February 27
On my most recent (and un-planned) credit card churn, I applied for three rewards credit cards. The churn was prompted by an offer I couldn’t pass up for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card at 50,000 points for $1,000 in spending within three months (twice as good as the standard offer). I didn’t know how long that offer would be around for, so I churned a few weeks earlier than I had originally planned. The offer was available via the card match tool on the creditcards.com site, and the last I checked it was still available if you want in on that.
Since I was now applying for a card that day any way, I also went for the US Bank Club Carlson card and the Chase British Airways card. You can read about why I wanted all of these cards in this post. The US Bank card was given instant approval, and the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card was approved the next day after a brief phone call from Amex verifying that I had applied for the card. It arrived via FedEx about a day after that. Pretty amazing if you ask me! The minimum spending requirement is already met since I had some flights to buy and wanted to take advantage of the 3x points on airfare, so now I’m just waiting for the 50,000 bonus points. Couldn’t be easier.
The only remaining issue was the Chase British Airways card. I was hoping if I just waited a couple days that it would get approved without any further intervention on my part. Recently, most of my personal Chase cards have worked that way. However, today I decided that I had waited long enough, so I called the Chase Reconsideration line at 1-888-245-0625 to check the status of my application and see what I could do to hopefully get the card approved. Million Mile Secrets has a good list of reconsideration phone numbers from the various banks.
The agent I spoke with was friendly, but pretty no-nonsense. She immediately wanted to count the number of Chase accounts I had – both business and personal. She then totaled up the combined credit limits of both my business and personal credit and charge cards with Chase. This was a number that was very important to her, especially relative to my annual income. She went through my activity on all of the cards and how high I have charged them in recent months and noted that they then were paid off each month. She asked info about my income, and also wanted information about my business. The questions were all very basic and included things like:
What is your personal income?
What is the name of the business you work for?
What does your business do?
How long have you been self-employed?
What did you do before that?
Who were you employed by?
Do you charge business or personal expenses on these cards?
As long as you were truthful on your initial application, most of these answers should be easy. She didn’t make any mention of my credit report or number of inquiries other than to say it seemed I was managing my debt well. By that I guess she means that I make my payments on time every month for exciting things like student loans, mortgage, car payments, and credit cards. Please don’t get rewards credit cards if you plan to incur debt on them – there are cards with lower interest rates if you absolutely must incur revolving credit card debt. She did say she was a bit nervous about the high amount of credit I had extended from Chase, but said that since I seem to be managing it, she would let it stand. However, she was not going to extend additional credit to me at this time since I was at the “limit” from Chase for my income.
I don’t really need more credit, what I “need” is another rewards credit card, so we both agreed to shift $5,000 in credit from other cards to open the British Airways card. She was happy to pull from business or personal cards as long as it wasn’t from a charge card (i.e., Ink Bold). For those curious, the minimum credit line to open the BA card was said to be $2,000. I was told that she would recommend approval for the Chase British Airways card pending the credit line being shifted away from the other Chase cards.
The whole call clocked in at 15 minutes and that included the time spent on hold while she typed up her recommendations. The actual question and answer period was probably around 5 minutes. Making reconsideration calls isn’t fun, but it isn’t really scary either. It’s just something you eventually have to do if you like to hold various rewards credit cards. At least with Chase, they really are there to help you try to find a way to get the card you want. It may mean shifting some credit around in order for them to not feel you are a risk with too much credit extended, but that is a small price to pay for “almost” free travel.
This unplanned churn clocks in at 3/3 with approvals without too much work on my part. How have your recent reconsideration calls gone? Were the questions similar to the ones I encountered? Have you found recon calls to be about the same as they were a few years back, or are they getting a little more comprehensive?
Disclosure: I do receive a commission if you are approved for a credit card using one of my affiliate links. As always, thanks for the support.
When I called to have credit shifted from my British Airways card to a new application for the United card I was told the credit limit on the BA card had to be at least $5,000 not the $2,000 you mentioned. Fortunately, I still had a high enough credit line to move some over to my new card and keep the $5k line on the BA card.
Thank you for the good review on chase reconsideration phone call. Could you also tell us how many chase credit cards to you have at this moment?
I did 3 AORs recently (for my mum,dad and me) and we had to call Chase 4 times.
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For my dad and I, it was easy for the most part, expect for one analyst who wanted my dad to send in a copy of Drivers license. I found this strange because my dad has 4 other cards and has never needed to verify who he was.
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In my case, the analyst wanted to know why I need ANOTHER card (since I already have 5), and thought “to maximize my points earning” was not good enough an answer! (I was applying for the Sapphire). It took 2 more calls to get that approved.
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I’ve found that if the analyst transfers you to the “fraud and verification dept” (don’t know what triggers that), then you’re usually transferred to an overseas call-center, and they mostly don’t give a damn.
I am curious how many cards with Chase do you have open? Is there max Chase cards before I should start worrying about stopping applications for?
Some are more difficult than others but most are pretty easy and straight forward. If you want to be on the phone for less time, call up the reconsideration number and tell them straight out that you either want to close a card or transfer credit from another card. If you ask to close a card, they might put you on hold and approve you for the new card without even closing a card. Gotta love Chase
If you are at the max credit Chase wants to extend to you, does that affect your future churn plans? And if so, how?
Also, I was under the impression you could not transfer credit from a Business account to a Personal account. Am I just wrong? Or do you feel like this was possibly a lucky snafu in your favor?
The reconsideration line has been tougher than the past, I think. Earlier this month, I applied for the Freedom card (along with other cards) and got application pending. Then I called the line and went through a similar routine like above and was recommended for approval for closing my Sapphire Preferred and move the credit line to the Freedom. Then I called to check the status, and it was denied stating that I had too many cards already and they were not willing to reallocate credit line anymore. A couple calls later in the following days, I got the same response. So I gave up! Then a few days later, I got a surprise call from Chase Business Lending wanting to discuss about my spending limit on my Ink Bold (I did call CSR prior to that to check my spending limit but that was it.). I told her that I did not need more credit but I was denied on an application. She wanted to help, but after finding out that it was for a personal account, she could not approve but was willing to transfer me to the personal lending side and explain to them. I said OK. A few minutes later she got someone from personal lending on the line. After answering another round of questions similar to above, she then finalize and approve. So my SP account is not closed and I got a new Freedom card.
I applied for the US Air 50k card on Feb 10 as a result of your advice. They turned me down immediately. Today I phoned the reconsideration dept. As a result of your good advice, I learned that I had been turned down because the website recorded only a partial address. As a result of the phone call, I was approved immediately.
Thanks!
Does it negatively impact your credit score when you check it prior to a credit card churn via a service like CreditKarma? I’m curious, but I hate to make a dent if not necessary. Thanks!
Patrick, interesting. She clearly told me it was 2K minimum, however she encouraged me to move 5K and I didn’t protest.
Thousand Miles, at the time I made the call I had two biz card (Ink Bold and Ink Plus) and three personal cards Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, and United Club. This made my fourth personal and sixth total.
Jay, good to know. Agree you need a better answer than “more points”! That question wasn’t asked of me this time, but I would have said for the chip and signature benefit when traveling overseas and because my traveling patterns will now have me on BA more frequently. Both true.
Chris, see answer to Thousand Miles. Overall they seem more concerned about total credit lines than the number of cards – though I am sure there is a max there as well.
Grant, yeah. I didn’t really want to close a card, so I just waited patiently.
Ben, I had heard that before, too, so I don’t know. My person could have been wrong, or perhaps it isn’t set in stone. She didn’t care if it was biz or personal, she just cared about the big picture. I’ve been at my limit off and on for a while now with Chase. Doesn’t really impact my churning other than before I cancel a card I will try to move most of the credit line to another card so I can then have that to trade with in the future.
Jeff, goodness – quite the ordeal, but glad it got done!
Shirley, it always pays to make a phone call. Won’t work 100% of the time, but always worth the effort. Sounds like an easy fix in your case – congrats!
Amanda, that won’t impact your score at all as it isn’t a hard pull. Check away!
@Amanda, if you get your free credit report (no score) it will list many many soft pulls (don’t effect score) and services like credit karma and credit sesame will show up there. If you get any mail offers for cards (likely saying pre-approved) those are all soft pulls. Dang you Discover card. I had like 20 soft pulls from them.
Got an “app pending” for the Chase British Airways as well when I applied online last night. Gave the reconsideration line a call, and he told me that Chase had extended the maximum amount of credit to a single individual they could. I’ve got about $60k in credit over 4 cards, and was applying for a 5th card. I haven’t used my Chase Freedom card in a *long* time, and was planning on canceling it anyways, so I just had them close that account for me and transfer the $10k in credit to the new British Airways card. They offered to keep the Freedom card open and just shift some of the credit around (my Chase Sapphire has $15k and my Chase United has $20k), but figured it’d save me another phone call to cancel the useless Freedom card. APPROVED!
About 2 weeks ago I applied for the Chase BA card. I had the most serious reconsideration call I think i’ve ever had. At the time I had 2 business cards (Ink Bold and Ink Plus), and 3 personal cards (Southwest, Sapphire, and Hyatt), with United Explorer closed about a month prior. I pay in full every month, and only charge about $3k/month combined across all cards.
Agent was pretty firm and committed that they had extended me too much credit already. She quoted $88k in open credit lines, and I agreed with her that I had plenty of credit with them and wasn’t asking for more, but that I also didn’t agree that I had quite so much credit with them. We then proceeded to review my lines, card by card, and came up with around $75k or so. I found it a little odd that they could be wrong on that point. Long story short, I had to cancel my Southwest card (only 3 months old, $10k credit line), plus reallocate about $10k from another card to get the BA card opened with a $10k limit. So I gave up a card and $10k in credit to get it approved, which seemed fair to me, but this was a more serious call than I think i’ve ever had with them.
My reconsideration call we just like yours did. I’m maxed out with Chase, do we just reallocated some credit around, which was totally fine by me.
you ll going to miss out the Amex Plat personal with 100k when it comes around, I ll wait for that one, then come back to gold the following year.
so whats the max # of chase cards could you get based on your income ? could you explain this from Chase point of view and yours. there are so many good ones from chase but i dont know whats the limit.
I now have 4 Chase cards with pretty hefty limits and deal with this issue every time I open a new account. Quite honestly I don’t think you can blame Chase for being prudent – it is in everyone’s interest not to have them extend to much credit to people who may default and thus raise the costs for the bank and ultimately for us.
However I think the term “reconsideration line” is a bit inapt, as technically Chase did not send you (or me) a denial. More accurately it is a new application processing line that you contact when they need more info to process your request. Admittedly it would be nice if they just gave us the number online instead of the “processing message” as I am certain we would eventually see a denial if we didn’t call.
I should add that last year I was also asked why I was applying for the Chase IC card, I responded that I didn’t find the Chase Continental card to be useful and was planning to stay at IC hotels. I think it helps to have a good answer, and also to have a card in mind that you might cancel and transfer over the credit line to the new card.
Not sure what I will next month when I apply for the Chase Sapphire or Hyatt card, maybe cancel Marriott due to the recent devaluation. I don’t really need the IC card, but happy to pay the $49 annual fee for the free night.
Kurt, congrats!
Matt, thanks for sharing and glad you got the card in the end. I have also lost some total credit line before in order to get the approval.
Nick, congrats!
Choi, I already passed on it once earlier in the year. The Plat is a great deal, but the simplicity of this deal really appealed to me. Hopefully I can do Plat next year.
The max varies – they didn’t want to go above 2/3 of my annual income with credit limit, but I have been well over my annual income in credit line with them in the past. It just varies, but that was what they were comfortable with this time.
Boraxo, I don’t blame Chase at all. I am thankful they are so willing to work with us to get the cards we want.
Got the dreaded 30 day decision in mail. I called and shifted a chunk of credit from another chase card and got approved for the hyatt card. Losing diamond so wanted to get 2 suite nites before I lose it.
Mommypoints, Do you have any other Amex charge card? I would love to get the Amex Gold but the T&C suggest that if you have an open charge card (I have the Amex Plat — I thought you do too?) that you can’t get the Gold?
I’ve been applying for Chase cards nearly every quarter recently (SWA Personal Nov 2011, SWA Business Jan 2012, Hyatt Apr 2012, British Air Jul 2012, Sapphire Oct 2012) and I’ve always gotten them pretty easily, just shifting credit lines around as needed. But last month with my most recent attempts (United and Ink Bold), both reconsideration line calls were quite difficult. The first one wanted to know why I had so much recent activity with credit inquiries in the past few months (not just for Chase, but for all inquiries), and kept saying that I already had a large number of cards with Chase. Surprisingly, this reconsideration call for the business card wasn’t so much concerned about my business at all, but really focused on my exposure with Chase. After surviving that tough business call (and finally getting approved!), somehow I assumed that the personal reconsideration would go easier, but that one was even tougher. Lots of repeated questions for why exactly did I open so many cards, why did I have so much recent activity in the past year, why did I need another card with Chase? I kept explaining that I have a very clean credit history and I’m very conscious of paying my bills every month, but this card offered me new benefits. In the end, she caved and gave it to me after transferring $5000 from another card, but it was a tough sell. I think I need to cool it with Chase for a while!
So in total, I currently have 6 personal cards and 2 business cards with Chase, but I definitely feel like I’ve hit my limit with them.
LTL, this is my only Amex personal charge card. I do have a business charge card. Here are the terms: † Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have had this product within the last 12 months or any other Consumer ZYNC®, Green or Gold Card or Platinum Card® account within the last 90 days. I cancelled my Amex Plat personal about 12 months ago.
A simple strategy if you have a number of chase cards with a large amount of total credit extended is to actually call then and ask to a) lower your credit limit and b) be placed on no auto increase. Their system knows how much credit can reasonably extended to you based on their profile of you. By self selecting you automatically put yourself in the auto approve category. The only reason not to do this is if you have a profile where extending credit to you is less likely. In this case you want to have as much extended credit on file as possible to trade across cards.