Verification hold ups.

[Priory_Man]

I had a conversation with a few of the guys who work for me at lunchtime today, a few of them had applied for new CC's over the last couple of months and out of the 6 only one got an immediate approval (Citibank)

The others all got sent to pending / need further review. 

Each one was put on hold and sent to the fraud dept. of each respective CCC (Amex, Chase and Barclay) All were eventually approved after calling for a status update.

Has anyone else noticed or experienced this?

Getting a new CC in the past was more of a is my score OK, now it's seems it is way more involved.

[Gmood1]

Yes I've noticed it more with in the last year. I've had to do verification with US bank, Banco Brasilia, Synchrony Bank, Well Fargo and Citi for several cards. And that's already having a history with Citi and Synchrony. Out of the four CC's I've had with Citi. I had to do verification on the last three.

Credit card fraud has been out of control lately! 

[Priory_Man]

I knew there was a steep rise in cloning cards etc.

I hadn't realised that it had actually got that bad with people trying to open accounts as you.

I appreciate what the CCC's are doing though, would rather them make me wait a few days than log into one of my monitoring accounts and see a bunch of new cards and loans not opened by me.

[FinStar]

As most FIs attempt to mitigate a variety of risks, curb fraud losses and verify applicants more stringently via KYC measures, UW methologies and internal risk policies have definitely adjusted in recent times.

As @Gmood1 mentioned above, I experienced similar outcomes with Citi, Barclays, AmEx, USB, MUFG, Commerce, Capital One and BoA to name a few. Whereas in the past some applications were instant approvals or take 24-48 hours for processing, the vast majority have taken anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks.

Thankfully I'm fairly patient and just let things play out. Of course, I realize I'm the minority in that department, but I'm aware of fluctuations in the lending industry plus any associated trends that impact those outcomes.

[gdale6]

Pretty routine these days to double verify individuals.

[Loquat]

Like others have mentioned it's just another precautionary measure that one must endure if they're seeking approval.  I have no problem with the process...I understand why they do it and what has caused them to get the point of needing to do it.  HOWEVER, as much as I don't mind the verification process I pray to the credit god (if there is one) that lenders don't stray down the same road that Sir Barclay tends to go down sometimes with the "public records" verification whereas they want to ask you about distant and sometimes dead, relatives.  

[kdm31091]

It is annoying, but in this day and age it's better to be safe than sorry with so much fraud out there. I don't want someone opening accounts in my name. So while verification can slow things down, ultimately it's for the best. In addition to the general increase in fraud leading to issuers verifiying more frequently, remember too that many of us have far more inquiries and new accounts than the norm. These things can jump out and cause issuers to want to verify that someone isn't opening a bunch of accounts in your name.