Okay, here's my situation. I have a credit card with Capital One I've been using since college and now I hate it. There's no rewards, they have an annual fee and they have a minimum interest charge every month. I want to pay off the balance and cancel it but it's my oldest credit card where all my credit history is. Also, if I keep the card and don't use it, I will have to pay the annual fee of $59.00. I tried to apply for a new card with Chase but they declined me because they said I had too many open cards. They're mostly store cards like Macy's, New York and Company, Sleepy's, etc. The last time I checked my credit which was early this year, my score was around 765. Why am I getting declined if I have a good score and I pay my balances off and on time? PLEASE HELP!
A couple of factors you are forgetting about and either or both could be affecting you. First of all, lenders aren't interested in taking on new credit right now so credit is considered to be tight. Government apparently wants the banks to let loose of the credit and extend more credit but the bankers aren't going along with that right now. They see bad economic times ahead and don't want to get burned when things get really nasty which they will do soon enough. Second factor may be your income You might be paying off like a slot machine but what is your ability to take on more credit and keep on paying the way you are now? Another factor may be the utilization you now have. If you are paying off in full each and every month then that won't be a problem but if you are carrying high balances then that would work against you as well. So the solution to your problem may be any one of several things you haven't considered. Another thing that you might not be considering is the amount of savings you have. Reserve cash to pay off with if something happens to your employment. If you have little or no savings now then start building up a sizable cash reserve, maybe two or three or even 10 times what you normally spend each month on all your purchases and expenses. If you can show savings sufficient to cover a bare minimum of 10 months to a year of your income that would also give you a lot more leverage. Savings has always been king when things go sour. Then you don't have to depend on credit when things go south on you because you have your savings to fall back on. Build a savings of at least 12 times your current monthly take home pay and those lenders will take an entirely new look at your next application for new credit.
Chase's underwriting standards have become much more strict as of late. Having a good credit score no longer assures you'll get approved for anything, and I suspect things will only get worse in the credit world. Who knows what the new CFPA will do now that they'll have full reign to force rules and regulations on lenders without an act of Congress...scary. Anyway, if you've been a long time customer of Capital One and still use the card regularly, you may want to try giving them a call and asking them to waive the annual fee. You would be surprised...it often works. If you travel, it's nice to have a Cap One card in your wallet anyway since they don't charge foreign transaction fees. By the way, what card do you have? You're saying it has an annual fee but no rewards program? Also, if you don't use those retail cards, you may want to close some of them down. Keep the one you're most likely to use open, but I suspect you have low credit limits on them anyways so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Fyi...Citi still seems to be approving a higher percentage of applicants these days. So, you may want to look at one of their no annual fee cards, like the Citi Forward card or the Citi Platinum Select.
I'd do a bit more than Joshua. I'd call Cap One and ask if you can convert your card to one of their other cards. I don't know if Cap One will do it, but I know Citi used to. And they'd keep all of the old history, just transfer to the new card. But make sure you ask that first.
