My 1st credit card application rejection notice

Wow! I would have never thought this could happen. I got a letter declining my application from the RBS credit card I applied for to take advantage of their 0% Balance Transfer offer.

First I was shocked, then I felt a little insulted, by this morning I am over it.

Here is the letter:

Dear [2million],

We appreciate your recent application for a credit card account and regret that we are unable to approve your application at this time. Your application was processed by a scoring system that assigns a numerical value to the various items of information we consider in evaluationing an application. These numerical values are based upon the results of analyses or repayment histories of a large number of customers. The information you provided us in you application did not score a sufficient number of points for approval of your application. The reason why you did not score well compared to other application were:

Percentage of balances to credit limits on revolving accounts
Number of revolving bank credit account exceeding 75% of credit limit
Time since most recent inquiry

......You may also obtain your report or dispute the information that it contains by contacting the consumer reporting agency at the following address and toll-free telephone number:

Experian
701 Experian Pkwy Bx 2104
Allen TX 7501
(888) 397-3742

Sincerely,

RBS

Well there it is. I like how the letter gives you at least a little insight as to what the problem is. This letter highlighted 3 things:
1) Percentage of balances to credit limits on revolving accounts - Well I currently have 4 credit cards I am using for 0% BT offers:
-Bank of America Balance:$13,030/Limit $13,200;
-Citi Balance $16,980/Limit $17,500;
-HSBC Credit Card Balance $5810/Limit $7500;
-GM Card Balance $200/Limit $2,300.
I only use a small portion of the limit on the other credit cards for monthly purchases and pay off balance every month.

2) Number of revolving bank credit account exceeding 75% of credit limit - Ok this is enlightening to me because it turns out I have 3 cards that are exceeding the 75% limit (Bank of America-98%, Citi - 97%, HSBC - 77%). I now know the 75% limit is important and need to make sure my other balance transfers are down to below 75% before I apply for a new card/0% BT offer. Apparently the secret number here is less than 3.....

3) Time since most recent inquiry - This one concerns me as well because I thought I purposely waited at least 4 months since I applied to my last credit card (the Citi card) so maybe that isn't long enough either, or someone else made a credit inquiry recently.....

Also although not mentioned, I recently moved and changed my mailing address - I am not sure how but I bet this somehow effects your credit score.....

I plan on following up with Experian to review my credit report - I'll post any results from this effort. I guess the good news is I now know what I need to watch for before I try this again. I actually have to pay off the HSBC and GM cards in the next month since the 0% BTs will be ending (that is one of the reasons I decided to try this offer). My new plan will be to just move this money out of savings and pay off these 0% BTs then in a couple months I can try this again.

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Comments (2)

DATE: 4:55 PM
You should wait at least 6 months between inquiries, that's when they start to "fall off" your credit reports.

Posted by Jonathan | September 10, 2006 3:03 PM

DATE: 6:16 PM
good to see a blog dealing with credit card issues. Credit cards are a necessity in Western Life. Sadly they can be one of our biggest liabilities. I have a site dealing with credit card debt management. You might like to take a look

Posted by kerry | September 10, 2006 3:03 PM