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For the past few years, I have been helping my wife build credit. When I met her, she didn't even have a report! (better than a bad report right?)
I put her down as an AU on 3 of my cards, including an Amex that is dated to 1991.
I had her open a BofA secured card for $1000 back in 2008 and since then has become unsecured for $2000.
I also put her down as a co-signer on 2 car loans.
Her AAoA is 9 years.
Her FICO is 798.
Her Utilization is 1%.
She needs more cards of her own and I wanted to start her off right with a good CU.
I helped her sign up for Penfed using me as eligibility.
She applied for the Visa Platinum Cashback Rewards card and received a PENDING status.
The next day she was "Denied".
I called in to see what the reasons were and the frontline customer service said "Limited Credit Experience".
Now how could this be? She has an AAoA of 9 years, 4 credit cards showing on her report, and 2 car loans.
The CS thought this was weird too so she put me on hold and went to go speak to a credit analyst.
She came back and told me that this is what the credit analyst had told her to say "You are working the system. Your wife would have been 9 years old if the Amex date of 1991 were actually true. We consider this as suspicious activity and look down upon it"... "If you take away all the AU accounts, she basically only has 3 years of her own credit experience, so the original decision stays"... "Limited Credit Experience"
Uhhh ok.
So even if you take away all the AU accounts, she has 3 years of her own accounts reporting and that is considered limited experience?!
So a warning to the rest of you who count on AU's and backdating to help boost your scores/reports. Applying to Penfed will flag a manual review.
P.S. I already reconned twice. No go.
No offense to you, but I call PenFed actions justifiable. If we had more financial institutions like PenFed, I doubt the recent financial meltdown with banks would have ever occured. Way to go PenFed!!
@DI wrote:
No offense to you, but I call PenFed actions justifiable. If we had more financial institutions like PenFed, I doubt the recent financial meltdown with banks would have ever occured. Way to go PenFed!!
No offense to you either, but you've got everything backwards. It is not the financial institutions fault for the financial meltdown, it was irresponsible borrowers who overextended, defaulted and went delinquent on their obligations.
Just because you HAVE credit does not mean you have to USE the credit.
We are all here to help each other out. Who more-so than a husband trying to help his wife establish a good healthy credit history and habits. Everything I have done for my wife was done using information that was suggested here, even some from you.
You are finding joy in my wife's denial by crapping on me for doing what every member here strives to do; Improve their credit by taking advantage of any and all resources available to them.
Seriously man, I'm kind of dissapointed this is coming from your mouth, a member that has been on this board for so long.
@aftermath wrote:
@DI wrote:
No offense to you, but I call PenFed actions justifiable. If we had more financial institutions like PenFed, I doubt the recent financial meltdown with banks would have ever occured. Way to go PenFed!!
No offense to you either, but you've got everything backwards. It is not the financial institutions fault for the financial meltdown, it was irresponsible borrowers who overextended, defaulted and went delinquent on their obligations.
Just because you HAVE credit does not mean you have to USE the credit.
Seriously man, I'm kind of dissapointed this is coming from your mouth, a member that has been on this board for so long.
They were never qualified for a mortgage, but some greedy banks approved them anyway. Therefore, its the banks who's at fault. Their greed backfired.
@DI wrote:
@aftermath wrote:
@DI wrote:
No offense to you, but I call PenFed actions justifiable. If we had more financial institutions like PenFed, I doubt the recent financial meltdown with banks would have ever occured. Way to go PenFed!!
No offense to you either, but you've got everything backwards. It is not the financial institutions fault for the financial meltdown, it was irresponsible borrowers who overextended, defaulted and went delinquent on their obligations.
Just because you HAVE credit does not mean you have to USE the credit.
Seriously man, I'm kind of dissapointed this is coming from your mouth, a member that has been on this board for so long.
They were never qualified for a mortgage, but some greedy banks approved them anyway. Therefore, its the banks who's at fault. Their greed backfired.
Ok, here's an analogy for you:
A guy(mortgage borower) walks into a gun store(mortgage lender) and buys a gun. He went home and shot himself in the head (forclosure).
Who is to blame, the store that gave him the gun or the guy who put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger?
By any chance, her own credit card account is only 1 bofa card which many lenders may consider limited credit experience or too few revolving accounts.
@aftermath wrote:
@DI wrote:
@aftermath wrote:
@DI wrote:
No offense to you, but I call PenFed actions justifiable. If we had more financial institutions like PenFed, I doubt the recent financial meltdown with banks would have ever occured. Way to go PenFed!!
No offense to you either, but you've got everything backwards. It is not the financial institutions fault for the financial meltdown, it was irresponsible borrowers who overextended, defaulted and went delinquent on their obligations.
Just because you HAVE credit does not mean you have to USE the credit.
Seriously man, I'm kind of dissapointed this is coming from your mouth, a member that has been on this board for so long.
They were never qualified for a mortgage, but some greedy banks approved them anyway. Therefore, its the banks who's at fault. Their greed backfired.
Ok, here's an analogy for you:
A guy(mortgage borower) walks into a gun store(mortgage lender) and buys a gun. He went home and shot himself in the head (forclosure).
Who is to blame, the store that gave him the gun or the guy who put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger?
I don't agree with this analogy. In this case the gun store is not taking any risk, while in the case of mortgage lender, the lender is taking a huge risk.
This is just an disagreement with the analogy, not a disagreement or agreement with any of the feelings you or DI have about the meltdown.
3 years total credit history is pretty short, especially to a conservative lender like PenFed. I wouldn't worry about it too much, though, as it sounds like her profile is definitely headed in the right direction. Try some more "big banks" or major network cards like BoA or Discover, Amex, Chase, etc. They are all relatively conservative, but their automated systems will likely completely overlook the AU status, and I'd say with that profile, she would be approved automatically.
Now, on to the more important things. You opened your AMEX card when your wife was 9? Bravo! LOL j/k
What did or didn't cause the financial meltdown really has nothing to do with the fact that PenFed did not take into account AU's in this situation.
That's what the discussion needs to focus on.
From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
@MarineVietVet wrote:What did or didn't cause the financial meltdown really has nothing to do with the fact that PenFed did not take into account AU's in this situation.
That's what the discussion needs to focus on.
From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
The subprime lending crisis caused financial institutions to tighten its lending and lessen its risk. PenFed not taking into account the applicant's AU accounts could be part of an ongoing domino effect contributed by the financial meltdown.