First time being declined (BoA Premium Rewards) - Update: Approved

[hockey16z]

Hi all,

I have been in the garden for about 2 years and just now saw a new card that actually interested me, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card.

So I applied and was expecting an instant approval like any other card that I have, but nope, got auto-declined. I was kind of surprised and have not had that happen before. So I called the recon number and spoke with a rep and they passed my app along to a "credit specialist".

3 days later got approved

This card definitely seems more difficult to get. I have never missed a payment, PIF every month, low # of inquiries, <10% utilization.

To give you an idea, I have:

Chase Marriott $15k

Chase Freedom $4k

Chase Slate low limit (almost no use)

CSP $5k

Discover IT $6k

Amex PRG (NPSL)

Barclays Cash Forward $10k

Anyone else have any experiences with this card?

Mod note:  I've updated your thread subject to reflect your approval; feel free to change/edit if you would like.  --UncleB

[BronzeTrader]

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@hockey16z wrote:

Hi all,

I have been in the garden for about 2 years and just now saw a new card that actually interested me, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card.

So I applied and was expecting an instant approval like any other card that I have, but nope, got auto-declined. I was kind of surprised and have not had that happen before. So I called the recon number and spoke with a rep and they passed my app along to a "credit specialist".

3 days later got approved

This card definitely seems more difficult to get. I have never missed a payment, PIF every month, low # of inquiries, <10% utilization.

To give you an idea, I have:

Chase Marriott $15k

Chase Freedom $4k

Chase Slate low limit (almost no use)

CSP $5k

Discover IT $6k

Amex PRG (NPSL)

Barclays Cash Forward $10k

Anyone else have any experiences with this card?

---

This has been discussed a lot lately.  BA does not like churners and would decline the applications when it sees many cards opened recently. 

[hockey16z]

The thing is, I haven't opened a new card in 2 years.

[credit_is_crack]

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@hockey16z wrote:

The thing is, I haven't opened a new card in 2 years.

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I don't know whats different about this card but I think we've seen enough to say its not getting approved in a way we've seen with other BofA cards. "harder to get", "requires higher credit" and "need higher score" are phrases I've seen peppered on the BofA Premium posts. 

I applied online and got an instant $5k approval, but I think i'm at my internal limit (for now) with them. I had one recent approval they could see, but it was the Merrill+ so it was one of their own at $17k just over a month ago. Did they give you any more specifics when you spoke with them about why the auto-denial? 

Congrats on getting it overturned too! 

[UncleB]

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@hockey16z wrote:

Hi all,

I have been in the garden for about 2 years and just now saw a new card that actually interested me, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card.

So I applied and was expecting an instant approval like any other card that I have, but nope, got auto-declined. I was kind of surprised and have not had that happen before. So I called the recon number and spoke with a rep and they passed my app along to a "credit specialist".

3 days later got approved

This card definitely seems more difficult to get. I have never missed a payment, PIF every month, low # of inquiries, <10% utilization.

To give you an idea, I have:

Chase Marriott $15k

Chase Freedom $4k

Chase Slate low limit (almost no use)

CSP $5k

Discover IT $6k

Amex PRG (NPSL)

Barclays Cash Forward $10k

Anyone else have any experiences with this card?

---

Congrats and good job on getting it turned around! 

[UncleB]

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

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@hockey16z wrote:

The thing is, I haven't opened a new card in 2 years.

---

I don't know whats different about this card but I think we've seen enough to say its not getting approved in a way we've seen with other BofA cards. "harder to get", "requires higher credit" and "need higher score" are phrases I've seen peppered on the BofA Premium posts. 

I applied online and got an instant $5k approval, but I think i'm at my internal limit (for now) with them. I had one recent approval they could see, but it was the Merrill+ so it was one of their own at $17k just over a month ago. Did they give you any more specifics when you spoke with them about why the auto-denial? 

Congrats on getting it overturned too! 

---

+1

This card is definitely a bird of a different feather... that @hockey16z hasn't had a new card in two years and still got initially denied is a head-scratcher, though.

[kdm31091]

BOA has definitely been pretty strict with this card (which I guess is understandable with the "premium" thing).

Glad you got it overturned! Many who got denied had no luck on recon.

[K-in-Boston]

hockey16z, what was your approval amount?  Do you have any non-CC accounts with BOA?  While a relationship certainly isn't required for approval, it may have helped some who may have been borderline for an approval otherwise.  I was instantly approved, but they did take $21k from another card to open it (got $12k and change back from CLIs at least).  Also, congrats on getting the approval turned around!

[hockey16z]

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

---

@hockey16z wrote:

The thing is, I haven't opened a new card in 2 years.

---

I don't know whats different about this card but I think we've seen enough to say its not getting approved in a way we've seen with other BofA cards. "harder to get", "requires higher credit" and "need higher score" are phrases I've seen peppered on the BofA Premium posts. 

I applied online and got an instant $5k approval, but I think i'm at my internal limit (for now) with them. I had one recent approval they could see, but it was the Merrill+ so it was one of their own at $17k just over a month ago. Did they give you any more specifics when you spoke with them about why the auto-denial? 

Congrats on getting it overturned too! 

---

No real good reasons. The lady on the phone seemed genuinely surprised and said that she sees no real reason for me to be declined.

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

hockey16z, what was your approval amount?  Do you have any non-CC accounts with BOA?  While a relationship certainly isn't required for approval, it may have helped some who may have been borderline for an approval otherwise.  I was instantly approved, but they did take $21k from another card to open it (got $12k and change back from CLIs at least).  Also, congrats on getting the approval turned around!

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I was approved for $16k.

I do not have any non-CC accounts with BOA (actually no history, at all).

Something I realized I didn't mention in the post is my scores are all around 760. 

Anyway, this card is really a headscratcher as someone said above.

[Anonymous]

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@hockey16z wrote:

Hi all,

I have been in the garden for about 2 years and just now saw a new card that actually interested me, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card.

So I applied and was expecting an instant approval like any other card that I have, but nope, got auto-declined. I was kind of surprised and have not had that happen before. So I called the recon number and spoke with a rep and they passed my app along to a "credit specialist".

3 days later got approved

This card definitely seems more difficult to get. I have never missed a payment, PIF every month, low # of inquiries, <10% utilization.

To give you an idea, I have:

Chase Marriott $15k

Chase Freedom $4k

Chase Slate low limit (almost no use)

CSP $5k

Discover IT $6k

Amex PRG (NPSL)

Barclays Cash Forward $10k

Anyone else have any experiences with this card?

Mod note:  I've updated your thread subject to reflect your approval; feel free to change/edit if you would like.  --UncleB

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I have sometimes paid just the minium payment with some cards while on zero 0% percent maybe the banks like this when they see your credit report and think oh I could earn interest on him where if you pay the account 100% in full they figure why bother. I'm not suggesting paying interest but as long as the money is put aside and your able to control yourself just do small payments over time maybe? idk seems to have worked in my case about one month before the end of promo it's always paid in full never paid a dime in interest yet. But I'm in the garden now and feel I've got more then enough credit for one person with cash also on hand.