Delta Amex Rejection - 727 FICO

[Anonymous]

So I've been arduously working to restore my credit for the past 6-8 months, and I'm at a point where I finally got my credit into the 700 territory. I've been in the garden when it comes to apps since I was approved for a capital one card in January with a measly $500 limit (has since stepped up to $750) because at that point, I was maxed out across the board and my scores were in the low 600s. I had a lot of errors on my report due to a mixed file, so that's how I was able to rebound into the 700s so quickly. 

I just applied for an Amex Delta card and got the pending review message. I called in the recon line, and was informed that my application was declined due to:

1. Serious delinquency

2. Proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high

3. Too few accounts currently paid as agreed

4. Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown

Now, my last late payment showing on my credit file is from January 2017, a 30 day late. The only other negative item on my credit report a 60 day late to Macy's in December 2016, as I had a payment returned and promptly replaced, for their stupid $2.00 minimum finance charge after I paid off the account. 

Now, I do have student loans that are significantly over the original loan amounts as they were deferred for a number of years (and they are private student loans). I'm paying them as much as I can every month, but one of them is almost at $6,000 over the original amount and the other two are at about $1500 over the original amount each. Before I even tried to get a credit card with my new higher FICO stores, I looked into refinancing those loans so that I can wipe out the high amounts above the original loan amounts and have one consolidated payment, but SoFi and every other "check your rate" soft-pull refi application I've done has rejected me due to the original loan to balance ratio being too high. 

In any case, I'm pretty bummed out that I couldn't get the Delta card from Amex as I've seen folks here approved while in the 650+ range, and I'm on a Delta flight at least 2x a month for work (and I have to cover my travel expenses up front and then get reimbursed, so this card would have been a nice compliment to my usual spend). I also attempted chase sapphire preferred and got the same rejection reasons :-/. I guess back into the garden I go until I significantly pay down these loans so that they are below 80% of the original loan amounts. It will be a while.....

Just for data points, I have the following cards:

USAA card with a $500 limit reported at $0 balance,

$2900 NFCU card reporting at $184,

$1200 DiscoverIT secured (well past 7 months, no graduation, I assume for these same reasons) reporting $14

$100 Macy's Card reporting $0

$750 Capital One reporting $0

[MrDFinance]

Late payments are huge weight on your report.. A 2017 late is still considered pretty recent to most creditors and AMEX doesnt like delinquency when it comes to getting approved for thier credit cards... They are much more forgiving when applying to thier charge cards... And it also seems the student loan balances are a problem.....

Unfortunately it does look like the Garden is the best move here ..... Pound your report with on time payments to combat those lates and focus on your Debt to income ratio by paying the loans.....

[FinStar]

It appears you made a lot of progress in getting to a decent score territory, so congratulations on those efforts.  Have you considered sending a GW letter or discussing it with the two lenders to see if they can adjust those lates?   I'm assuming those are the only 2.  While no guarantee they'll remove them, it's possible they may be able to exercise some flexibility given the circumstances at the time.  Just my .02c

[Anonymous]

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@MrDFinance wrote:
Late payments are huge weight on your report.. A 2017 late is still considered pretty recent to most creditors and AMEX doesnt like delinquency when it comes to getting approved for thier credit cards... They are much more forgiving when applying to thier charge cards... And it also seems the student loan balances are a problem.....

What's considered a good timeframe since last delinquency? 3 years? Also, I know Amex lets you do a two for one with two apps off a single hard pull if done promptly, should I shoot for a regular charge card and see what comes back?

Unfortunately it does look like the Garden is the best move here ..... Pound your report with on time payments to combat those lates and focus on your Debt to income ratio by paying the loans.....

Reluctantly heading into the garden for the forseeable future....    . But it's all good, ultimate goal is a mortgage in the fall of 2020, hence why I wanted to get these apps in now.  

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[Anonymous]

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@FinStar wrote:

It appears you made a lot of progress in getting to a decent score territory, so congratulations on those efforts.  Have you considered sending a GW letter or discussing it with the two lenders to see if they can adjust those lates?   I'm assuming those are the only 2.  While no guarantee they'll remove them, it's possible they may be able to exercise some flexibility given the circumstances at the time.  Just my .02c

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I have called Macy's credit department at least 10 different times, emailed the executive offices and no dice. I will be sending good old paper letters this week to see if that helps. I got really upset after the last time I called due to the way the rep spoke to me about the late payment, and the only reason I don't cancel the card is because it's my oldest active account by about 7 years. The other card with 1 late is NFCU, I haven't tried any goodwill with them yet because around this same time I had a checking account that charged off with them due to an extended overdraft (my lovely then boyfriend screwed me and gave me a bad check for like $3,000 which caused all of these late payments, etc.). I'm on a payment plan on that charge off in the hopes they let me bank with them again, so I'm waiting for that to be paid off before I attempt any goodwill with them, or applying for anything else there. 

[MrDFinance]

AMEX usually does a soft pull after your already a member.... Not sure how they handle 2 same day applications... And if the charge cards interest you it can be a way to build a relationship and history with them... I would check the prequals and see what's available..

As far as the late payments the effect fades over time as far as effecting your scores but lender can still always see them clearly...Best thing you can do Is have a bunch of good history in front of the late payments..... a Goodwill letter to the lender as the other poster mentioned wont hurt either....

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@FinStar wrote:

It appears you made a lot of progress in getting to a decent score territory, so congratulations on those efforts.  Have you considered sending a GW letter or discussing it with the two lenders to see if they can adjust those lates?   I'm assuming those are the only 2.  While no guarantee they'll remove them, it's possible they may be able to exercise some flexibility given the circumstances at the time.  Just my .02c

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I have called Macy's credit department at least 10 different times, emailed the executive offices and no dice. I will be sending good old paper letters this week to see if that helps. I got really upset after the last time I called due to the way the rep spoke to me about the late payment, and the only reason I don't cancel the card is because it's my oldest active account by about 7 years. The other card with 1 late is NFCU, I haven't tried any goodwill with them yet because around this same time I had a checking account that charged off with them due to an extended overdraft (my lovely then boyfriend screwed me and gave me a bad check for like $3,000 which caused all of these late payments, etc.). I'm on a payment plan on that charge off in the hopes they let me bank with them again, so I'm waiting for that to be paid off before I attempt any goodwill with them, or applying for anything else there. 

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Well, don't give up.  You've worked very hard to get to this level where your scores have shown great improvement and there's likely you'll succeed in getting those removed.  The Rebuilding Your Credit subforum provides a wealth of knowledge on those GW efforts (and success stories) that can provide some guidance in getting it accomplished. 

[MrDFinance]

Not to Many companies budge on removing late payments as they are required to report accurate information to the credit agencies.... That's the response you will receive 95% of the time

[Anonymous]

That’s exactly what Macy’s has told me over and over “we need to report accurate information, if you have any proof we made an error send it to this fax # and we will correct”.

[Anonymous]

I see why it's a bummer.  You did amazing work so far and getting above 700 FICO score is something to be proud of. 

Just FYI, don't sweat the student loans. I am in the same boat and finally go the AMEX Delta card with a $1000 limit a few months ago.  My only AMEX. I still had the loan issue but a few of my lates had aged off.  I did have a few recent lates on my student loans (2 years ago) but that didn't seem to matter.  I think some of the lates on the CCs aging off was the key in my case. The only lates on CCs I had when I got approved were about 5 years ago.