Initial Chase recon fail, followed by small success

[krial]

Apped for a Freedom card, Chase pulled TransUnion and fiancee got approved instantly for a $500 credit line. Credit score of 653.

Bad:

Report contains one collection and judgement that goes with it that were both marked as paid over 2 years ago.

Good:

Auto loan that was paid off a couple of years ago.

Student loan almost paid off from 5 years ago.

Secured credit card for over 2 years.

100% on time payments.

2 inqueries, one from 6 months ago and one from 20 months ago.

Called recon analyst line (888-245-0625) to see about a credit line increase to $2000 before she even activated the card. Lady pushed us through to talk to someone else who was on a speakerphone in India. Could barely understand her because of the thick accent, and it was made even worse by someone else in the background having a conversation with another customer on another line about their payment times and interest rates. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their ability to protect my privacy as I could hear everything the guy was saying over there.

Anyway, no counter-offer for a smaller credit line bump, no questions about anything good or bad on the report, no nothing, just a "Sorry, we can't approve you, you will get a letter in the mail explaining..."

Yea, I could already read that stuff off the back of the paper our cards came on. "Factors adversely affecting your credit score: not enough revolving accounts open, not enough satisfactory accounts, and not enough satisfactory accounts opened greater than 5 months."

Really wanted enough of a credit limit to set everything up to be paid with the card for the 1%, fill up our gas tank all month, etc. Going on vacation for a couple weeks and now I'm going to have to log in with my phon and pay off the $500 CL at least 4 times just to cover the trip, let alone anything else. Annoying and almost pointless to bother with, and we got an extra hard pull out of the deal.

So contrary to all the praise I've seen online about it, from personal experience I recommend not bothering callling that analyst number. Useless.

Edit: After another call they did bump it up a little, and the second hard pull never appeared on TU so they either pulled something else or didn't do a second one. Still not great, but better than initial impressions.

[Simply827]

Call again and hope for a different analyst. Some people have had to call 2 to 3 times before they got an approval.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

It sounds like the analyst didn't want to 'analyze' your request and xferred you to a normal CSR. This is why the Capital One BD nums never worked; they always xferred me to an outsourced CSR.
I would call back and if they attempt to xfer you, politely request for the automated system NOT be used in the decision; the CSRs just use the auto sys I suspect.

As reported, sometimes Chase takes a couple times on recon- took me 3x to get a $5k Freedom with a 640'ish FICO(700+ now)!

Good luck! Also, please remember that you have to explain to then WHY they would want to extend you credit. You might need to step it up in the kissing azz game. Hahah and you have a lot of great items on your CR, so remember to list that stuff as well if you feel they may still decline you lol I prob spent 30-45 mins on my last recon call w Chase. Haha

[SSA_2013]

This actually doesn't sound like a recon. It sounds as if you contacted the backdoor/recon number first. Chase almost always requires a Hard Pull for a CLI and they require you submit that request first. This would be why they transferred you to a regular customer service rep. (I never got why the underwriters wouldn't be able to do a CLI without the front reps ) Since they denied you... now you should call back for a recon--sometimes you need a few call backs actually. I will say that sometimes banking is far more complex as opposed to simplicity. For example, a credit pull that was pulled within 30 days should be good for all transactions within 30 days. Instead Chase will request a pull every time you call them. Even if it 2 times in a day. (This part makes no sense as nothing much will change within hours) Good Luck and keep us posted!

[krial]

I tried to talk to the lady but she wasn't listening and didn't give me a chance to say much, and it was really hard to carry on a conversation with her accent and the background conversation anyway.

I did see where a few people called in multiple times before they got the desired result, but I don't know as calling 4 times and taking 4 additional hard pulls is worth it. So irritating!

[kilj0y]

Did they pull a second report since you haven't even received the card yet

[krial]

That's exactly what I did, contact the backdoor/recon number first. As soon as our cards arrived in the mail I called it up, hoping to get the starting credit line reconsidered. I didn't even activate the card before the call.

Yep, pulled a second report. I did receive the card yesterday and it was sitting in front of me when I called, I just hadn't activated it.

[SSA_2013]

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@krial wrote:

That's exactly what I did, contact the backdoor/recon number first. As soon as our cards arrived in the mail I called it up, hoping to get the starting credit line reconsidered. I didn't even activate the card before the call.

Yep, pulled a second report. I did receive the card yesterday and it was sitting in front of me when I called, I just hadn't activated it.

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Yes, Chase has treated me great but they are pull happy. Even if you didn't activate the card yet (or even get it for that matter) they will do a new pull. The only card I've heard you can have the initial CL reconsidered is the CSP. 

[CBTS]

I know it sounds desperate, but I got approved for the Freedom after reconning the app 5 times. So you never know when you might get that analyst who's willing to take a chance.

I'd say try recon at least once more.

[krial]

I'm not sure though. If I'm going to take hard pull after hard pull, I'd almost be better off applying for a couple of other cards and hoping one of them isn't so dang stingy on the initial CL.