Earlier this month I applied for an AAdvantage Aviator Red during my app spree and got declined, before I applied for a Bread Cashback Amex as my "last" spree card.
Well, I got the Barclays denial letter earlier today and thought "Why not?," and called their reconsideration line. The denial reasons were too many accounts opened, too many recent applications, and excessive credit applications. To my surprise (and delight), the operator focused on the second reason for too many recent applications, which she interpreted as recent applications with Barclays. The only other time I had ever applied for a Barclays card was for an Apple co-branded card - which would have been about 9 years ago or so. (I almost forgot about the Barclays "Apple Card" that I didn't get.)
After a 20-minute call that sometimes felt like waiting for a loan approval at a car dealership, I came out approved for a $5,000 SL. They were concerned about late payments from more than 3 years ago on a shared car/car loan when my partner had been ill, and Barclays seemed satisfied with that explanation. The most unexpected question I got was why my oldest credit card account was "only" 9 years old. I explained that I wasn't using credit cards for a few years before I saw the light. (It seems like they're looking for longer credit card histories for the Aviator Red - perhaps relative to the age of the applicant? - or at least they're giving longer histories bonus points.)
(I was inspired to say that I hadn't been using credit cards for a few years after seeing a YouTube by Brandon Boyd about the Barclays reconsideration line, and his application for the Aviator Business card. He was a former David Ramsey coach who took Ramsey's advice about not applying for credit cards, until he didn't. 😂 It might not be the answer I would have given a week ago, but it's nonetheless true.)
This card was been on my wish list for several months now, and I'm glad to finally get it. It's my most substantial SUB that I can remember to date (60,000 American Airlines AAviator miles after making the first purchase). It's technically my first real "travel rewards card," although I got a lot of travel back in the day on an Amex green card, and I currently have a WF Autograph. It's also got 15 months at 0% APR, which will come in handy for a large purchase I'll be making in the next month or so, and maybe a balance transfer. And the first year's annual fee is waived. I'll probably downgrade it after the first year, but for now I'll enjoy the perks.
My denial letter shows a TU credit score of 722, which matches my FICO 8 score on Discover. I had 7 hard inquiries with TU before the application, including 1 from Capital One two days the Barclays application, and two from a car dealer last year (so probably only 5 affected the score/application). AAoA 2 years 11 months, AoOA 9 years 3 months, 16% utilization.
Edits: I've corrected the number of inquiries I had with TU, added labels, and cleaned up the post for readability.
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