Bank of America Premium Rewards Approval - Strange Though

[ficobgtx]

Posted on the Credit Card thread about this strange one, but I applied late on the 19th and it went pending - but did finally get approved for... $8k.

Little strange on this one for a number of reasons so I going to try and list out the factors that went into their decision:

• Pulled EX, latest fico score 8 from EX website: 850
• 1% overall utilization
• AAOA - 8 yrs, 10 mths
• $19k total limits on 3 BOA cards before the application (Cash Rewards $5k, Travel Rewards $13k and BBR $1k) - I believe those were the limits, now that's changed
• High stated income (not going to say, but plenty)
• 850 on latest fico from Barclay
• 860/900 eq fico from Citi 
• Platinum Honors with BOA and Merrill account
• 1 (yes 1) inquiry in the past 2 years for CSR over 1 year ago (last August I believe) - instantly approved for on that one $35k, have Chase Freedom at $16.5k and Ritz at $35k (so chase not afraid of high limits for me)
• Citi Prestige at $38.5k and DoubleCash at $23k - so citi not afraid of high limits
• Put about $1.5k/month between Travel Rewards and Cash Rewards... Travel gets most of my non-bonus, non-travel (strange how that works on a "travel" card) because of the 2.6ish rate, and Cash gets my grocery, warehouse (costco mostly) and gas and BBR gets netflix. So not heavy use, and I don't expect the new card to get heavy use.

I wasn't too surprised with the low limit of $8k considering it went pending - but still a little surprised and trying to figure out what is spooking BOA. My direct deposit goes into BOA checking, and my DW and I have combined Merrill accounts. So they have a lot of info, and I would think it is good info.

Oh, and I when I was checking on the limits above, I noticed they took $8k from my Travel Rewards (so now it is $5k) to open this account. 

I noticed that K-in-Boston mentioned that they "robbed Peter to pay Paul" for him -  so I guess I'm not surprised - but wow.

My history with BOA has been good - my longest history card (besides a backdated Amex) is from MBNA that xfered to BOA (20ish yrs). At one time it had a high limit with MBNA (around $38k) but as we can tell BOA doesn't like me. When I changed jobs about 10 years ago, I had 4 BOA cards (2 MBNAs xfers, 2 BOAs) and they cancelled all but 1 card, and set the limit for that at $20k. I called in and told them not to do that - so they re-opened the cards and set each limit to $5k. My one BBR card is my lowest limit at $1k, and it was one of the $5k cards (along with my Cash Rewards and Travel), but I had them move the limit to my Travel Rewards so I could close the card - but this was around the time they came out with BBR, so I just changed to that and I'm glad I did.

But other than that - I don't see why BOA seems stingy with the limits. I think my one Amex is $35k as well, so a lot of high limit cards. Just not from BOA. Not a big issue as I really just wanted this for the bonus. I don't even know if I'll keep it considering I like my Travel Rewards just as much and use it for the same reason - occasionally just putting some travel on it to get the statement credit. No big deal as I do travel a lot - with most of the travel going on the CSR. I rarely use travel "incidentals" because I typically travel on American and have executive platinum status - so the $95/yr fee doesn't work well for me.

So... yeah!? Glad I got the card, but this is a head scratcher.

(editied for type-o, added AAOA)

[CreditCuriosity]

Congrats on the approval.

I am also surprised by your other limits that they gave you a fairly low limit for the card and took from another card to open this card at 8k.  Your exposure with BofA isn't that much at all.  I was declined the card and have about 50k with BofA exposure and your scores squash mine, so a bit curious on why they will only give you so much credit with them and believe from another post that you posted you have a fairly good income as well as seen by other limits on your your cards or they wouldn't of given them to you.

Only thing I believe in is don't bank with the institutions you hold CC's with, with the exception of CU's.  For some reason I prefer to keep my banking relationship and CC's separated as do quite a few people on the forums. I doubt that would of hurt you as BofA sees your income coming in by direct deposit I believe you mentioned.

Regardless, congrats on the approval!

[ficobgtx]

thanks! for the the advice as well. i do have most of my CC spend at other banks too and kind of agree with that... very good point.

[BronzeTrader]

From what I know, we always got $21,000 credit limit with new BA credit cards, two of those.  Then BA tries to keep the total exposure at $50,000.  When I applied for Merrill+, I had to move some of my CL from BA 123 card to Merrill+ to make it a Visa Signature.  So I made the CL to be $18,000 and kept the BA 123 at $8,000.  My total BA exposure is at $60,000 now.

I think I'll have to move my CL again if I want to apply for the new card.  I just have to wait.  Or I can fade away the BA Travel card and replace with the BA Travel Business and get the extra $200 for the changing.

It is no brainer to get this card.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the approval. It's always worth a try to request a CLI since they should be able to use the same pull. I'm also curious as to the APR they gave you.

[ficobgtx]

Thanks - I didn't really think about the APR because I don't leave a balance on my cards.

I don't know what it is yet for the PR card, but here is the latest for my other BOA cards:

BBR: 8.9%

CR: 8.9%

TR: 18.24%

[BronzeTrader]

personally I do not think the credit line matters.  $50,000 is a lot of money to spend with one bank.

[ficobgtx]

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@BronzeTrader wrote:

personally I do not think the credit line matters.  $50,000 is a lot of money to spend with one bank.

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Generally I agree with this but there are a couple of things with this card (and my total exposure to BOA is $19k).

First - I typically use this as my “other” card. Stuff that is not in a 5%, and non-travel that I put on my CSR or Ritz. Sometimes, that can be expensive things, like a new AC unit I had to buy for a rental property a few years ago. That went on my TR, and cost a little over $8k (TR was $13k limit then so no problem). Now, my TR is $5k, so that new AC unit wouldn’t go on it. New PR is 8k so I would have to split the cost b/w the 2 cards. Obviously not ideal.

Second - I was probably only going to keep this card 1 year b/c TR gets me everything I need w/o the $95/yr fee. But now, when I go to close this card a year from now I’ll want to put this limit back on my TR and guess what - BOA is going to hit me with a HP to do that... and they probably won’t increase the limit, but they’ll still HP to shuffle the limits.

So... I basically will end up with 2 HPs for approx $500 (+ maybe some .75 bonus). I don’t really “need” to save HPs but it is still a bit frustrating.

[BronzeTrader]

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@ficobgtx wrote:

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@BronzeTrader wrote:

personally I do not think the credit line matters.  $50,000 is a lot of money to spend with one bank.

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Generally I agree with this but there are a couple of things with this card (and my total exposure to BOA is $19k).

First - I typically use this as my “other” card. Stuff that is not in a 5%, and non-travel that I put on my CSR or Ritz. Sometimes, that can be expensive things, like a new AC unit I had to buy for a rental property a few years ago. That went on my TR, and cost a little over $8k (TR was $13k limit then so no problem). Now, my TR is $5k, so that new AC unit wouldn’t go on it. New PR is 8k so I would have to split the cost b/w the 2 cards. Obviously not ideal.

Second - I was probably only going to keep this card 1 year b/c TR gets me everything I need w/o the $95/yr fee. But now, when I go to close this card a year from now I’ll want to put this limit back on my TR and guess what - BOA is going to hit me with a HP to do that... and they probably won’t increase the limit, but they’ll still HP to shuffle the limits.

So... I basically will end up with 2 HPs for approx $500 (+ maybe some .75 bonus). I don’t really “need” to save HPs but it is still a bit frustrating.

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With all the $100 credit, TSA etc, the $95 AF is worth it.  I have TR and BA 123, but I would want to keep this one.  The rewards structure is better than the TR.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the approval!

I too am very surprised that 1) it went pending instead of being instant (mine was instant and while I have 800 scores, they aren't 850 and I already have more in limits with them) and 2) what I see as a very slow SL given your profile.

Something is definitely out of whack with your 'relationship' with BoA.  Very strange.