CC BOA/Amex denied my app for info not in my CR but 15 and 4 years ago in BOA mortgage file!

[Anonymous]

I have 5,000 balance on a C1 CC.  The interest rate is currently 19.9%  I searched for a new card company to transfer my balance to after being declined a lower rate at Capitol One.  With a FICO score of 717 I applied for a BOA/Amex rewards card.  I was shocked when they denied it!  The reason the CS rep gave me was that they use all sorts of information obtained from many sources and not just a FICO score.  When pressed she cited a late payment from a music store where I rented a violin in 2006, which does not appear on the CR I just ordered today from TU and EX!  She also had knowledge of things that only my mortgage company had--which coincidentally is BOA!  specifically a payment made 20 days late the month my dad died that doesn't show up on my CR because I talked with Countrywide at the time and showed GW and sent a copy of the death certificate!

Then she asked me if I have had financial hardship in the past....I replied, not the past 10 years.  She had access to my BK and then my app declined.  Can they do this?  I thought you had a statute of limitations for being...Messed up?

[Anonymous]

It's unfortunate, but I don't see why Bank of America couldn't use any information it legally obtained to make a decision.  There are some exceptions, like race, religion, etc. that are federally protected, but I can't see how any of that would apply.  Even if it were somehow made illegal to use old information or info from certain places, the bank could always just list random excuses like "too many inquiries, too much available credit already, too few accounts" or whatever it wanted.  It's not like you would be able to prove differently.  At least this way you get the true reasons.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Can they do this?  I thought you had a statute of limitations for being...Messed up?

---

When it comes to money -- well, think of it this way, if you had a friend who did not pay you back money you had loaned them, what would your statute of limitations be on loaning to them again in the future be? 

Having said that, it seems to me that lenders in general (all execpt the Navy Credit Union), are becoming more conservative. 

[crunching_numbers]

IMHO - stay away from BoA.  Try a different company. Only BoA has access to your private/non-CR information.

[RyVision]

---

@crunching_numbers wrote:

IMHO - stay away from BoA.  Try a different company. Only BoA has access to your private/non-CR information.

---

+ 100000000000

Anyone is better off just avoiding them for a while frankly.

[namvet]

You might want to get a copy of your Lexis Nexis report. 

[clocktick]

---

@crunching_numbers wrote:

IMHO - stay away from BoA.  Try a different company. Only BoA has access to your private/non-CR information.

---

Could you please elaborate on the above in red?  Thanks!

[crunching_numbers]

---

@clocktick wrote:

---

@crunching_numbers wrote:

IMHO - stay away from BoA.  Try a different company. Only BoA has access to your private/non-CR information.

---

Could you please elaborate on the above in red?  Thanks!

---

Because of the information BoA collected during the mortgage process, they have access to previously obtained old information (about JD11) that another company would not have.  I did not mean to imply that they had information available about ALL of us.  Unless of course, you also have or had  a mortgage with BoA, in which case they probably also kept all the information about you too.  Am I the only one who is very uncomfortable thinking that old bad information that should be dead and burried can resurface with an old mortgage file?? That is NOT FAIR.

[LS2982]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

It's unfortunate, but I don't see why Bank of America couldn't use any information it legally obtained to make a decision.  There are some exceptions, like race, religion, etc. that are federally protected, but I can't see how any of that would apply.  Even if it were somehow made illegal to use old information or info from certain places, the bank could always just list random excuses like "too many inquiries, too much available credit already, too few accounts" or whatever it wanted.  It's not like you would be able to prove differently.  At least this way you get the true reasons.

---

+1

[Creditaddict]

Apply for Citi, they have 18 or 21 month BT at 0%.

BofA is terrible over the last 5 years.