applied for were denied… (Citi and Chase) Both were due to my bankruptcy back in 2000 and some related judgments which occurred in 1999. I find this interesting since my credit score is a healthy 749 now (and will likely rise into the 760-770’s again once we pay off the 0% card in late December/early January.) I also have a couple of inquiry’s dropping off of my report this month. My peak score was 773 back in August.
In any case it appears that even an older bankruptcy can be a scarlet letter…
No matter… I’ve added myself to my wife’s Discover Card so the purchase rewards will keep flowing. It has a pretty high limit and has no balance so this has the added bonus of dropping my credit line usage below 30%. I also have the CapitalOne No Hassle Rewards card coming soon.
I’ll try applying again in a few months when the judgments drop off my credit report. The delinquent account history from that dark period of my life will also be dropping off soon. The bankruptcy will be there for four or five more years but it’s affects should be minimal now (it’s been > 5 years). Obviously it still has some effect though. 
For those of you who are interested, Citi pulled my report from Experian, Chase from Trans Union. I use Experian’s Credit Expert to keep an eye on my credit. It costs $9.95 a month and gets you alerts as well as a credit report and FICO score monthly. For an additional $19.95 they will pull your Trans Union and Equifax reports as well and display them in a pretty convenient format. I normally don’t do this, especially now that I can pull a free report once per year. Experian also has a pretty cool FICO score simulator which prepopulates with your current data and allows you to adjust a few factors (total credit line usage, number of inquiries, bankruptcy, whether you have a mortgage and whether you have delinquent accounts) to see what the effects will be.
December 6th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Hi there!
Here’s a link to a funny animation just out today! It’s about ways the credit card companies suck our wallets dry–with something we can do about it. Everyone should see this one before whipping out the plastic for holiday shopping!
Click on the link below to see the animation:
www.CreditCardReform.org
After you watch it, you can take action to stop abusive credit card practices and empower consumers to manage their finances and reduce debt burdens. Please show your support for S. 499 (the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act”) and H.R. 3492 (the “Consumer Credit Card Protection Act”). While the nation’s spending is at its holiday peak, I hope you will help us get the word out about www.creditcardreform.org and help us build the support these bills need to move in 2006.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:59 am
I definitely understand your frusteration; especially since you have a good credit score!
But you may want to consider the time of year you applied for these credit cards. I noticed your post began on November 3. If you applied for these credit cards in late Septemeber, you may have hit a HIGH VOLUME period. Since many people try to apply for new credit cards prior to the Holidays, credit card companies often lower their approval rates to limit the number of new accounts.
During the summertime, approval guidelines seem to loosen. So you may want to try again then.
But it sounds like you’re on the right track either way… so keep it up!
Jeremy
WOW! Credit Cards
June 24th, 2007 at 8:19 am
[…] Inquiries Another thing to watch out for is the number of inquiries on your report that will be displayed to potential creditors (call hard inquiries). Inquiries are typically recored on your credit report for two years. Not only do these impact your credit score but having too many indicates to lenders that you may be getting deeper into debt than you can handle (even if you are or not.) If you have a lot of recent inquiries, you would be best to wait until some of them drop off your report before proceeding. I’ve got more inquiries than I’d like due to the process of setting up a new household. For whatever reason, the phone company (Verizon) and electric company (Ameren) both made hard inquiries to Transunion. I’ve also got two inquiries related to our mortgage (pre-approval and another from the mortgage company we ended up using) as well as a handful of older inquiries from last year’s attempt to apply for some cards. I will probably not wait the full two years it will take for these to drop off my report and it may have some affect on my applications but I think I am in good enough shape to do what I want. […]