BofA CCR Approved after Recon

[TyrannicalDuncery3]

Just got denied then approved for BofA CCR (Susan G Komen version)! Not sure what the credit limit is. Thanks for everyone's help and feedback!!!

Recon:

• First I called this number. No hold time. I was stupid and did not ask for a credit analyst. I just asked about my denial. They said they didn't know anything, I should get a rejection letter, and then I could mail a reconsideration request to PO Box 650520, Dallas TX 75265-0520. I asked whether there was anything else I could do, they said no.
• Then I called this number. No hold time. They said that I was not declined (even though the website said I was declined), and the fraud department just had a few questions for me.
  • They transferred me to this number. Less than 60 seconds hold time. They asked me for my phone number and email, and said they just needed to verify that I made the application. Then they "put my application through" or something like that. They put me on hold for like 5 minutes, then said I was approved. I didn't ask what the CL was. I don't think they told me, but I don't care much. I asked whether I had entered my email or phone wrong initially, they said no.
• I was a bit concerned that they might pull my credit a second time. But it looks like they did not!!

Initial Denial:

• Instant denial. Message:

"Unfortunately, we're unable to approve your credit card application at this time. A letter has been mailed explaining the reasons for our decision which entitles you to a free copy of your credit report. As a result of our decision, any balance transfer requests included with your credit application will not be processed." Decision date = 7/4/2024.

Details:

• I just applied for another card yesterday. See here.
  • I don't think this matters, but y'all are the experts, not me. Yesterday's card pulled TransUnion and not Experian. I think today's card pulled Experian and not TransUnion.
• Bank stuff:
  • Existing relationship with Merrill Edge (2 years, 1k balance). I don't think they detected this.
  • No banking relationshipo with Bank of America.
• My occupation wasn't listed in the available choices so I picked something close. Maybe that spooked them? Not sure.
• I think they only tried to pull Experian, but maybe they also tried to pull TransUnion which was frozen. Maybe they tried to pull Equifax; I don't think yesterday's card pulled Equifax but it's possible.
• No identity documents requested.
• Credit stuff:
  • New accounts: 0/6, 2/12, 4/24 (not including the card I got yesterday, not yet activated/set up/reporting)
  • Age  (not including yesterday's card):
    
    • AoNA 6m
    • AoOA 11y
    • AAoA 3y
  • Inquiries:
    • Pulled Experian.
    • TransUnion was frozen. I don't know whether they tried to pull it.
    • Equifax was not pulled.
    • TransUnion: 1/6, 2/12 (including yesterday's card)
    • Equifax: 0/6, 2/12
    • Experian: 0/6, 2/12
    • All bureaus combined: 0/6, 3/12
  • Income between 100k and 150k/year, rent 700/month.
  • Utilization: 1%
  • No bad stuff

[Jeffster1]

I'll be brutally honest. I don't think threatening to close that tinyMerilll Edge account will give you any leverage. 

[TyrannicalDuncery3]

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@Jeffster1 wrote:

I'll be brutally honest. I don't think threatening to close that tinyMerilll Edge account will give you any leverage. 

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Thanks, makes sense! You sound knowledgeable, any advice for me on what else I could do or why I might have been rejected?

I'm going to delete the part about the 1k. You're right, it seems irrelevant.

[GZG]

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@TyrannicalDuncery3 wrote:

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@Jeffster1 wrote:

I'll be brutally honest. I don't think threatening to close that tinyMerilll Edge account will give you any leverage. 

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Thanks, makes sense! You sound knowledgeable, any advice for me on what else I could do or why I might have been rejected?

I'm going to delete the part about the 1k. You're right, it seems irrelevant.

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it's very relevant

BoA's #1 thing is deposit relationship

having $1k in their account is probably worse than not having a banking relationship at all, it shows you have little money instead of the chance of you having a lot of money

if I was serious about getting into BoA and their preferred rewards thing and moving at least $100k over at some point: 

open a personal checking

throw at least $5k in there, if not $10k+ 

throw money into Merrill if you were already so inclined 

THEN call back and recon, they might just need identity stuff/POI so that might be part of the reason for the denial 

[coldfusion]

If you're going to attempt a recon you will probably want to ask the analyst up front if the process they're going to follow is to review the application you made for manual reconsideration or if they're going to just resubmit it for another automated evaluation.   It's possible that a resubmission would trigger another hard pull but if it was less than 30 days after initial application BoA should pick up on it on their own and quietly have the 2nd inquiry withdrawn within several weeks.

BoA is a reliable Experian puller for new credit applications but that isn't an absolute - I do know that they do occasionally hard pull  from Equifax.

[TyrannicalDuncery3]

Thanks @coldfusion , great point. I did the recon before I saw this message, got lucky this time. But that's great advice, I'll keep it in mind.

[Rdbeetle]

Congrats on your successful recon!

[coldfusion]

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@TyrannicalDuncery3 wrote:

Thanks @coldfusion , great point. I did the recon before I saw this message, got lucky this time. But that's great advice, I'll keep it in mind.

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Congrats on the success!

Alls well that ends well - I had suggested you ask first because sometimes the person you speak do does in fact just reprocesses the application with the autobot declining the 2nd iteration just like they did the first.  Not unusual for a first-time applicant to have their application referred to their anti-fraud team to follow up and confirm it was you who applied, but historically that team can sometimes take 2-3 weeks to get around to contacting you.  Happy you had a good outcome.

If you don't already have a BoA login you can try in a couple of days to log in online to your Merrill account and click on the BANK OF AMERICA icon on the top of the page to get you to a BoA splash page where you should see your new account info including your SL.

[Yankee2]

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@TyrannicalDuncery3 wrote:

Just got denied then approved for BofA CCR (Susan G Komen version)! Not sure what the credit limit is. Thanks for everyone's help and feedback!!!

Recon:

• First I called this number. No hold time. I was stupid and did not ask for a credit analyst. I just asked about my denial. They said they didn't know anything, I should get a rejection letter, and then I could mail a reconsideration request to PO Box 650520, Dallas TX 75265-0520. I asked whether there was anything else I could do, they said no.
• Then I called this number. No hold time. They said that I was not declined (even though the website said I was declined), and the fraud department just had a few questions for me.
  • They transferred me to this number. Less than 60 seconds hold time. They asked me for my phone number and email, and said they just needed to verify that I made the application. Then they "put my application through" or something like that. They put me on hold for like 5 minutes, then said I was approved. I didn't ask what the CL was. I don't think they told me, but I don't care much. I asked whether I had entered my email or phone wrong initially, they said no.
• I was a bit concerned that they might pull my credit a second time. But it looks like they did not!!

Initial Denial:

• Instant denial. Message:

"Unfortunately, we're unable to approve your credit card application at this time. A letter has been mailed explaining the reasons for our decision which entitles you to a free copy of your credit report. As a result of our decision, any balance transfer requests included with your credit application will not be processed." Decision date = 7/4/2024.

Details:

• I just applied for another card yesterday. See here.
  • I don't think this matters, but y'all are the experts, not me. Yesterday's card pulled TransUnion and not Experian. I think today's card pulled Experian and not TransUnion.
• Bank stuff:
  • Existing relationship with Merrill Edge (2 years, 1k balance). I don't think they detected this.
  • No banking relationshipo with Bank of America.
• My occupation wasn't listed in the available choices so I picked something close. Maybe that spooked them? Not sure.
• I think they only tried to pull Experian, but maybe they also tried to pull TransUnion which was frozen. Maybe they tried to pull Equifax; I don't think yesterday's card pulled Equifax but it's possible.
• No identity documents requested.
• Credit stuff:
  • New accounts: 0/6, 2/12, 4/24 (not including the card I got yesterday, not yet activated/set up/reporting)
  • Age  (not including yesterday's card):
    
    • AoNA 6m
    • AoOA 11y
    • AAoA 3y
  • Inquiries:
    • Pulled Experian.
    • TransUnion was frozen. I don't know whether they tried to pull it.
    • Equifax was not pulled.
    • TransUnion: 1/6, 2/12 (including yesterday's card)
    • Equifax: 0/6, 2/12
    • Experian: 0/6, 2/12
    • All bureaus combined: 0/6, 3/12
  • Income between 100k and 150k/year, rent 700/month.
  • Utilization: 1%
  • No bad stuff

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I just applied today for the BOA Unlimited. I can't remember exactly what it said on the screen, didn't think it was a denial, but not an approval. I noticed that I recieved a text from BOA that asked if I had applied for a credit card. I responded and presto I was approved.

Wonder if the same thing happened to you.... (did you give them your cell # in the application?)

[TyrannicalDuncery3]

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Wonder if the same thing happened to you.... (did you give them your cell # in the application?)

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This is a very interesting point! I did give them my cell # in the application and marked it as a mobile number. HOWEVER,  I did ask for the initial confirmation code to be sent by voice call, so maybe that prevented the easy confirmation text from being sent?