Capital One Spark Cash Plus Denial Reason Question

[Alephbet]

I applied for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus charge card about a month ago and received a denial. My FICO 8 scores are 799-820. They must have checked EQ5 or something because my EQ score was 760 according to their letter. The only denial reason was given as:

• Based on your credit report from one or more of the agencies on the back of this letter, account balance(s) are too high in relation to stated revenue and current credit limit

What I am wondering is if this means I have too high of balances on my other business cards? The wording sounds that way. I have business cards from AMEX (4), BofA (2), Barclays (1), Chase (3), and US Bank (1). A few have high balances for 0% offers and I didn't specifically make sure they were all low for the application because I thought they looked at my personal credit profile for an approval. I had a few relatively low balances on my personal cards at the time of application which are all PIF but they can't see that necessarily. So basically my question is whether this reflects looking at business cards, business cards and personal cards, or only personal cards? I also do have two ancient Capital One personal cards that I have had for almost 20 years each that are barely used. I don't know if that factors in either.

[BearsCubsOtters]

---

@Alephbet wrote:

I applied for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus charge card about a month ago and received a denial. My FICO 8 scores are 799-820. They must have checked EQ5 or something because my EQ score was 760 according to their letter. The only denial reason was given as:

• Based on your credit report from one or more of the agencies on the back of this letter, account balance(s) are too high in relation to stated revenue and current credit limit

What I am wondering is if this means I have too high of balances on my other business cards? The wording sounds that way. I have business cards from AMEX (4), BofA (2), Barclays (1), Chase (3), and US Bank (1). A few have high balances for 0% offers and I didn't specifically make sure they were all low for the application because I thought they looked at my personal credit profile for an approval. I had a few relatively low balances on my personal cards at the time of application which are all PIF but they can't see that necessarily. So basically my question is whether this reflects looking at business cards, business cards and personal cards, or only personal cards? I also do have two ancient Capital One personal cards that I have had for almost 20 years each that are barely used. I don't know if that factors in either.

---

Based on the credit score returned to you, it sounds like it was largely based on your personal credit report. Do you have a few personal credit cards reporting a balance? 

They likely also pulled the EX Business and EQ Business and may have seen the higher balances on BofA, Chase, (possibly) Barclays and US Bank. The Amex cards really do not show up anywhere. 

A month to get declined and three new HPs.....I really do not understand their business model.....

[Alephbet]

---

@BearsCubsOtters wrote:

---

@Alephbet wrote:

I applied for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus charge card about a month ago and received a denial. My FICO 8 scores are 799-820. They must have checked EQ5 or something because my EQ score was 760 according to their letter. The only denial reason was given as:

• Based on your credit report from one or more of the agencies on the back of this letter, account balance(s) are too high in relation to stated revenue and current credit limit

What I am wondering is if this means I have too high of balances on my other business cards? The wording sounds that way. I have business cards from AMEX (4), BofA (2), Barclays (1), Chase (3), and US Bank (1). A few have high balances for 0% offers and I didn't specifically make sure they were all low for the application because I thought they looked at my personal credit profile for an approval. I had a few relatively low balances on my personal cards at the time of application which are all PIF but they can't see that necessarily. So basically my question is whether this reflects looking at business cards, business cards and personal cards, or only personal cards? I also do have two ancient Capital One personal cards that I have had for almost 20 years each that are barely used. I don't know if that factors in either.

---

Based on the credit score returned to you, it sounds like it was largely based on your personal credit report. Do you have a few personal credit cards reporting a balance? 

They likely also pulled the EX Business and EQ Business and may have seen the higher balances on BofA, Chase, (possibly) Barclays and US Bank. The Amex cards really do not show up anywhere. 

A month to get declined and three new HPs.....I really do not understand their business model.....

---

I do have a few personal cards reporting a balance but all were lower utilization numbers. I should have zeroed those out before applying. They didn't wait a month to tell me that I was denied. It was closer to a week or a little less. I still haven't received a paper letter but did receive an electronic letter. If I call in and ask for status, it says my application is still processing and I will receive a letter in 7-10 business days which seems odd to me. I have tried calling into Capital One's application department but it's always had an extremely long hold time and I haven't had time to sit there for an hour waiting on hold yet.

I really like that the Capital One Spark Cash Plus is a Visa charge card which would work perfectly for many of my employee expenses so I wouldn't have to watch the credit limit as carefully while we are working on projects. If I still want to go for this card, I will zero everything out for the next statement closing and try around the first or second week of November after everything reports and see if that makes a difference. I will also call Capital One next week to see if I can get any more insight into what exactly they were referring to in their denial. Thanks for your response.

[MmmarkAz]

@Alephbet Wow, Good Info! I Was Thinking About Apping for that Card, I Better Take a Second Look at My Biz Card Utilzation and Scores.. I Maxed Out My Personal Cards Last Summer Building a Sml House, Scores Dropped 150 Points,  Doing another one Right Now and Only at 17% Util. Personal and Using More Biz Cards.. I Hope it Works Out for You and Thanks for the Info.. 

[CreditInspired]

OP,

IDK but DTI crossed my mind. Based on the reason, could this be a concern for Cap1? 

[Alephbet]

---

@CreditInspired wrote:

OP,

IDK but DTI crossed my mind. Based on the reason, could this be a concern for Cap1? 

---

That is possible. I had 9% or 10% utillization on personal credit cards overall on about $140,000 of credit at that time. Maybe that's too much. I only have one auto loan which has $9K left from $15K and income about $195K. I should have zeroed out those personal cards before applying I think.

[FinStar]

---

@Alephbet wrote:

---

@CreditInspired wrote:

OP,

IDK but DTI crossed my mind. Based on the reason, could this be a concern for Cap1? 

---

That is possible. I had 9% or 10% utillization on personal credit cards overall on about $140,000 of credit at that time. Maybe that's too much. I only have one auto loan which has $9K left from $15K and income about $195K. I should have zeroed out those personal cards before applying I think.

---

Did they indicate which reports were accessed for your application?  Sounds like they based it on a combination of personal and business reports, but primary focus on personal. Did they pull all 3?

[Alephbet]

---

@FinStar wrote:

---

@Alephbet wrote:

---

@CreditInspired wrote:

OP,

IDK but DTI crossed my mind. Based on the reason, could this be a concern for Cap1? 

---

That is possible. I had 9% or 10% utillization on personal credit cards overall on about $140,000 of credit at that time. Maybe that's too much. I only have one auto loan which has $9K left from $15K and income about $195K. I should have zeroed out those personal cards before applying I think.

---

Did they indicate which reports were accessed for your application?  Sounds like they based it on a combination of personal and business reports, but primary focus on personal. Did they pull all 3?

---

They pulled EQ and TU. I forgot to unlock my EX so they couldn't pull that one. I thought that was probably why it was denied but apparently that had no impact or at least the letter said nothing about it. They only referenced EQ of 760 which must be my EQ5 since my EQ8 was 800 at the time of application I think. Here is the wording. Maybe they didn't access my business credit reports at all.

Thank you for applying for a credit card issued by Capital One®. Unfortunately, after reviewing your application and information obtained from your consumer credit report(s) from the agencies detailed on the back of this letter - we cannot approve your request at this time.

The reason(s) for our decision are:

· Based on your credit report from one or more of the agencies on the back of this letter, account balance(s) are too high in relation to stated revenue and current credit limit

If you feel we missed something or misread your information, then please write to us at P.O. Box 31290 Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0290 and include your Application ID number referenced above. (Please note: we recommend you contact the credit agencies first to ensure they have accurately reported your information to us. Contact information is provided on the back of this letter.)

We know this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but we hope there is an opportunity to provide you new products and services in the future.

On the back, it gives the usual wording and addresses of each CRA.

Our credit decision was based in whole or in part on information obtained in a report from the consumer reporting agency listed below. You have a right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to know the information contained in your credit file at the consumer reporting agency. The reporting agency played no part in our decision and is unable to supply specific reasons why we have denied credit to you. You also have a right to a free copy of your report from the reporting agency, if you request it no later than 60 days after you receive this notice. In addition, if you find that any information contained in the report you receive is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to dispute the matter with the reporting agency.

Below the addresses, it also says this:

Information from Equifax, Inc., a small business credit risk reporting agency, may have been used in our credit decision. They can be contacted at 1-866-248-1450, 3501 Corporate Parkway Center Valley, PA 18034.

After that is my credit score from Equifax Consumer Relations of 760. After reading all of this carefully, I am thinking it is only based on my personal reports. Does that sound accurate?

I have tried to call Capital One multiple times. They are either closed or, like yesterday, I was on hold for exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes and then a pre-recorded message said they could not take my call at this time and hung up on me.

[Alephbet]

Finally got through on the phone to Capital One after being on hold for 45 minutes. They can't confirm or deny anything. I am supposed to call the CRA to find out more which is not helpful at all. The denial may just be from the personal credit reports but they can't say for sure. The representative also said the application timeframe is 6 months and said I may want to wait 6 months to reapply but couldn't tell me not to reapply more quickly either or that I shouldn't reapply in less than 6 months. That was really a worthless call and I didn't get any information at all.

After going through all of this, this Spark Cash Plus Visa charge card is looking less and less appealing. I might just start looking for some other option.