topic Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean? in Credit Card Applications

CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

B_Slow1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 04:26:00 GMT

Probably a dumb question. Sorry. I never called to do a reconsideration before.

I applied for the CFF online, and was denied. I called Chase reconsideration the next day, spoke to a rep who asked me some questions about my credit history, employment, etc. And then she said that she was recommending me for reconsideration.

I understand that being denied on the Recon attempt is bad. But if they accept a Recon, does that mean I'll be approved? Or is it all still up in the air, and I could still be denied? I always thought that they could approve you through the recon process right there over the phone, but I guess that's not how it works.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

Anonymalous — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 06:12:47 GMT

In November, I applied for the CFF and got denied. I called for a recon, she asked a few questions, and then said they'd get back to me. A Chase private banker followed up for me, and never got a straight answer despite calling almost half a dozen times. I eventually received a second denial letter in the mail. Whole process took more than 6 weeks.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

coldfusion — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:20:00 GMT

A recommendation is just that. Most likely your request along with the analyst's recommendation has been forwarded to a more senior analyst that has final decision-making authority who will either accept or reject the recommendation.

I believe you already have 2-3 cards with Chase including at least 1 business card so this could be a senario where you are already near or at the total amount of credit they are willing gto extend to you. Including Chase business cards exactly how many cards have you opened in the last 24 months?

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

B_Slow1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:52:23 GMT

Thanks for the reply. All of the cards that I have are in my sig. So yes, I do already have 3 Chase cards (2 business, 1 personal). And I have opened 4 new credit cards in the last 24 months (2 Chase, 2 Amex).

So, I think i’m clear of any 5/24 concerns. And having opened too many new accounts wasn’t the reason for rejection. The reason I received was high credit utilization.

As for the reconsideration process itself, does it always work in this way? Or do these reps have the power to approve you over the phone?

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

Anonymalous — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 15:44:06 GMT

@B_Slow1 wrote:
As for the reconsideration process itself, does it always work in this way? Or do these reps have the power to approve you over the phone?

The private banker I talked to said he had some non-public numbers and some influence, but that my application had ended up somewhere else -- a different office or department or something like that -- where he had no number or connection. The general impression I got is that applications can be shuttled around based on complexity or approvals or different criteria -- again not sure exactly what -- and that the people in front really have no idea what's going on back there. So even if some reps have the power to approve cases that meet certain criteria over the phone, yours wasn't one of those cases. I suspect you'll just have to wait for the letter.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

GatorGuy — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:05:02 GMT

@B_Slow1 I don't have any first hand experience since I've never had to do a recon but I've seen many people report that they were approved on the phone during their recon.

What was the explanation you gave for your high utilization?

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

B_Slow1 — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 02:05:26 GMT

@GatorGuy wrote:
@B_Slow1 I don't have any first hand experience since I've never had to do a recon but I've seen many people report that they were approved on the phone during their recon.

What was the explanation you gave for your high utilization?

I'll preface this by saying that I don't know how utilization really registers with credit agencies. I know there is some magical way you're supposed to pay your statements to make the utilization lower, but I just pay in full when the statement is due (except for the cards mentioned below).

The rep was primarily concerned with my Capital One card, and my Ink Unlimited card. I just told the truth: With my Cap1 card, the limit is relatively low, but because I need to access that credit, I make multiple payments a month. While the card looks like it's always maxed out, I'm always paying off the full statement balance, just in an unorthodox way. For the Ink Unlimited, the card comes with a 0% APR offer for the first 12 months, and I told her when that offer comes to an end, I'll pay the balance in full like the others. She seemed to have no issue with that. But who knows? Maybe I was supposed to say something differrent, but I've never done this before.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

LADave — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 04:01:11 GMT

@B_Slow1 wrote:
@GatorGuy wrote:
@B_Slow1 I don't have any first hand experience since I've never had to do a recon but I've seen many people report that they were approved on the phone during their recon.

What was the explanation you gave for your high utilization?
I'll preface this by saying that I don't know how utilization really registers with credit agencies. I know there is some magical way you're supposed to pay your statements to make the utilization lower, but I just pay in full when the statement is due (except for the cards mentioned below).

The rep was primarily concerned with my Capital One card, and my Ink Unlimited card. I just told the truth: With my Cap1 card, the limit is relatively low, but because I need to access that credit, I make multiple payments a month. While the card looks like it's always maxed out, I'm always paying off the full statement balance, just in an unorthodox way. For the Ink Unlimited, the card comes with a 0% APR offer for the first 12 months, and I told her when that offer comes to an end, I'll pay the balance in full like the others. She seemed to have no issue with that. But who knows? Maybe I was supposed to say something differrent, but I've never done this before.

Your credit report will show whatever your balance is on a particular card on the statement date. if you need to pay a card fully off, the day before the last day of the current statement date is a great day to do that, so you'll show very low utilization (if any).

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

OmarGB9 — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 05:24:34 GMT

@LADave wrote:
@B_Slow1 wrote:
@GatorGuy wrote:
@B_Slow1 I don't have any first hand experience since I've never had to do a recon but I've seen many people report that they were approved on the phone during their recon.

What was the explanation you gave for your high utilization?
I'll preface this by saying that I don't know how utilization really registers with credit agencies. I know there is some magical way you're supposed to pay your statements to make the utilization lower, but I just pay in full when the statement is due (except for the cards mentioned below).

The rep was primarily concerned with my Capital One card, and my Ink Unlimited card. I just told the truth: With my Cap1 card, the limit is relatively low, but because I need to access that credit, I make multiple payments a month. While the card looks like it's always maxed out, I'm always paying off the full statement balance, just in an unorthodox way. For the Ink Unlimited, the card comes with a 0% APR offer for the first 12 months, and I told her when that offer comes to an end, I'll pay the balance in full like the others. She seemed to have no issue with that. But who knows? Maybe I was supposed to say something differrent, but I've never done this before.
Your credit report will show whatever your balance is on a particular card on the statement date. if you need to pay a card fully off, the day before the last day of the current statement date is a great day to do that, so you'll show very low utilization (if any).

Two to three days before statement cut would be even better.

Also, not all cards report the balance at the end of the billing cycle. US Bank is one major exception - they report the balance at the end of the month. Also, Chase will report the statement balance, but they also report any time you zero out your balance.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

LADave — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 06:28:24 GMT

@OmarGB9 wrote:
@LADave wrote:
Your credit report will show whatever your balance is on a particular card on the statement date. if you need to pay a card fully off, the day before the last day of the current statement date is a great day to do that, so you'll show very low utilization (if any).
Two to three days before statement cut would be even better.

Also, not all cards report the balance at the end of the billing cycle. US Bank is one major exception - they report the balance at the end of the month. Also, Chase will report the statement balance, but they also report any time you zero out your balance.

These are all very good points. I had forgotten about Chase, and didn't realize your other points about not all cards reporting balance at the end of the billing cycle, particularly US Bank.

It's a really good idea to periodically check what time of the month your banks report your balances to the credit bureaus, and have then paid (ideally zeroed or AZEO'd) a few days earlier, and avoiding large charges on those particular cards between that payment and the statement date. And if a large charge clears in the meantime, to make another payment as soon as possible.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

B_Slow1 — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 20:45:20 GMT

Thank you for the input, folks. I just want to make sure I'm clear: So if I want to improve the credit utilization number, I have to pay the full statement balance on the card, before the statement period ends. And not in that period beteween the statement end date and the due date? If that's the case, then on many of my cards, it probably shows a high utilization because the cards aren't paid until a couple of days before the due date, but then the credit agencies don't see that there's really no balance.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

LADave — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 21:07:48 GMT

The due dates typically happen before the statement date. You can make an additional payment between the due date and the statement date if your card allows it (it seems that all of the better ones do).

You just need to make sure that the balance is paid when they report to the credit reporting agencies. Check CK or MyFICO to see when your cards typically report to the agencies, and have your cards paid before those dates.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

CreditMarathoner — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 01:23:48 GMT

@B_Slow1 wrote:
Thank you for the input, folks. I just want to make sure I'm clear: So if I want to improve the credit utilization number, I have to pay the full statement balance on the card, before the statement period ends. And not in that period beteween the statement end date and the due date? If that's the case, then on many of my cards, it probably shows a high utilization because the cards aren't paid until a couple of days before the due date, but then the credit agencies don't see that there's really no balance.

If you want to lower your reported utilization, look at the actual balance of the card when you go to pay it and base your payment on that instead of the statement balance. The statement balance is the balance when the statement cut, but if you continue using the card, you're adding to the balance, then if you PIF the statement balance before the due date, you still have the new charges reporting a balance on your next statement, and that's what the bureaus see (in most cases).

For example, let's say your card has a due date of the 25th and a statement cut on the 28th. On June 28, let's say your card has a $400 balance and the statement cuts. You run up another $500 in charges between June 28 and when you pay the $400 statement balance on or before July 25. You PIFed the card and don't get charged interest, but that $500 in new charges will apply toward your utilization and impact your credit score when your statement cuts with the $500 balance July 28.

So, instead of paying the $400 statement balance, pay a larger amount, like the entire balance to date. Nowadays since you can get your balance "up to the minute" online, this is easy to do... just get the balance, make the payment, and let it post. Now you'll have a zero, or small balance reporting and your scores will improve.

With Chase cards, you also have the ability to have it report anytime when you pay the balance to zero, so even if a charge posts between the time you paid off the card and the statement cuts, you can make another payment to zero the balance and it will report.

Make sure you don't let all your cards report a zero balance at the same time though, since that will incur a score penalty as well. Let one report a small balance, under 5% utilization or so, and zero out the rest. AZEO (All Zero Except One) is a technique to maximize your scores when you're going to apply for credit.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

GatorGuy — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 03:03:42 GMT

@B_Slow1 wrote:
Thank you for the input, folks. I just want to make sure I'm clear: So if I want to improve the credit utilization number, I have to pay the full statement balance on the card, before the statement period ends. And not in that period beteween the statement end date and the due date? If that's the case, then on many of my cards, it probably shows a high utilization because the cards aren't paid until a couple of days before the due date, but then the credit agencies don't see that there's really no balance.

You are correct that you have to pay before the due date.

However the date that becomes important is the reporting date. Usually it is shortly after the statement date. However some lenders like US Bank report at the end of the month regardless of your statement dates. So you would want to pay your balance prior to the reporting date.

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

B_Slow1 — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:38:05 GMT

Thanks for all of the helpful information. I've been too lazy with paying off my cards; just doing what was necessary to avoid interest without really thinking about utilization or anything else. So I'll try to work on that.

Just as an update, I did receive an email from Chase on 7/6 notifying me that I was Approved, which is welcome news.

I was at 4/24 when applying. This is my 4h Chase card, 2nd personal Chase. Credit scores in the 730s (probably impacted by utilization now that I think of it...). Credit Limit: $4100.

Gonna try to take advantage of that gas promo!

Re: CFF app Denied. Recon successful. But... what does that mean?

Remedios — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 11:58:41 GMT

Congrats on your new card.

This thread is closed for additional messages, feel free to start an approval thread if you wish to do so