American Express Gold Card approval 4th time a charm

[Anonymous]

All 3 times i was denied it said due to length of time as an Amex customer . Which was 7months and outstanding balance on all Amex accounts was to high relative to my income. At the time my balance on all my Amex accounts was between 8-9k. My income to debt ratio on those numbers would be about 4%. Figured my income is more then sufficient, always PIF plus some. Honestly didnt get those denial reasons at the time , but it is what it is now. Each card the spend is different but on average combine all my accounts spending between 5-6k a month.
No BK , 9 INQ , FICO8 683, AAOa has taken a ding from all the new accounts added , which now it’s just under 5 years.

After I got my 1st auto denial , I applied for the first tech odyssey WE card, they pulled EX and I was approved for $25,000 SL. I hear first tech is veryconservative.
When I got approved for U.S Bank Cash+ card just recently I got a $500SL. So All these banks are a mystery I think.

[RonM21]

Congrats!!!

[Anonymous]

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@seattlecredit08 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 However, I can't help but think that you could have gotten the card earlier.  Financial institutions use geo-location to verify your address so if you use VPN and the lender's verification procedure indicates that the application is not coming from the same location as your IP address and your physical address, in most cases you will be denied.  Currently its very easy to get the 50K Membership Rewards points (Gold). or 75K MR (Platinum) simply by opening Amex's website in Incognito or Private mode so there's really no need to use VPN or other such methods.

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First, congrats on the approval!!!

Question-- can anyone confirm or deny the above (that credit card issuers will routinely deny based solely on IP to geo location mismatch)?

I travel a lot and I almost never end up applying when I am at home. I don't think I have had any issues.

It would seem to me a bit excessive for a bank to deny someone only because they see their physical address in let's say New York state but their browset IP is originating from California at the time of the application.

Anyone has had such an experience?

Thanks in advance!

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I don't know why you would be surprised that it happens; here's a somewhat similar example that was posted in these forums just last week: 

PNC can blacklist your mobile device and freeze some app functionality without notice.

Also, I did not say "solely on IP to geo location mismatch."  The OP is also using a VPN and depending on where its originating, you can possibly be denied.  Although I haven't worked on the risk management or security side; I've worked in finance for a very long time; you would probably be surprised on what lenders actually know about you and how much they track, especially through their apps which continue to log location details even when geo location functionality is turned off on the phone.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the approval!!!

[Anonymous]

I too work in finance, geofencing is a commonly used tool to target people in specifics locations. I cant speak to specific credit card SUBs being used in such a manner. But there are specific bank products that are explicitly tracked and managed. This isnt only a banking measure, retail stores do this as well. 

simple example, fraud. Lets saying your in a place with high amount of identity theft (china) for business. And decide to open a new CC, using your home address in the USA. im willing to bet it will raise a flag even though its not a fraudalent attempt. The identity software is more robust than you realize these days. 

just my .02

[AverageJoesCredit]

Congrats on a nice Sub

[seattlecredit08]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I too work in finance, geofencing is a commonly used tool to target people in specifics locations. I cant speak to specific credit card SUBs being used in such a manner. But there are specific bank products that are explicitly tracked and managed. This isnt only a banking measure, retail stores do this as well. 

simple example, fraud. Lets saying your in a place with high amount of identity theft (china) for business. And decide to open a new CC, using your home address in the USA. im willing to bet it will raise a flag even though its not a fraudalent attempt. The identity software is more robust than you realize these days. 

just my .02

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Yep, it's a well known fact that geo-tracking is used in fraud preventation. In fact, something as simple as online commerce heavily relies on it-- many online retailers integrate IP-to-GEO mapping  products directly at a point of checkout. 

HOWEVER, usually this is used a fraud prevention measure and not as a way to deny someone's credit application. So I can see a mismatch of address on one's credit report vs. location calculated based their IP leading to an additional verification step but not to a flat out denial. E.g. perhaps when such mismatch occurs, some credit card issueres may kick the application into a manual review process and/or ask for extra verification. Of course, this is just my opinion and I could very well be wrong on this...

Thank you!!