Credit Cards

[hammock67]

So first some background info.

I am 26 and have never had a late payment in my life.  I have had a visa through wells fargo since 2005 and have paid the balance off at the end of the month all but maye twice since I got the card.  The current limit is 10200 and I keep the balance between 1k and 3k.  I recently paid off a boat loan for 25K and a motorcycle for 12k.  I have also paid off my student loans completely and am currently 100% debt free with the exception of what is on the visa.  This is the only account I have applied for since July 2011 which was the motorcycle loan which is already paid off.  All of my other accounts I have are older than the Visa (pre 2005) and are all in good standing.

I thought this would be a good time to apply for a card from another lender with better offerings than wells fargo.  Apparently I was wrong.  I applied in early August and was denied, I called to have them look it over again and was again denied.  I recieved the rejection letter that said my FICO score was 730 at the time of the application and the reasons given for the decline in the letter were: lack of recent revolving account information, amount owed on accounts too high, too few accounts currently paid as agreed, and something else about a revolving account.  

I opened a savings account with amex following the decline hoping that it might make a difference for the next time I apply (wishful thinking).  I am trying to leave wells fargo slowly so that I do not dramatically decrease the average account life now that I have been in the same spot for so long.  Anyway, I would really appreciate some insight into why amex is being so stingy and how to make myself more appealing to them.  I am not the most experienced in the area but I can not see what the issue is.  Beyond that, the csr's at amex suck and are of zero help at all.  Thanks

-ham

[youngandcreditwrthy]

That's so weird... There have been other threads with posters who have like mid to high 600's getting approved for this card. I'd double check your reports!

[hammock67]

Looking for fraud?

[Koop10010]

The only issue that I really see is only having one credit card, honestly I'm pretty surprised you were denied.  I've never really thought of the Amex Blue cards as being that hard to obtain.  I guess you could apply for another card that interests you then apply for Amex again after it reports for a few months.  I guess you can also make sure that you report a <10% balance on your previous card (0 on your second if you go that route) when you apply.

[LS2982]

Did you have a balance at all reporting when you apped? Not sure if I missed that in your original post.

[DeadSpider]

+1

I think you need to have 2-3 credit card for better approval.

They don't see LOANS as revolving credit.

[Jlu]

BCP or BCE?

If BCP I'm marginally surprised at your denial and would recommend opening a second CC.

If BCE I'm extremely surprised at your denial and would recommend pulling your CRs.

[hammock67]

I applied for the Blue Cash Everyday, not the preferred.  I did have a balance at the time of the application and it could have been anything from 800 to 2500 on the visa.  I have pulled the credit report from experian since to see if there is anything funky on there, but I have not received it yet.  Either way I am rather frusterated with the whole thing and do not really know what a good next step is.

-ham

[LS2982]

Balance may have been too high if 2500 was reporting.

[OptimasPrime]

Op I would pull your credit report from experian (or whoever amex put on your denial letter) to see what's going on. The denial reasons cited seem odd given your description of your credit history. 

Did you have a balance reporting on your wells Fargo card when you applied? If you had no balance reporting that could be a reason for the denial. for reference, a 1-9% balance reporting at the time of application would have been ideal.