General Questions and Why Was I Denied?

[ILFarmer]

Hello all, 

I have a few questions regarding building credit and what not and also to get some ideas on why I was just denied a card I applied for. 

I am 23 years old, I have had a Discover Card for 3.5 or so years now, it currently has a credit limit of $2800, and I am typically around $1000-1500 a month it is always paid in full, I have never nor will I ever carry a balance on a card. I would like to raise my limit again as last month I approached $2600. but don't want a "hard pull" of my credit report. My FICO score according to my discover bill is 745. 

I borrow A LOT of money due to being a farmer. I have a operating note, equiptment loans, and a few other debts but they are always paid on time and I am in excellent standing with my bank. I have never had any financial issues or trouble what so ever. 

Earlier today I applied for a Capital One Quicksilver and got denied instantly. Does anyone have any idea why? I would like to use the card for online purchases only as 1.5% Cash Back sounds appealing. I don't want to apply again because I don't want a "hard pull" of my credit report to hurt my credit score. 

Any advice/input on how to improve my score would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

[grinlikechelsea]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Judging from your profile, I am not completely sure why you were denied, so I think it will be beneficial to wait for the letter. How high was your reported balance at the time of your application?

[user5387]

I don't know why you were denied, but here are a couple of guesses.

1.  If you let the Discover balance report, and then pay it by the due date, other lenders may think you have high utilization.

2.  If you have a bunch of other loans, what do they look like on your report?

3.  What is your current DTI?

[tcbofade]

Cap One denied you with a 745?

That seems rather odd.

I'm sure that they'll send you a letter that explains the how and why...and I'd be very interested in what they tell you.

Sorry that happened.

[grinlikechelsea]

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@user5387 wrote:

I don't know why you were denied, but here are a couple of guesses.

1.  If you let the Discover balance report, and then pay it by the due date, other lenders may think you have high utilization.

2.  If you have a bunch of other loans, what do they look like on your report?

3.  What is your current DTI?

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These are pretty good points. If you have paid down high balances by the time your denial letter came, you might want to contact Capital One's Executive Office to see if they can overturn the denial. If they decide to do it, it may require another HP, so I would definitely ask beforehand.

[ILFarmer]

My current balance on the discover is only $339.xx and I applied only a couple of hours ago. I am wondeing if it is because I haven't had a CC but for less than 4 years. 

As to what the other loans look like on my report, I really don't know. The last time I pulled my own credit report none of them even showed up which was a bit dissapointing as I have always made my payments on time and what not. Up until last year I hadn't borrowed a lot of money, just for one vehicle and I paid it off within a month and it did not show up. Is my bank not reporting these loans? Should they?

[user5387]

You said that last month's balance was 2600/2800, which is 93%.

The balance is typically reported shortly after the statement date, and if 93% shows up on your report, then other lenders will see you as maxed out on the credit card, which is a major negative.

Re the DTI angle, it seems important to know what is on your report, and what your DTI is.  DTI is not factored into scoring, but is a major aspect of being approved for a credit card or other loan.

[ILFarmer]

Also, I assume you guys are suggesting I pay down my balance throughout the month if it is getting larger than say 25% of CL? Not to sound lazy, and I can certianly do this if it will help improve my credit score, but that sounds like a PITA. I am old school in the fact that I get my bill in the mail and write a check to pay it. I don't really want to have to pay online. This is one reason why I would like a higher CL on the Discover. I started out with 1000, then requested an increase and they upped me to like 1400, then 2000, and now 2800. I am surprised those requests didn't seem to lower my credit score. This is another reason why I would like a second card. Even a $500-$1000 limit on it would be fine for online purchases.

According to TransUnion my credit score is a 725, and like I said my discover profile says my FICO score is 745. The TU report only shows 2 credit accounts one of which is the Discover, then the other is my bank. My RLOC nor other debts are obviously not being reported. 

[cottoncrown]

You probably applied for the signature version and the minimum CL is 5k. You should raise your limit with discover. You could probably double it with a har pull. It's worth it, you won't be using so much available credit each month and your score will go up drastically. That will also open doors for cards with higher limits. You could probably even get a 10k limit with one hard pull. You just wasted 3 with cap one, it's not a big deal like everyone makes it out to be unless you are applying for a mortgage in te next year.

[lg8302ch]

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@user5387 wrote:

You said that last month's balance was 2600/2800, which is 93%.

The balance is typically reported shortly after the statement date, and if 93% shows up on your report, then other lenders will see you as maxed out on the credit card, which is a major negative.

Re the DTI angle, it seems important to know what is on your report, and what your DTI is.  DTI is not factored into scoring, but is a major aspect of being approved for a credit card or other loan.

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This would also be my guess. High DTI and high util. Your Equifax score could also be much lower with a maxed out card. Did you apply for QS Visa or QS One MC?