Denied for Barclay American Airlines Card

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I was reaching out to see if anyone here has had the same issue as me. I applied for the Barclays AA aviator red card today. I am just over 16 months post discharge. Never had a Barclays card before. Vantage score of 655. No negative items on my report since BK. I have had 1 cc for 8 months and 2 other cards for 7 months all with good reporting and no missed payments. 2% credit utilization. I have had credit limit increases on all 3 cards so far. No Loan payments of any kind in my name beside student loans that are in deferment since I’m in school. I also have about 7 months of good reporting on being a AU on a citi AAadvantage card that has now been closed and was closed in May of 19 in good standing at closing. I called for recon and they stated they wanted to see more good payment history. I asked if they like to see a set amount of time, and she said no set time just some more time for me and that I can re apply anytime. How long should I wait to try again? 12 months of payment history? Should I get a small personal loan to help build my credit more?

Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous]

A few thoughts from reading your post:

First, Vantage scores are useless when discussing Barclays. They don’t use that score for credit analysis. What’s your FICO score (and more specifically your TransUnion FICO score)?

Second, “no negatives since a BK” 1.x years ago does not hold much clout in the credit world. To lenders, there is, arguably, no worse negative than a BK and 1.x years is a blink of an eye to them.

I’d put any Barclay card application on hold for a while. You’ll have to find a lender that’s more BK friendly and, even then, temper your expectations.

[Anonymous]

Thank for the info, I’m just trying to get another card so I can get away from Credit One and Merrick. Unfortunately when I filed for BK I had almost every major credit card besides Citi, Barclays and BofA but from what I read here Citi and BofA won’t approve for a few years. I have been blacklisted from Cap 1 (I assume because how much I had with them when I filed), so at this time I might just have to get a small personal loan to help build credit. My TU fico is 653, EX is 641, EQ 669. Any other ideas of cards that are BK friendly that don’t charge fees are predatory like Credit one? I have looked around here and everyone is all over with their chances, I just don’t want to rack up a lot of inquiries. I have Ollo, Credit One and Merrick now. Ollo has been great, went from 300CL to 2000 in less then 5 months and no yearly fee. Thanks

[Anonymous]

I don’t have any specific suggestion. Sorry.

Here is a thread with 133 pages on the topic though: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/Bankruptcy-Friendly-Credit-Cards-Pt-2/m-p/3999737

[recoveringfrombk7]

Discover prequal, or did you burn them too?  Cap One rarely rarely black lists.  I've seen consistent posts here from people who burned them for a lot and got back in immediately.  I burned them for about 1500 and got back in around 16 months.  

[Anonymous]

Hey, so what’s weird is that discover pre qualed me for discover it secured about 2 months ago, wanted to wait for my holiday bonus to get a bigger CL. Checked again 2 weeks ago and today and both times no pre qual for anything, even tho my utilization is down and score is up. I did burn them though for about 3500, but that’s never the reason in the letter just that I filed for BK. I cold apped for cap 1, 3 months offer BK and a year out of BK which was in September and just straight denied no pull and was denied due to existing/prior account. I burned them for $16K on my cap one venture. I’m afraid to apply for anything. I’m afraid to apply for anything synchrony because I burned PayPal credit for about 7K. What’s weird is that when I try the pre qual for the Kohl’s card (which is backed by cap 1) I get the you are pre approved message. So I have no idea. I was going to try cap 1 again but I was hesitant as I didn’t pre qual and didn’t want to waste the pull in case they actually pulled this time. At this time it sounds like waiting a few more months and try with Barclays again, but I know how inquiry sensitive they are and didn’t want to risk my chances with the one decent company left that I have a chance with. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

[recoveringfrombk7]

The CL with a secured Discover Card is simply going to be whatever you deposit.  You can add money during the time you have the account up to a max of $2500.  So if you do prequal again, just take it and deposit what you can.  You can add more later if you need to.

Cold apping coming out of BK is dangerous in my opinion.  It's a great way to waste inquiries and probably not get approved.  I would not do it, personally.

As for Kohl's, the preapproval could be legit.  Even though it's a Cap One card store cards are different than the core cards.  You only need 3 cards to improve your credit.  If you have them it might be worth waiting.  Are you trying to get out of AFs?  I would hold off on Barclays for awhile yet, but that's just me.

[Anonymous]

Not trying to get out of AFs, rather I would like to get something in return for my AF, like my Merrick and Credit one have an AF but 0 perks what so ever. Just trying to get a card or 2 from a better company. I have 3 cards now. Sounds like I should wait till all 3 cards have reported for 12 full months before trying again anywhere. I was approved for Affirm when I bought my new mattress last week. Debating on if I should just pay it over the 12 months or pay it off before the first payment even shows on my report. I know patients is key and it’s hard seeing a 655 score and 3700 credit line, when I was at 800 and over 50K in credit lines from most of the major cards when I was 20, but 20 year old me was not able to handle that due to personal situations and a bit of irresponsible behavior. I just want to get 3-5 solid cards from good lenders that I can just sit on, maybe enjoy some perks, and let my score go up naturally over a few years. I’m back in school full time and have about 2.5 years left and I want to get my credit as good as I can before I graduate so that it’s one less thing to “worry” about. I’ll also keep the discover secure thing in mind, I thought that you had to stick what your original amount you deposited for a year.

[recoveringfrombk7]

Having been where you are my biggest regret was wasting a bunch of inquiries on stuff that wasn't going to happen as soon as I wanted it to. It's hard, I really really understand, but you do have enough to do what you need to do at this point. You could chill for a bit, say 6 months, check the prequals and see where you stand. Ideally if you can trade up before your AFs hit that would be ideal. I was able to cancel my Credit One before mine hit.

[recoveringfrombk7]

If you decide to pause for a bit check out the Garden Club in the Personal Finance sub forum. It's like a support group for people who need to let their credit age and sometimes need to be talked down from applying for stuff they don't really need. I'm finding it helpful and a cool way to meet lots of people in the community here.