Applied for the Air France World Elite Mastercard through Bank of America. I've been a deposit customer of Bank of America since 2012. I have no Bank of America credit cards and had always been declined in the part due to a chargeoff from FIA back in 2011. I filed BK in 2013 and that will fall off my reports this September. The BK is still showing on EX, which is the report they pulled. My FICO on EX was 802 when applying and only 2 INQs (both over 1 yr old).
For the past year I've had invited to apply offers mailed to my house by BoA almost weekly so I figured I was off their blacklist. I wanted this card for thee 70K Air France points. We just came back from France and my spouse is French so this card will be put to good use.
I unfroze my EX and submitted the app from the Air France site. Came back instantly as "In Review." I checked the card app status website and it showed declined. I was pretty disappointed and figured I was still on the blacklist. I searched and seemed like BOA did away with their backdoor numbers, but I found one anyway which seemed a direct to customer service number. I explained the situation to a nice rep and she in turn contacted a colleage who asked me all the questions from the credit app (she said she was in the fraud dept). I was on hold for about 10-15 mins in total. She came back and said the application was approved for $22K. I was shocked! It's not my highest limit, but 3rd highest. It was however my highest starting credit limit ever.
Still not sure if this was a recon or just a fraud denial that was overturned. I have no fraud alerts on report and I didn't plead my case for a recon. I just asked why it was declined since BoA sends me letters weekly and invites me to apply for their cards. Happy with the outcome.
