If you’ve ever applied for a credit card and been denied or not instantly approved, you should have called the card issuers reconsideration line. When people first call these lines they can be a bit nervous so we’ve compiled a bunch of tips below to help you get through.
[Read: Reconsideration Direct Phone Numbers]
They’ll always ask basic “verification” details before probing further.
These verification details are used to make sure you didn’t lie about anything on your application (e.g, your income). Make sure you always tell them the same details, they usually ask the for the following: full name, last four digits of your social security, annual income, length of employment, job description, date of birth, address.
- Call promptly. If you wait more than a month before calling the reconsideration line you’ll need to submit a new application which will result in another hard credit pull. If you’re denied for a card you should call the reconsideration line as soon as possible.
- Have a valid reason for wanting the card. You really just want to look for a unique feature the card has (they’ll usually be listed and in bold font on the application page for you). Some basic examples below:
- Good: I want the Barclays Arrival because I regularly travel, but don’t want to be tied down to a specific airline or hotel chain.
- Bad: I really like the sign up bonus.
- Good: I want the Chase Freedom because I like flexibility of getting cash back and I also love the fact it has 5% rotating categories.
- Bad: I want the Chase Slate because I want to do a balance transfer so I can park my extra money in a checking account and then immediately pay off it off when the interest free period ends.
- Good: I regularly travel to Europe so I need an EMV card, as most card readers there require it.
- Be Polite. Â This should really be a rule of life and anybody who has worked in customer service knows it’s the truth. If you’re polite, kind and courteous the customer service representative is going to do their best to help you out. If you’re rude, obnoxious and make threats they will go out of their way to make sure you’re not approved.
- Know both your credit score & details of your credit report. You should really know what your credit score is before you apply for a credit card, different cards require different scores. For example, premium cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred & Barclays Arrival will require a credit score of at least 720+. There are plenty of free ways to find out your FICO score. You can also get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus once per year from annualcreditreport.com (a government supported site). Knowing both your credit score and report and having them accessible during a reconsideration call arms you with knowledge and avoids embarassing mistakes (there’s nothing worse than being on the line to reconsideration only to find out your credit report contains mistakes which have prevented you from being approved.
- Avoid closing existing accounts/cards with the bank before you apply for the new card. If you close a card with the same issuer before applying for a new card you lose any leverage you might’ve been able to use to your advantage. For example some cards require a minimum credit limit to be opened, if you already have an existing line of credit with that bank you could offer to move some of that limit onto the new card.
- Be flexible. In some cases you might have to be a bit flexible and negotiate a bit. For example, if the customer service representative says that you weren’t approved because you have too much available credit with their bank already – you can offer to reduce or move a credit limit from an existing card.
- If you have a banking relationship with the card issuer, use it to your advantage. If you’ve already held a card with the card issuer before or have one of their other products (e.g a checking account) then you can use this to your advantage. For example:
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- They say “Your credit reports show three late payments”, your reply could be “I’ve held card X with your bank for six years and never had any late payments. The reason I was late with those cards was that the card issuer had a problem with their Bill Pay feature causing me to be late. I’m currently contesting that negative item with them”.
- They say “Your income is too low for this card”, you say “I have a checking account with you guys, as you can see I currently have $10,000 in savings. I always live well below my means and am extremely frugal”.
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Will any bank let you call reconsideration before the denial reason letter arrives in the mail? So far I’ve been told to wait on that letter with Citi and Bank of America.
Applied for the Citi Premier 60k online offer and was denied. Color me surprised – have a score of above 780 and haven’t applied for a card in over 18 months. When I received the letter of denial, it stated “The credit privileges on your existing accounts are currently restricted”. I’ve had the Citi Prestige for over 3 years and it is in active use, so this clearly made no sense.
Called the recon line. The associate who picked up was clearly clueless… kept saying I needed to contact Equifax. Not once, over 5 times – and that there is nothing they could do. I finally asked if I could talk to a supervisor. The supervisor was able to do a manual review and approve me for the card..
When I asked what the denial reason meant, I was told that if you had a previous account closed etc, the system doesn’t behave as required and issues a denial.
TLDR: Ask for a manual review if you see the “The credit privileges on your existing accounts are currently restricted” message.
Just called Barclays to be reconsidered for the Aviator Red card and was approved on the spot after originally being rejected for having opened too many cards during the last 24 months. 5/24 and 760+. After providing my information the call went something like this:
Operator: I’m sorry to report that your application has been rejected due to you having opened too many cards over the past 24 months. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Me: I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything that you can do to help me be reconsidered for this card?
O: Let me see what I can do. Please hold
…
Operator comes back and asks me a series of questions involving 1) confirming income reported on application, 2) what my job is and how long I’ve been there, 3) what my past job was and how long I was there, 4) the reason I’ve opened multiple cards over the past two years, 5) the reason I have a CC balance, how much I pay on it monthly, and what I use those accounts for.
The first three questions were easy enough, and I answered #4 by saying that I have a good relationship with ____ Bank and like to apply for cards when pre-approved, and #5 by saying that I use those cards for regular monthly expenses, and that I currently make the minimum payments because of a special 0% APR promotion but I plan on paying the full amount when the promotion expires (I emphasized this last point). Note that I remained friendly the whole time with plenty of ‘thank you’s’.
Operator instantly approves me for the card.
DP: Credit score in 720+ range but thinner file. Used to have $10k+ credit line as an AU on the deprecated Chase Sapphire. I didn’t know as much about credit then as I do now, so I closed the account after two years, and I also let my own Chase account (which I’d had since it was Washington Mutual) also close (it closed automatically, I guess due to inactivity) during an intense several years of severe illness.
Felt like I should have applied for the CSP, Freedom, Ink etc. first recently, as my credit score improved a LOT, but I didn’t, but now I feel like I would have gotten rejected anyway (because I did apply after a couple of other inquiries (which I was approved for *immediately*), and still got rejected lol. The CSR told me “they don’t look at your number, but what’s on the report and how you use their accounts.” They kept telling me, “Yeah, we’re a historically more conservative bank.”
Also, they’ve been my only rejections since I started building my credit in a relatively short amount of time. Damn.
Welp, time for some new ideas…..
I have a 730 credit score but thin file. I keep getting declined because of this. What card will accept me?
Many secured cards. There is a secured card called OpenSky that will approve literally anyone. First though I would apply for a Citi or Discover secured card, as they tend to “graduate” to a regular unsecured card after a while.
What cards do you currently have and for how long? Also, how many hard inquires are on your report?
Barclay business recon – rejected for too many credit inquiries in 12months. any ideas on how to convince them to approve my app?
Thank you so much! This was super helpful. Didn’t get automatically approved for the Barclay Arrival card, called today, and was approved on the phone.
How long did you wait before calling?
I just applied and got the “Your application is being reviewed.” and it can take 10 days.
Call immediately? Or wait to hear from them?
I’ve found that in this situation these companies can be extremely slow to respond, and sometimes once they do respond it is too late and now it is too late to send supporting documents which they could have used.
But I don’t know if 10 minutes after submitting online is too fast and may cause suspicion of some sort as that must be unusual.
What is the best time to call ? As soon as the online application is rejected or Wait until the rejection letter comes ?
A Chase CSR just told me they do not transfer credit limit from one card to another. One week ago Ive applied for IHG (approved 8.8k) and Freedom 5% the next day declined. Called chase reconsideration line and was told that i have too many CC with them (I only have SLATE and now IHG)
I’m planning on calling again tomorrow. Should i escalate and ask for a supervisor? Any advice? Thank you!
DP: Wife has CSR, Freedom, and Prime Rewards with Chase totalling $70k; When they approved her for CSR it was with a lower limit. She wanted to increase limit so she could spend all reimbursable work travel on CSR and they definitely allowed her to transfer some credit limit from her CF to CSR for a total of $37k.
Can a reconsideration call be used for a Credit line increase that was not approved?
I’d imagine so