Last week, I talked about my recent history of credit card applications (including the latest round that day). A week later, I have the results:
- American Airlines Business card – APPROVAL
- Club Carlson card – APPROVAL
- Upgrading Hilton Card To Hilton Surpass – AUTOMATIC APPROVAL
- Amex Platinum – INSTANT APPROVAL
- Southwest Airlines card – APPROVAL
- Barclays Frontier Airlines card – DENIAL
All except the the last 2 were easy. The Southwest card was a moronic move by me. I already had a Personal and Business card active with Southwest. I didn’t look at my spreadsheet when I applied. I thought I had my card inventory memorized and was sloppy. Chase denied the application, so I called the reconsideration phone number. We had a nice conversation, I agreed to close an existing Southwest card, and got the new one opened. The Barclays card was denied for my “sufficient credit with Barclays.” I plan to call their reconsideration number today and close a card to get this one open. Should be 6 for 6.
Also, I got my credit score with the denial. It was listed as 772. This is after applying for almost 40 cards in the last couple years, closing most of them, and opening 5 or 6 checking accounts. I do it carefully and I breathe easy.
Just don’t get sloppy. A reader emailed me saying she closed one of her oldest cards with a $40,000 limit and no annual fee. Not surprisingly, her credit score took a hit. I almost had a heart attack. I asked her, “Why would you ever close that card? It has no annual fee and it’s been open forever. And it has a huge limit! Close these new cards!” Her explanation? “I don’t know. I just got tired of keeping it open.” My answer? Please don’t email me anymore.
