Comenity Bank approval and closure within a month!?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

Newbie here. Long time reader, first time poster. I'm learning all the lingo and acronyms, so bear with me. This will be somewhat of a long post. Hopefully you guys and gals can help me. 

I'm in the middle of a long rebuild. I have never filed bankruptcy. Without going into great detail, I got in a bad financial spot a few years ago. 

I followed the advice of a couple of "credit monitoring" sites that recommended I add 2-3 new cards to help stabilize my credit. My credit has come a long way from where it was and I'm becoming more interested in rewards. From reading different posts on this forum and learned of the prequal sites. Thank you all for that!

I googled some of the sites and one popped up for comenity in the form of a Toyota "store" card. My wife has a VS card and I'm authorized on it so I thought, what the heck. I prequalified for a $2000 limit and decided to push my luck a little and app for the visa. Boom, instantly approved for the Visa Signature for $5000. I was pumped! A few days later, after much research and getting a little greedy, I apped for the Westgate Rewards Mastercard. Boom, approved for $1000. After a couple more days and more research I apped for the Orbitz Visa and boom, DENIED. I also applied for the WF Propel and was approved for $1500. (I can confirm that WF uses FICO 9) 

I start using the cards for gas, groceries and christmas gifts (got the intro bonus for both cards). No problems. Before Christmas, we went out of state to be with family. I went to a local Walmart, used the Toyota card to pay and it was declined. I thought, no biggie because Im out of state. Later, I call customer service and was informed that Comenity Closed both of my accounts and that a letter had been mailed to my home to tell me the reason. She ended up telling me, the accounts were closed because of too many recent inquiries. I gave her the spill about trying to stabilize my credit and how these cards are a "game changer" for me (I know, peanuts for a lot of you ladies and gents). She sounds very sorry for me. I ask if there is any way to reconsider. She says no. But, she also tells me to send a letter, and they may reconsider then. This all happened between Dec 21st and Dec 28th. I called a few times to get it right. 

I get home a few days ago, and behold, 2 letters from Comenity from Dec 4th telling me that there was some suspicious activity on my accounts and to contact them within 30days or the accounts would be closed. **bleep**! Both accounts were closed on Dec 24th. 20 days after they sent those letters. I still have not received the account closed letters but they are showing on my CR as "account closed by grantor". Closed before I even got a statement!

Will a goodwill letter persuade them to reopen my accounts?

With both accounts being closed, with a balance, affect my rebuild very badly?

Should I cut my losses and chalk it up to a learning experience?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a prosperous 2019!

 Fico 8 Ex:638  Tu:645  (CK)Eq:657

[Anonymous]

Sorry this happened.  I really wish you new folks would stop trying  to get the easy credit from what is now years ago.  There are many many warnings on this site about Comenity and people continue to roll the dice.

You sound new in your credit journey, or at least in a rebuilding stage.  Take this as a learning lesson.  Use your one major credit card wisely and take it slow.   Credit is a marathon not a sprint.  The truth is, you should not even be trying to get more than one CC before your score reaches 720.  Why would you want a bunch of cards with horrible APRs?

Credit scores can drop 20, 30, 75 points in one cycle.  Credit scores usually only grow 1 point every 2 or so cycles when you stay in the garden.  We have all made mistakes.  Learn from them and move forward.

[Anonymous]

Thats good advice. Thank you! My oldest credit line (closed) is a little over 11 years. I am fairly new at this rebuilding. Started a little over 2 years ago and feel like I should be A LOT further along than I actually am. I guess what I was looking at was diversifying my credit profile and helping my utilization. My goal is to buy a house within the next year, so that is what I am aiming for. After all this happened, I did start seeing ALL the warnings about comenity. I usually learn the hard way. 

[Anonymous]

Comenity is notorious for closing accounts.  You aren't the first and certainly won't be the last.  Sorry to hear about the closure.  I know it sucks. 

[Anonymous]

Better days are ahead! I know in the future to be more patient and selective. That would be my advice to any other "newb" as well.

[3se7ens]

I feel your pain believe me, they did me the same way in April '18 with the Total Rewards Visa.
Just move on from it like I did, take your time and shoot for the top tier CC issuers. Good Luck!

[seattlecredit08]

Really sorry to hear about what happened. While each bank has full rights to do whatever they wish within the letter of the law, in this case, they certainly did not do things correctly here. They should have at least waited 30 days based on the original letter.

One question-- what is holding your scores below 700? Are there still negatives on your reports being reported? Is utilization above 10%? Is there anything else you can do to push the scores up just a bit, by 30-40 points? Becoming an AU (e.g. spouse, relative) is not as powerful as it used to be but can still yield you 10-15 points in some cases.

Especially your Equifax score, it's really very close. If you can get as close to 700 as possible, it will open up lots of doors.

And, I almost forgot, congrats on the WF Propel approval!  That card is 10x better than those Comenity cards long-term.

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

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Sorry this happened to you, unfortunately as others have said, Comenity has been known to do this. Try to pay off the balance ASAP as you immediately hit maxed out status once the closure reports. 

@Anonymous wrote:

The truth is, you should not even be trying to get more than one CC before your score reaches 720.  Why would you want a bunch of cards with horrible APRs?

---

I am sorry but that’s total rubbish. I have nowhere near a 720 yet I’ve got an 11.65 and 7.99 card with NFCU and 18% fixed with SSFCU and interest really doesn’t matter if you pay in full anyway. The advantages of having 3 revolving accounts and 1 installment account far outweigh high interest rates, especially if you pay in full or you work with a credit union or a company like Discover that is known to reduce APRs as the relationship grows. Your method will slow down the rise to 720 considerably versus the 3 and 1 method. 

[Anonymous]

This is sadly common with Comenity.  I've had one account temporarily closed until account verification was complete.  You would think they'd do this before approval, but they don't.  They approved my RH card and within 30 days closed it and sent a verification letter.  I had to MAIL them documents.  I then had to re-FAX the same documents as one of the pages got "stuck" during scanning.  It took me 14 days to have my account reinstated.  I knew I was going to use that account though, so I pressured them to keep the relationship open.

That account is open to this day and I use it all the time.  

Edit:  I have a friend this happened to as well.  Oddly, on my credit reports, as well as my friends, these accounts still show as closed.  We both still actively use our accounts and they still show as closed on our reports (all three).  Whatever, I have furniture financed at 3.9% for 60 months right now on my RH account.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Seattle! I bank with WF so that probably helped. It still hasn't popped up on my CR though. 

The two comenity accounts did pop up active for three days. Boosted my TU and EQ both over 670, according to my credit monitoring. Super excited, then super letdown. 

I've got some negatives that I'm taking care of. All stemmed from being on furlough twice and a divorce. Thats what is holding me back. My utilization was at 13% before I opened those accounts. Now, of course, its higher. I plan to pay them asap. I wonder though, could I request a credit increase with WF and do a balance transfer? Would that help or hurt?