I just wanted to let everyone know about another success story to offer all my fellow BK brothers and sisters hope and faith!
I recently booked a flight with United to NYC and saw the awesome benefits having a Chase United Plus Explorer Visa Signature Card brings ... 1 free check in bag, priority boarding, united club access and of course miles! If you followed any of my posts ... only have a handful ... you know I've been wanting a Visa Signature card, it's the one last card I do not have. I heard how hard and unfriendly Chase is on BKs but figured (1) It's been 8 years now! So all my negatives are gone except the BK. (2) I have several other cards now ... Barclay AMEX $4K, Best Buy MC $1500, HSBC/Capital One $2K, Target $1K ... and been perfect on them (3) I have a Chase Card. A rewards MC with a huge $9400 CL and have been perfect on it for a good 6 plus years. (I was lucky. This was a WAMU card then Chase took them over. I was scared to death they'd cancel me, especially since I burned Chase in my BK, but no, they kept me on. I'm 99.99% sure I could not have got this card with a direct application) (4) My scores as you see in my sig are strong.
So I took the plunge and applied online. Ended up getting that "30 Day" message. Damn! Well this was Saturday night so I waited until Monday morning and called the recon number (thanks to this board). Gave them my info and asked about status and the CSR said sorry you have been declined and you will receive a letter in up to 10 business days explaining why. I then asked her if I could offer any info to have them reconsider. She took a moment and came back to tell me it was due to my BK. I then mentioned it's been 8 years, I've been perfect since and in fact I have a Chase card now that she could confirm and look up the perfect history on for over 6 years. I told her I really wanted this card because I fly United and felt the perks were excellent so I did not need a high credit limit and I would even be open to having them pull some of my CL from my Chase Rewards card to the United card. She had me hold and got back to me and just asked me a question about my BK, I gave her my reasons and she noted a job/career change is a "good" reason to explain a BK. She took that info, asked for my income and initially said she would make a request to move over $2K from my Rewards card to seed this United one, a moment later, she came back and said "You know I'm going to go ahead and recommend approval for $2K straight without touching your other Rewards card." She told me because of the BK it still has to go through another check from a credit account specialist and she could not instantly approve it but she's going to recommend approval. Promising but obviously not a sure thing. I thanked her and asked how long would the decision take and she said 24 to 48 hours. Well I called back 2 days later, first the automatic line and I still get the pending message, Damn! I then call the recon line, tell them I'm inquiring on status, the rep looks me up (SS, address, birthdate) and then gives me the AWESOME NEWS!!! She says "You've been approved for $2K." She says it will take about 2 weeks for the card to reach you. She notes because it's a United Card they're waiting on the my frequent flyer account to link with the card and a credit card number to be generated. Sweet!! Hallelujah! I'm stoked! I get a premium card from a real tough bank and it's a Visa Signature! Can't wait! I'll probably wait a couple of months and ask for CL increase too!
So to everyone, a success, hope and faith story for you! Believe, be diligent, be patient, but it will happen if you want it to! I may garden for a bit, but I'm feeling good, I'm thinking now I might drop some of my smaller cards that have annual fees (Best Buy MC) and replace them with no fee ones. I can't believe I'm now in a position to be picky that way!! If I can get a Chase card directly from them, is there any card I can't get?! Might need to do a little recon but it was worth it and not a big deal!
Next up ... 2 more years and the BK is off too!!!
Current Score: EQUIFAX 706
Congrats!! 
