This morning I called the backdoor number for Chase to do a recon on my CLI request last week...because I'm an existing customer (2 1/2 years), they said they would transfer my call and I ended up with customer service. They were going to put in a request for me the same way they would normally do it, so I declined, knowing that if customer service had just denied me last week, they would deny me again.
Okay, so when I call the backdoor number (1-800-245-0625), what do I need to say to ensure that I speak with a credit analyst, and not customer service??
Starting Score: 670 EQ and 674 TUNobody responded, but just as an FYI to anyone who's interested, when I called back I made sure to state that I wanted to speak to a credit analyst. When they confirmed that I was a current account-holder, I said yes but repeated that I needed to speak to an analyst for reconsideration. They were very nice in transferring me to one.
Unfortunately, the analyst again denied me for a CLI. The reasons were too high utilization (I'm at 39%) and too many inquiries (about 10 the past 12 months). I asked her if she could reconsider those reasons and allow me to give more information, but she basically just said, "No, I have to go by what's on your credit report."
Given my utilization and number of inquiries, should I accept it, or do you think I should try again? Other than those two reasons, there are no negatives at all on my reports.
I began rebuilding my credit about 3 years ago, but only in the past few months have I come to understand more about good credit, in that it's not just based on a clean history. (Sometimes it feels like I get no love for that whatsoever.) It's still very nerve-wracking for me to actually speak to someone about my credit!
Thank you for the support! I agree I have nothing to lose - like I said it's just still nerve-wracking for me to talk about my credit, even with it being good, so I have no idea how to sell myself when they're telling me what they consider negative. Any suggestions on how to explain that my inquiries have been completely from trying to increase my credit for my rating, not to overextend myself? I know that 39% is high for utilization, but I really do not have a lot of used credit - the main problem is that my limits are so low (at $1000 Chase is my highest, other than Dell). Of course I'm paying my balances down, but a good CLI would drop that percentage way down.
Thank you both for your responses! I agree that I probably won't get a recon. I'm currently planning to refinance my FHA mortgage, saving about $150 a month, so maybe I'll start using that savings to pay down the cards. I have half of my cards showing balances, so I'm sure you're right that that's hurting me also. I think I can manage to lay off the inquiries for a while until I am certain that my credit is indeed good enough for an increase. 
Question about the inquiries - is it true that creditors will only look at the number within the past 12 months? If they stay on for 2 years, how will I know that they are not affecting me anymore?
I guess I'm just frustrated with myself that for the past few years I thought I was doing everything right, with getting new credit and keeping a clean history. Now I know that I've actually been hurting myself by not just letting these accounts age gracefully. It's hard to see posts where people with collections and late payments are being approved for $5000 credit lines - and here I am paying my bills like I'm supposed to and it's not good enough. 
wndrwmn78 wrote:
Question about the inquiries - is it true that creditors will only look at the number within the past 12 months? If they stay on for 2 years, how will I know that they are not affecting me anymore?
I keep reading that lenders really look at the last 6 months' worth. FICO scores on the last 12 months' worth, and as you say, they display for 24 months. My guess is that lenders are looking for both patterns and out-of-pattern behavior. For instance, if you had one inq 10 months ago and nothing else within the past year, but you had 30 inqs on one report the previous year, they're going to be curious as to what on earth was going on. Remember that they only see the inqs on the report(s) that they pull.
wndrwmn78 wrote:
I guess I'm just frustrated with myself that for the past few years I thought I was doing everything right, with getting new credit and keeping a clean history. Now I know that I've actually been hurting myself by not just letting these accounts age gracefully. It's hard to see posts where people with collections and late payments are being approved for $5000 credit lines - and here I am paying my bills like I'm supposed to and it's not good enough.
And that is understandable that you are frustrated. Remember that they are looking for a convincing track record, and that means that they're looking for a clean(-ish) record that has gone on long enough that they feel it has some predictive value. Do try to look at it through their eyes: you had something or other that went on in the past, so that you started rebuilding 3 years ago; your reports show that you are currently using nearly 40% of your available credit; and you've been looking for credit a whole lot recently. This is going to alarm them. Get the util down and keep it down (better for you financially, anyway), let the inqs cool down, and keep adding on that clean history, and you'll be getting approvals.
And don't forget, these are crummy times for credit applicants anyway.
Thank you for your honest answer! It's hard to just wait it out, but hey - at least all I'm doing is waiting for accounts to age and inquiries to fall off - not for collections to fall off! I've already been through that - 10 years ago in college I did the whole credit mess-up as a lot of people do, and it was a long wait for those bad accounts to fall off. They were finally all off a few years ago, and I was smart enough not to get into any more trouble, so from there it's just been rebuilding from scratch. Hence my short history.
One thing I would like to ask if you don't mind, without starting a new post, is your opinion on closing small, insignificant accounts? I know the general consensus is that you should not close accounts with a good history - just don't use them. But say in two years I want to apply for an Amex, and I have no inquiries and a 5 year history now - but they see my little $400 HSBC card that will never get bigger. Do cards like that turn the prime creditors off? Or will the fact that it's 5 years old make it not matter that I have a rebuilding card?
Thank you again! I really wish I had found these forums years ago!