Credit Cards

[inquring_minds]

I requested a CLI from Amex today and was declined.  Amex says that there have been too many requests for credit within the last six months. 

I HAVEN"T APPLIED FOR ANY CREDIT SINCE DECEMBER.

I spoke with a rep in the CLI dept of Amex and she indicates that SOFT inquiries are counted and have impacted their decision. 

How can this be?  I am monitoring my own credit report (I use TrueCredit) and pull weekly?  Have I caused myself harm?

[WhirledPeasPlease]

Oh boy...  this sounds familiar.

[athensguy]

She lied to you, or at least was mistaken. A lot of reps don't seem to know what a soft or hard pull really is.

[inquring_minds]

Can I / Should I ask Experian to delete the soft inquiries?

[smallfry]

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inquring_minds wrote:

Can I / Should I ask Experian to delete the soft inquiries?

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You need a Papal dispensation for that I'm afraid.

[inquring_minds]

This is **##%%!!  CRAP!

What's the point in credit monitoring if your going to be penalized for pulling your own report!

[fevmlo]

Wait... can they even SEE your softs? Why would they be able to? Surely they'd have to deny virtually everyone on the planet, including those who have never checked their own credit scores, just on the grounds that they've had a regular softing from Capital One in order to spam them with offers for cards they might well already have. Softs happen for all kinds of reasons.... wait up, AmEx themselves soft all their customers roughly every 5 seconds, are they going to deny based on their own obsessive-compulsive checking of your account?!

VERY confused, here! What's the point in keeping inqs to a minimum if they're going to slap you for having too many inqs regardless?!

[fevmlo]

Have AmEx developed some new theory that anyone who monitors their own credit has a good chance of having an X% higher score than those who don't, and will also know only to ask for more credit when their scores are (perhaps artificially) inflated, and therefore blah blah blah? ie, if you check your credit regularly, you are BAD!!?? As in, trying to pull the wool over their eyes, or something...??

[inquring_minds]

DITTO! - This is what Experian is saying:

Inquiries Shared Only With You

You may not have initiated the following inquiries, so you may not recognize each source. We report these requests to you only as a record of activities, and we do not include any of these requests on credit reports to others.

We offer credit information about you to those with a permissible purpose, for example to:

• other creditors who want to offer you preapproved credit;
• an employer who wishes to extend an offer of employment;
• a potential investor in assessing the risk of a current obligation;
• Experian Consumer Assistance to process a report for you;
• your current creditors to monitor your accounts (date listed may reflect only the most recent request).

These inquiries do not affect your credit score.

[UpUpUp]

Call back and talk to someone else. That's ridiculous.