Hello, world! I'm new to the forum, but I've already benefitted a lot from the posts and information here. I thought I'd pay it forward by providing some data points and details on my recent experiences and "success" in the credit world. Not sure that my recon adds much new insight, but perhaps some might find it interesting nonetheless. tl;dr is that I got Chase to approve me for two new credit cards pretty much back to back. Based on what I've read in this forum, this is somewhat unusual for Chase. I made a few rookie mistakes and suffered a little bit due to my own impatience, but ultimately I'm pretty happy with my current situation.
Background: My current FICO score is "fair" at ~660-667. I'm an authorized user on an older credit card (15+ years old) which is doing a lot of the heavy lifting propping up my score, along with a Chase Freedom card that I've grown from a baby $500 CL to $5,000 in the past five years. I had a horrible experience with a Sychrony Amazon store card that made me afraid of other credit cards: an $11 purchase turned into $150+ in late fees/charges that wound up in the hands of a very aggressive collections agency, which remains a major negative mark on my credit report. (Along with 120+ day late payments on a student loan, but I will save that story for a different post in the future, hopefully another success post. 
) I've been generally aware these were negative and hurting my score, but did not realize how much weight they carried on credit decisions until now.
Application(s): I got my stimulus deposit last week and was trying to decide between using it to pay down my balance on my credit card or spending it (after all, the intended purpose of the money is to stimulate the economy). But then I thought, why not both? I went into the my offers page on the Chase site and submitted an application for a Chase Freedom Unlimited was instantly approved for $5,000 spending limit with that sweet, sweet 0% APR. I probably should have stopped there. But just two days later, drunk on my own power, I decided to apply for another card with Chase - the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa. I shop on Amazon a lot and figured that Chase must like me. I was rejected and received a letter citing the recent credit application, my delinquent account, and a lack of credit experience.
Reconsideration: I got major tunnel vision and was fixated on doing anything I could to turn that "no" into a "yes". I discovered this forum and started reading about reconsideration, settling collections accounts, and learning the ins and outs of credit inquiries. I will skip through the rest of the details that aren't relevant to the reconsideration itself.
I made my first phone call to Chase's lending services department on Friday. I pretty much immediately got connected to a human and said that I wanted to ask questions about the decision/application and how I might get approved for this card in the future. They said sure and reiterated a lot of the things in the letter, but my impression was that they probably would have let a recent application or a collections account slide through, but not both. I beat around the bush a little and didn't push the conversation towards getting into specifics about the negative marks, and I also didn't directly ask that the appliction be reconsidered. I did gently inquire about transferring some of my existing line of credit from older card, but she said that wasn't possible. I thanked her for her time and insight, and left the call feeling like "that didn't seem like a reconsideration" (because it wasn't!)
Reconsideration (take two): I spent the weekend reading this forum some more and after some calls to the collections agency, decided to just pay the dumb collections account since I'm a person who is willing to pay $150 for it to not be my problem anymore. I decided to make a second call to Chase. This time, I asked to speak with a credit analyst for a "manual review" to see if they could "reconsider my application" and "reverse the decision". (Emphasizing these key phrases for people who, like me, might be failing with direct communication). She said sure and she named the specific negative marks on my account, which is when I told her that I had paid the collections account and per the agency's policy, it would be removed from my credit report since it was older than two years old. I think this helped, but there was no substantial reaction from the Chase rep. I also had a response prepared for the late student loan payments prepared, but she moved to putting the application through pretty much immediately afterwards.
I went on hold for a little while and when she came back she said that they couldn't approve me for additional credit (no surprises there) but offered that they could transfer some of the limit from my Freedom Unlimited (0% APR) card to the new Amazon Rewards card. I countered with asking if it could come from my Freedom card instead (15% APR) but she said no because it was a flagship card with a $5,000 minimum (strange since I started that card at $500, so I know that's not the case) and the limit can't go below that. I kept my eyes on the prize and accepted her offer. I got placed on hold again and when she came back she said I'd be getting my card in the mail soon etc. I thanked her and told her I was happy and excited to use the card. I could hear her crack a smile and she said no problem!
Final observations: The recon process itself ended up being pretty painless. I spent WAY more time agonizing over it and "preparing" than I did actively solving any of my problems or talking on the phone. I'd also note that just because you can get reconsidered/approved for a certain card doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. The reality is that I left money on the table by willingly lowering the amount of 0% APR credit that I have available when I could have just waited a reapplied later. I also probably could have pursued other ways to get the collections report off my account or waited for a better settlement offer instead of paying a premium for getting things done in a rush. That's the price of impatience, I suppose!
Sorry for the long post! Not sure if any of this is helpful or interesting, but I'm happy to share any further thoughts with recon-curious folks out there!
Congrats on your approval and successful recon.
Congratulations on your reconsideration and approval!
@Pizzarina_Sbarro wrote:Hello, world! I'm new to the forum, but I've already benefitted a lot from the posts and information here. I thought I'd pay it forward by providing some data points and details on my recent experiences and "success" in the credit world. Not sure that my recon adds much new insight, but perhaps some might find it interesting nonetheless. tl;dr is that I got Chase to approve me for two new credit cards pretty much back to back. Based on what I've read in this forum, this is somewhat unusual for Chase. I made a few rookie mistakes and suffered a little bit due to my own impatience, but ultimately I'm pretty happy with my current situation.
Background: My current FICO score is "fair" at ~660-667. I'm an authorized user on an older credit card (15+ years old) which is doing a lot of the heavy lifting propping up my score, along with a Chase Freedom card that I've grown from a baby $500 CL to $5,000 in the past five years. I had a horrible experience with a Sychrony Amazon store card that made me afraid of other credit cards: an $11 purchase turned into $150+ in late fees/charges that wound up in the hands of a very aggressive collections agency, which remains a major negative mark on my credit report. (Along with 120+ day late payments on a student loan, but I will save that story for a different post in the future, hopefully another success post.
Application(s): I got my stimulus deposit last week and was trying to decide between using it to pay down my balance on my credit card or spending it (after all, the intended purpose of the money is to stimulate the economy). But then I thought, why not both? I went into the my offers page on the Chase site and submitted an application for a Chase Freedom Unlimited was instantly approved for $5,000 spending limit with that sweet, sweet 0% APR. I probably should have stopped there. But just two days later, drunk on my own power, I decided to apply for another card with Chase - the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa. I shop on Amazon a lot and figured that Chase must like me. I was rejected and received a letter citing the recent credit application, my delinquent account, and a lack of credit experience.
Reconsideration: I got major tunnel vision and was fixated on doing anything I could to turn that "no" into a "yes". I discovered this forum and started reading about reconsideration, settling collections accounts, and learning the ins and outs of credit inquiries. I will skip through the rest of the details that aren't relevant to the reconsideration itself.
I made my first phone call to Chase's lending services department on Friday. I pretty much immediately got connected to a human and said that I wanted to ask questions about the decision/application and how I might get approved for this card in the future. They said sure and reiterated a lot of the things in the letter, but my impression was that they probably would have let a recent application or a collections account slide through, but not both. I beat around the bush a little and didn't push the conversation towards getting into specifics about the negative marks, and I also didn't directly ask that the appliction be reconsidered. I did gently inquire about transferring some of my existing line of credit from older card, but she said that wasn't possible. I thanked her for her time and insight, and left the call feeling like "that didn't seem like a reconsideration" (because it wasn't!)
Reconsideration (take two): I spent the weekend reading this forum some more and after some calls to the collections agency, decided to just pay the dumb collections account since I'm a person who is willing to pay $150 for it to not be my problem anymore. I decided to make a second call to Chase. This time, I asked to speak with a credit analyst for a "manual review" to see if they could "reconsider my application" and "reverse the decision". (Emphasizing these key phrases for people who, like me, might be failing with direct communication). She said sure and she named the specific negative marks on my account, which is when I told her that I had paid the collections account and per the agency's policy, it would be removed from my credit report since it was older than two years old. I think this helped, but there was no substantial reaction from the Chase rep. I also had a response prepared for the late student loan payments prepared, but she moved to putting the application through pretty much immediately afterwards.
I went on hold for a little while and when she came back she said that they couldn't approve me for additional credit (no surprises there) but offered that they could transfer some of the limit from my Freedom Unlimited (0% APR) card to the new Amazon Rewards card. I countered with asking if it could come from my Freedom card instead (15% APR) but she said no because it was a flagship card with a $5,000 minimum (strange since I started that card at $500, so I know that's not the case) and the limit can't go below that. I kept my eyes on the prize and accepted her offer. I got placed on hold again and when she came back she said I'd be getting my card in the mail soon etc. I thanked her and told her I was happy and excited to use the card. I could hear her crack a smile and she said no problem!
Final observations: The recon process itself ended up being pretty painless. I spent WAY more time agonizing over it and "preparing" than I did actively solving any of my problems or talking on the phone. I'd also note that just because you can get reconsidered/approved for a certain card doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. The reality is that I left money on the table by willingly lowering the amount of 0% APR credit that I have available when I could have just waited a reapplied later. I also probably could have pursued other ways to get the collections report off my account or waited for a better settlement offer instead of paying a premium for getting things done in a rush. That's the price of impatience, I suppose!
Sorry for the long post! Not sure if any of this is helpful or interesting, but I'm happy to share any further thoughts with recon-curious folks out there!
I think she meant that your freedom is a visa signiture since it's 5k and if you go below it's no longer one? That's my guess but congrats! I was approved for the same card yesterday as well enjoy it! And the free gift card!
Congrats! Your persistence paid off, but you were also patient and not a demanding jerk and maintaned a good attitude toward the CSR.
