Three for three: BCE Approved!

[Anonymous]

See my post in the Applications board for the full story.

The short story: 10 years as AU on two Elan cards (Fidelity and KeyBank), then they were closed; no other credit activity my whole life. FICO score disappeared but AAoA stayed. Cold apped in early July for Disco, Blispay, Elan through my local bank, and BCE, though I should have gone for BCP.  

Discover instant approval, Blispay was typical ID verification BS, Elan Amex Cash Rewards on Tuesday (see my other post), and finally, after 7 weeks of calling every 48 hours, three 4506's, and several rounds of address verifcation, I got the approval email this afternoon. I almost cried.

It's a huge relief off my shoulders. As I mentioned elsewhere, the Elan application was something I basically forgot about until I checked the mail, but Amex teased me with info requests every 24 hours on the status page. I wanted to forget about it, but instant status updates were a sweet siren call.

So now I've got all my spend covered, and enough CL presumably to move my spending from debit/checks (just had a bunch of fraud charges on my debit card, next thing I have to deal with): Disco for general/restaurants, Elan for bills and gas for my SO, BCE for groceries. Considering most of my budget is for the latter, I should have gone for BCP, but oh well. It's still cashback I didn't have before.

On top of it all, I finally sorted out my budget, deposit, and investment accounts after years of avoiding looking at my balances. The grad school bubble does that to you. It's great to be on top of finances again. 

(re: the title--I'm not counting Blispay, since they didn't decline me for financial reasons, just 'unable to verify identity'. And yes, I tried reconning that)

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!  Keep at it and even better things await!

[Anonymous]

congrats! dont forget to triple your CL. I jumped from 8k to 24k

[Anonymous]

Haven't been able to login with the email link so I'm dying to know my SL, but the minute i get the card I'm going to try for the 3x!

[Anonymous]

Explanation on increasing CL x3..??
I've seen countless posts about Lowes, Home Depot, Sams/Walmart with people requesting CLI's and getting 2-3 times their initial SL. What's the path to this?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Explanation on increasing CL x3..??
I've seen countless posts about Lowes, Home Depot, Sams/Walmart with people requesting CLI's and getting 2-3 times their initial SL. What's the path to this?

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Welcome to the board.  To get an answer your question, create a new thread in the CC Application section for an answer.  That way, the thread is solely dedicated to answering your question. 

[Anonymous]

OP, congrats on your approval after that Amex debacle.  Enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Keep up the great work!!!  Enjoy your new BCE card!!!  

[Anonymous]

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SinCityFF2K wrote:
Explanation on increasing CL x3..??
I've seen countless posts about Lowes, Home Depot, Sams/Walmart with people requesting CLI's and getting 2-3 times their initial SL. What's the path to this?

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There's a long sticky thread on the triple CLI with Amex, as well as 'double-dipping' with Discover. Basically timing an online CLI request for maximum return. There's also anecdotal evidence of people recieving a CLI on day one, and figured I'd give it a try; if not, I'm okay with my limits on the two Amex cards.

Called in, hoping I could get an expedited shipping, but no luck. Did find out I'm approved for $2000, so no pity limit here! 

[Anonymous]

One more post, as data points for future viewers:

Stats: AAoA 6.5 years, FICO EX 727 (both after Discover posted first month). Obviously nothing negative. Income ~$90k, assets ~100k. Starting limit: $2k.

Timeline:

18 July: Applied online, 7-10 day wait message.

19 July: 4506 requested, submitted online. 

Subsequent days: asked for address verification online each day status was checked.

1 August (?) Denied. No denial letter online, just the standard income/address verification instructions. Nothing mailed.

2 August: Called in, told no 4506 came back 'not found' and could not find any credit history; also told not to apply for 6 months. Recon letter mailed and faxed.

6 August: Called in again and asked for manual review; was granted, filled out 4506 again online.

8 August: Same form letter, plus asking for bank statement/utility bill; replied by mail and fax. 

Rest of month: No word on any of my correspondence being recieved. "In Progress"

5 September: Called in, 4506 recieved, finally under review.

6 September: App went to cancelled. Called in, asked for another 4506.

7 September: Request for address verification in the morning; didn't get my faxes, apparently. Approved in the afternoon. Unable to setup online account until card arrives. Obviously didn't send that third 4506!

So in a nutshell, this was a recon of a manual review that had been declined for verification issues, rather than a less than stellar credit file. As I understand it, they're pretty firm if your credit score is below what they want. But in this case, they'd pulled 2015 taxes, which I hadn't filed that year (grad school), and my FICO score bounced back once Discover reported. I sent them a copy of my Experian printout--don't know if they ever got it or if it influenced the decision at all. I didn't mind income verification, nothing to hide and figured it'd benefit me in this case (it did), but was not a fan of how the application process was handled. Very, very close to asking to withdraw my app on several occasions.