Denied for Discover It Student

[JohnJohn1995]

Hey this is my first post so I'l try to be as informative as I can.

I applied recently today for the Discover It for Students and was at the online step to submit the proof of being a student documents, when I called them up to ask them more information (I start college in the fall). They ended up asking me a couple questions to see if they can give me a decision and ended up denying me and some of the reasons she said was the number of inquiries, the credit limits on my accounts and the credit history I think. I'l be waiting for a letter in the mail for the reasons, as well as the FICO score they used hopefully. I'm unsure about how to go about a recon. They sent an email for a recon with a co-applicant, but I have none.

My credit card history prior to submitting the application is basically this.

Local Credit Union: Individual, $250 limit, opened in 09/2013. $245 balance.

CareCredit: Individual, $1500 limit, opened in 04/2014. No balance.

Discover: Authorized User, $15,000 limit, opened in 07/1996. No balance.

All my Transunion personal info is valid and up to date.

Overall Utilization at 1%.

Hard Inquiries: 1 from T-Mobile in 01/2014, 2 from CareCredit (first one 12/2013 application wasn't found in the system for some reason, second one 03/2014 denied online, then approved on automated phone recon).

Have no other negative records or collections or anything like that.

[chalupaman]

That was basically what happened with me when I tried to get the Discover It Student card late last year except that it was for a lack of banking history. I just waited six months or so and had my FICO score generate and applied again and it was an instant approval that time. I'm curious about whether the cards you already have that aren't AU were instantly approved online or if they had to verify some stuff with you over the phone.

Maybe you should also get your credit union card balance much much lower. Maybe that's also part of the reason why you got denied.

[JohnJohn1995]

Local Credit Union was through a special program in my school where you take finance classes and they auto-approve you once done, with an unsecured limit, with no co-signer, and no hard inquiry. 

CareCredit only listed 'lack of income' as the reason for denial in the mail, and I punched in my income numbers (same income I listed in the Discover It Students app) through the automated phone recon and instantly approved for $1500.

[salek10]

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@JohnJohn1995 wrote:

Hey this is my first post so I'l try to be as informative as I can.

I applied recently today for the Discover It for Students and was at the online step to submit the proof of being a student documents, when I called them up to ask them more information (I start college in the fall). They ended up asking me a couple questions to see if they can give me a decision and ended up denying me and some of the reasons she said was the number of inquiries, the credit limits on my accounts and the credit history I think. I'l be waiting for a letter in the mail for the reasons, as well as the FICO score they used hopefully. I'm unsure about how to go about a recon. They sent an email for a recon with a co-applicant, but I have none.

My credit card history prior to submitting the application is basically this.

Local Credit Union: Individual, $250 limit, opened in 09/2013. $245 balance.

CareCredit: Individual, $1500 limit, opened in 04/2014. No balance.

Discover: Authorized User, $15,000 limit, opened in 07/1996. No balance.

All my Transunion personal info is valid and up to date.

Overall Utilization at 1%.

Hard Inquiries: 1 from T-Mobile in 01/2014, 2 from CareCredit (first one 12/2013 application wasn't found in the system for some reason, second one 03/2014 denied online, then approved on automated phone recon).

Have no other negative records or collections or anything like that.

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JohnJohn1995: 

Is your Discover IT actually reporting on your CR? I have read somewhere in this forum that sometimes Discover does not report AU since they don't even ask for SSN for AU... If that were the case then I think your balance on your CU card might throw off your UTIL and AAoA quite a bit.

[JohnJohn1995]

The Discover AU is actually a really old card, not an IT card. It is being reported on TU and EQ and the only thing that's keeping my overall utilization at a crazy low %% and my oldest account of almost 17 years, AAOA is around 6 years. 

This dilemma I was trying to apply for a Discover IT for Students as an individual. They didn't even mention my very old AU account with them.

[DieGo2SHAE]

This seems like a good place to ask given the OP's question; does being an AU on someone's account add to your own utilization and AAoA? I have no idea but assumed that neither one factors into your own fico scoring to err on the safe side. If it's true that being an AU doesn't add to your util and AAoA then OP's problem lies there, given the 98% balance on the credit union card.

[salek10]

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@DieGo2SHAE wrote:

This seems like a good place to ask given the OP's question; does being an AU on someone's account add to your own utilization and AAoA? I have no idea but assumed that neither one factors into your own fico scoring to err on the safe side. If it's true that being an AU doesn't add to your util and AAoA then OP's problem lies there, given the 98% balance on the credit union card.

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Yes that was my train of thought.. Maybe Discover does not factor AU accounts into their own scoring model? idk... Judging for the reason OP was given, I think that might be the case. 

[JohnJohn1995]

Well, after calling recon trying to find out more specifics, they said the reasons, too many inquiries and lack of credit history. 

I asked them to clarify and they said that they don't factor authorized users in terms of credit history. Which really bums me out considering my longest positive history reported on my credit report is WITH DISCOVER, even if it's not an individual account.

I guess I will be waiting for the letter in the mail. 

How would the alternative option of recon with as a joint account with someone work? What is the impact on my credit report?

[juggalo9er]

not that i am putting down discover but the only purpose of the card that i can see if the 5% cash back and shop discover. Discover denied me as well for a $4,285 student loan that is 11 years old, that was their only reason. The backdoor to this one is to not go through Discover at all, app with Barclay (even the card for average credit) give it around six months and app for the sallie mae card, The sallie mae card, when linked through upromise gives upward of 10% cash back almost across the board, 2% on mobil and exxon stations, and a few other that are much less noteworthy. I would argue that sallie mae card rivals if not trumps that of discover, only catch is have to do most everything through online retailers (with in store pickup).

[chalupaman]

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@juggalo9er wrote:

not that i am putting down discover but the only purpose of the card that i can see if the 5% cash back and shop discover. Discover denied me as well for a $4,285 student loan that is 11 years old, that was their only reason. The backdoor to this one is to not go through Discover at all, app with Barclay (even the card for average credit) give it around six months and app for the sallie mae card, The sallie mae card, when linked through upromise gives upward of 10% cash back almost across the board, 2% on mobil and exxon stations, and a few other that are much less noteworthy. I would argue that sallie mae card rivals if not trumps that of discover, only catch is have to do most everything through online retailers (with in store pickup).

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I thought that Sallie Mae card was supposed to be really hard to get though. I'll take that into consdieration probably next year. Never had anything with Barclays but I also heard they are supposed to be really inquiry sensitive. How does it compare with say the Chase Freedom card?