In my experience which isn't good in this "Growing Up" stage by the way mid 30 smh. I was in the same boat where i let a C1 card go. I ended up calling a REP and seemed like i spoke with about 4 or 5 different people before getting a response that i was willing to accept at least hoping it would be honored by them. they told me to pay the balance that i owed on the card and when it has been reported that its paid for me to call back in a month or so requesting for redemption from previous acct assuming with decent qualifying scores around the 550 at least what i had at the time. at that point i thought ok cause everyone else just kept telling me to pay balance and re apply. didn't know in this type of world you need done everything in writing. now i know!
so i waited about 2 months and called and again got the run around for a while until finally i received a pre qualifying letter in the mail. but instead of doing online i called and did it over the phone and got approved. so in other words yes they do forgive slow learners like myself.
hope for the best with you, you may have to bite the bullet and give a wack at it, if denied then speak with a rep or many reps until your satisfied. also don't always go off the prequalifying tool thats just an algorithm. Speak to a Human not a math equation.
