topic Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING in Credit Cards

Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

WNA888 — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 03:59:41 GMT

So I have been working for a major credit card company the past 6 months in the executive back office. That's why I've been gone. I can't say what credit card company though, but it's somewhere in the Top 5 in terms of purchase volume. Back-end means you know A LOT of the inner working and deep knowledge of all kind of stuff (e.g., underwriting, fraud prevention, CL, approvals, acct closure, why things are the way it is).

Anyways, feel free to ask me anything

-------EDIT 02/21/2015------------

I didn’t realize when I made this thread yesterday night that it would be extremely popular. Anyways, I mainly answer questions in the order it is asked. I do occasionally answer out of sequence, usually to answer a follow-up question. If you think I miss your question, feel free to re-post it. I don't mind.

If you want my advice on something, you should try to give as much information as possible. Only with the most accurate set of facts, will I be able to give you the best advice.

If you have a general question, you should post in this thread. If you have a question where you don’t want to reveal a lot of information about your finance to the public, then feel free to send me a PM if you wish.

If you like this thread, feel free to give me Kudos

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

newUser0 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:17:54 GMT

Which Credit card company?

Otherwise how can we apply anything you say?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:20:21 GMT

Does your company have its own internal scoring model?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

WNA888 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:20:54 GMT

@newUser0 wrote:
Which Credit card company?
Otherwise how can we apply anything you say?

Because almost all the top CC companies, if not all, operate the same way when it comes to back end operations. Yes, customer service varies significantly but not the stuff behind the scene.

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:21:16 GMT

@newUser0 wrote:
Which Credit card company?
Otherwise how can we apply anything you say?

He's not gong to give out where he works. That's personal information and not necessary to ask questions.

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:22:15 GMT

Okay. Is your company the leader in travel cards?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:23:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Okay. Is your company the leader in travel cards?

Be good

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Skye12329 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:24:32 GMT

How does the Initial CL work?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:24:47 GMT

It's an indirect question!

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:25:43 GMT

Do recon credit analysts really have quotas for card approvals that they have to meet? And if so, what are the best times to call to recon? First thing in the morning, end of the day? Monday, Friday? Beginning of the month? End of the month?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:25:45 GMT

I have one. What role does a person calling in after the application has been placed for review. Does it make much difference?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

WNA888 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:25:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Does your company have its own internal scoring model?

Yes, we do. It's used for internal purpose, and your FICO score does plays a role in the internal score, but not major. We usually SP a customer about once a month, but we set certain triggers that make us SP a customer more frequency if he/she is more risk to the company (like increasing CC debt at a very high velocity, missing a payment with other creditors, paying minimum payments all of a sudden, new to credit vs someone with 10 years with the company paying full balance all the time on time)

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:26:33 GMT

I have another one. Am I more likely to be approved when I call in 40 times?

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Skye12329 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:31:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have another one. Am I more likely to be approved when I call in 40 times?

Yes, they will get so tired of you calling and say just give him the card already

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

WNA888 — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 04:06:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do recon credit analysts really have quotas for card approvals that they have to meet? And if so, what are the best times to call to recon? First thing in the morning, end of the day? Monday, Friday? Beginning of the month? End of the month?

No, our credit analysts do not have quotas to meet. But they always lean on the side of caution. Yeah, if it was a perfect world. We would approve EVERYONE who calls in to recon to make potential customers happy. But in the real world, most people who call us to recon have crappy credit, bankruptcy, or didn't pay us in the past, etc. Our bank would lose lots of money. We use an internal risk statistical model that is time tested and validated and proven to predict with a great degree of confidence. If you have low score because you are new to credit and lack history, then yeah we'll approve you and override the system since you might be our loyal customer forever. But if your low credit score is due to not paying us in the past, filing bankruptcy, or a pattern of late (or lack of) payments (as opposed to one late payment once in blue moon), then most asking us to recon isn't going to help (no matter how much you scream at the credit analysts.

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Aarvard — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:33:42 GMT

@WNA888 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Does your company have its own internal scoring model?
Yes, we do. It's used for internal purpose, and your FICO score does plays a role in the internal score, but not major. We usually SP a customer about once a month, but we set certain triggers that make us SP a customer more frequency if he/she is more risk to the company (like increasing CC debt at a very high velocity, missing a payment with other creditors, paying minimum payments all of a sudden, new to credit vs someone with 10 years with the company paying full balance all the time on time)

So after a long period of time paying in full, paying just the minimum amount can trigger the SP? Wow, that's pretty scary

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

shoo — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:33:44 GMT

When people call in/email/write to your company for purposes of getting something removed or changed on the credit report (late payments or any other goodwill request stuff), how much power do the people in your office have to make that happen? Is it as difficult for employees at this level to get those changes through as it seems to be? Does it require some further escalation or something?

Thank for posting!

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

WNA888 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:36:47 GMT

@Skye12329 wrote:
How does the Initial CL work?

Well, our system pulls a copy of your CR, and it follows strict underwriting criteria on how much credit to give you. We calculate your avg credit line and highest credit line, and we try to give you as high as possible, but it's determined by your current utilization rate and stuff. We tend to give more CLs to people that DONT need it (i.e., have low utilization). People who have high utilization %, we give a low limit cause it seems like they are trying to survive paying bills while unemployeed and living on credit cards.

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Aarvard — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:37:53 GMT

@WNA888 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Do recon credit analysts really have quotas for card approvals that they have to meet? And if so, what are the best times to call to recon? First thing in the morning, end of the day? Monday, Friday? Beginning of the month? End of the month?
No, our credit analyst do not have quotas to meet. But they always lean on the side of caution. Yeah, if it was a perfect world. We would approve EVERYONE who calls in to recon to make potentia customers happy. But in the real world, most people who call us to recon have crappy credit, bankrupcies, or didn't pay us in the pastetc. Our bank would lose lots of money. We use an internal risk statistical model that is time tested and validated and proven to predict with a great degree of confidence. If you have low score because you are new to credit and lack history, then yeah we'll approve you and override the system since you might be our loyal customer forever. But if your low credit score is due to not paying us in the past, filing bankruptcy, or a pattern of late (or lack of) payments (as opposed to one late payment once in blue mean), then most asking us to recon isn't going to help (no matter how much you scream at the credit analysts.

That explains a lot!

Re: Ask A Back Office CC Company Employee ANYTHING

Skye12329 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:40:11 GMT

@WNA888 wrote:
@Skye12329 wrote:
How does the Initial CL work?
Well, our system pulls a copy of your CR, and it follows strict underwriting criteria on how much credit to give you. We calculate your avg credit line and highest credit line, and we try to give you as high as possible, but it's determined by your current utilization rate and stuff. We tend to give more CLs to people that DONT need it (i.e., have low utilization). People who have high utilization %, we give a low limit cause it seems like they are trying to survive paying bills while unemployeed and living on credit cards.

That makes sense, but it is a confirmed fact that average credit lines or higher CL = larger starting ones?