Pros - Make sure and take note of the CCB reference below. For those of you following my saga, I have a new chapter. Please see "Good news on the AMEX quandry" and "The Never Ending Battle" for a background. My recent round of applications went to Discover, AMEX, and MBNA. Discover approved, and AMEX needed some convincing to approve. I called today to check on my MBNA application, and it was declined. I have some interesting points to make regarding my conversations. This was an important application to try and salvage, as I am not willing to put any more inquiries on my reports for a while. The following was all done with a very pleasant, but frustrated and disappointed attitude. When I first called, the rep said that I was declined, reason being credit too new to rate. Hah! I then asked to speak with someone about it, and they told me I had to request reconsideration in writing after I received my notice in the mail. So I asked for a supervisor, and the supervisor was a little more receptive, but basically said the same thing. She did try to call into the credit department to find someone that could talk to a customer. After she failed with that, I asked to speak with her manager, and she then managed to find someone in credit that would talk to me. The credit rep introduced herself as a bank officer. She was very friendly. As with AMEX, I explained that there were some extenuating circumstances that skew the FICO score. Right away she said that she was leaning toward approving it, but had a few questions. She mentioned that one of the reasons she suspected it was declined was because there was no history before 1994, and there were several accounts, such as CCB!!!!! I explained my lack of history being a result of living overseas for several years just prior to that (mostly true). But, I was amazed they were so thorough! This point about the missing history alone is worthy of discussion here. I then explained I was trying to consolidate all my "beer money" credit lines that I had been using to establish history into one or two reasonable lines and close those little cards out. I mentioned that there were some "new accounts" because I had a couple issued recently with low low lines. I did make one mistake. When she asked how much of a line I would like, I said at least $5K. She immediately approved me for $5,500. I should have said $10K. Oh well. Score this round: Eric-3, Banks-0. Credit basis: 10 odd lines, 30% balances, 58 months history with *0* lates, no other derogatory info, $90K income. The addition of this line allows me to cancel a few more sub-prime cards and still maintain my low balance-limit ratio with my monthly expenditures, with less open lines. As usual, I make these posts to give people the inspiration to sustain the patience it takes to rebuild, and to offer insight into the credit evaluation process.
RE: AMEX down, now MBNA - One I forgot to mention. This application was based on a credit report obtained before the new $5K Discover showed up. I doubt I would have been approved if they knew about that. Their source was Trans-Union.
RE: AMEX down, now MBNA - One Excellent information, Eric! It just goes to show the magic one can work with patience and persistence, but most importantly with the gift of gab. I think your best asset is simply knowing how to talk to people. It's all a matter of people skills. Unfortunately, not everyone possesses this quality. While it's difficult to interpret your tone and approach without engaging in conversation with you, I'm sure that you were pleasant and allowed your personality to shine through. Although your successes are inspiring, I hope you'll share some of your approaches with us. Obviously, you can't empower others with your gift, but perhaps you can offer some dos and don'ts. It really makes a HUGE difference. Also, I wish you the best and thank you for offering a breath of fresh air.
RE: AMEX down, now MBNA - One Eric; I think what you are doing is a great service to this community. I have never asked to speak to a person, but have always been successful in my credit building process by using patience and a "credit sense" discipline. Keep up the good work and encouraging the rest of us in your approach. http://www.creditsense.com
RE: AMEX down, now MBNA - One Thanks for the kind words. Thanks for the kind words from Creditsense, too. I tried to give a reasonable amount of detail on my approach in the post I made. Short of transcribing the conversation, I think that's the best I can do. Although I am smooth on occasion, a lot of the success with both conversations can be directly accredited to knowing what one is talking about. Be an educated customer. Know what they want to hear, and tell them. Be honest with yourself and think about what they might ask before-hand. Be prepared. And talk slowly. Better to take a second or two to respond to a question and produce a well thought out answer that is concise. Good luck to all. I hope my successes keep people motivated. There is light at the end of the tunnel. If there is significant interest in more details of the conversations, I would be happy to try and quote some of my responses to the questions that were asked.
