Which Card(s) to Apply For?

[Lancelot99]

So I'll create a new topic on this soon but I know this thread is getting seen by certain people very helpful to me so I hope by posting here first, I can get their feedback.

So I did an app spree recently, my first, and was approved for all but Citi Double Cash.  I had just paid off all my balances and waited long enough to report FICO 8 scores of EQ 815, EX 816, TU 823.  I applied for Citi first, followed immediately by Chase, Penfed, and Capital One (Venture One).  I had read C1 pulls all 3 CRAs so I app'ed C1 last.  Citi had a clean slate.  I had no inquiries showing at all.  I haven't app'd for new credit in almost 10 years.

I had $69,100 available in total credit and was showing a $3 balance total across all cards.  Citi did not approve my app but I finally got their letters today.  I was actually so surprised by Citi's denial that I actually immediately applied again using their latest pre-selected to apply letter.  That's how I got 2 letters from Citi today.  :-(

The first letter says: We reviewed your application and can't approve it because of the following reasons: - Your credit report shows no recent revolving balances.  - Your credit report reflects a lack of recent installment loan information.  It also told me my credit score was a 813 and their credit scores range from 250 to 900.

The second letter says: You have submitted multiple applications for credit.

How I got here.  I had burned Citi back in 2006 maybe, a CO for maybe a couple of thousand.  I had a couple of med coll's fall off last year and those were paid.  My score started to climb and I got into the habit of paying a day or two before the due date so the lowest balance possible was showing, i.e. my new purchases were getting paid off along with some of my old debt.  I waited for the scores to rise and double checked them all before applying.  I do not have any installment loans: no mortgage, no car loans.

So here are my Qs:

1) I really want to recon Citi because I actually wanted this the most.  I did a search and find no recon's like mine, with scores in the 800s and declined for no recent revolving balances.  They're saying I don't use my credit but I definitely did until I finally paid everything off.  I pulled my free Experian report off of AnnualCreditReport.com a day ago and it shows some of the cards used to carry balances before I paid them off.  6 months ago, I was still carrying like $5-6k across all cards.  How do I approach this?  I need to find the thread with the back door number and just plead my case.  There's no template, right?  And I can't find other situations like mine...

2) Might Citi's denial be code for "you burned us 12 years ago and now you can't have our card"?  That definitely crossed my mind.  I read Citi has a memory.  No mention of it in the denial though.

3) So a pre-selected to apply letter is different than a pre-approval letter.  That was just a stupid miss by me.  I haven't applied for a new card in 10 years and I failed to notice.  Not really a Q, just a note about my lack of experience.

4) I have 30 days to recon from the date of decline, right?  And Citi uses a 250 to 900 credit scale?  So 813 out of 900 actually doesn't sound that great.  I thought all FICO scores were on a 300 to 850 scale.

Thanks for all your thoughts and comments ahead of time.  I'd like to recon Citi ASAP so your advice is much appreciated.

[Lancelot99]

I wanted to ask a few follow-up questions to this comment: "The #1 reason why I've done sprees in the past is because new accounts affect approvals more then the INQs do IME. When you hit several lenders at one time. None of them have reported the new accounts yet. So your scores remain unaffected by the new accounts reporting."

When you say sprees, you mean all in the same day, like literally back to back to back on your computer, right?

All the free credit monitoring services I signed up for, i.e. C1 Credit Wise, Chase Credit Journey, Credit Karma, Experian Credit Scorecard, etc., *immediately* sent me emails saying EX and TU had been pulled.  In your experience, how long has it taken for the new accounts to show up?  I ask because I was thinking of perhaps one more app before they reported.  My spree was 2 weeks ago, maybe?  None of the free services have them listed yet but most of them just got activated in the middle of last week.

I did try to order it since I read Citi only pulls 1 (Exp here) but Cap1 pulls all 3 and that proved to be true for both.  So at the least, the next app will see 1 to 3 pulls, depending on who they pull.

In your footer, I also notice very high credit limits.  Was there a trick to this?  Do you use all the cards intermittently to show usage?  Discover bumped me to $28k recently and C1 started me at $20k but some of the other limits are relatively low.  BofA has one at $3.1k and it hasn't moved for years.  They asked for a HP to consider a CLI so I left it alone.  AMEX and DIS seem to be more generous.  Not in your territory yet but approaching $100k TCL, thanks to yours and others' advice!