ben hedges: reverse your credit card denial! 5 tricks to reconsideration, boost your approval odds

Hey, credit warriors. Welcome to the show. And today we're going to be looking at five things to say, to overturn a denial on a credit card application. Okay. Five secret tricks. And this actually comes from an article that is on Nasdaq's website. It's from actually from the Motley Fool, but I found it through Nasdaq. You know, some days there's no credit card news going on and it's hard to run a credit card channel under those circumstances. So I just searched the word credit card in Google and see what news items come up. And this is one that came up and I thought this was very worthwhile going through this article and talking about all of these different tips, uh, for getting through a credit card, uh, you know, reconsideration court. All right. So let's just take a look at the article first of all. So they start off by saying sometimes a credit card application doesn't go your way. You fill it out thinking that you're on your way to a new card only to get the dreaded denial. And in situations like this, your best option is to call the card issuers reconsideration line. So first of all, I want to point out a couple of things. So you have basically three chances to get approved. Okay. One is through instant approval online. It's like, Hey, you're approved, right? You get a nice screen, welcome to the card or whatever expected in the mail in like one or two weeks or whatever like that. Um, second opportunity to get improved approved would be a approval through their online system, but delayed. Okay. By a couple of days. So you'll get a message saying we couldn't instantly approve you, but just hang in tight and we'll get back to you in a couple of days or you may get the mayor, the card through the mail. Um, and so that basically could be a computer system that takes a bit longer. Okay. Because they have to look into your file in a bit more detail or it could be a human. Okay. Having to manually look at your file. You don't really know. Um, but that's another chance for getting approved. Okay. So you've got the instant approval chance. You got the through there, you know, automatic system, but delayed by a few days approval chance. And then finally you've got the reconsideration line. Okay. And this is once you have been denied and you've received a letter, um, you know, whether you were denied instantly or denied after waiting a couple of days and still denied. Once you receive that letter, then you can call the reconsideration line, right? It's important not to call the reconsideration line before you receive the letter because you could still be going through the automatic approval process. You don't want to mess with that because you want to maximize these three chances of getting approved. All right. But once you get that letter, it'll say a reason for why you were not approved. Then it's time to call the reconsideration line. Um, if you want a list of credit card company reconsideration lines, doctor of credit has a very good, uh, you know, list of all of the reconsideration lines of major credit card companies, uh, because these lines often aren't public, but I'll put a link to that below. Anyway, let's get into analyzing this article. So what are their five tips? All right. For calling the reconsideration line. So their first tip is start the call with a friendly greeting. Hi, how are you? Oh, that's wonderful. So yeah, they recommend saying, hi, representative name. I'm calling about my recent credit card application. How's your day going? Absolutely. You can do this. It's great advice. I mean, you don't want to call them up like this. Hey, I was denied for a credit card. I think you guys made a mistake. I'm calling to complain. Your objective is for them to approve you. So you don't want to be rude because really that person holds the power, right? They're the one who's going to either approve or disapprove. So yeah, absolutely. Call them up. Don't be creepy though. Don't be over the top, but absolutely. You can say things like, Hey, how's your day been? Uh, hope you're having a good day. Just wanted to call about my credit card application. Um, you know, maybe you could take a look at it for me. That would be great. Much appreciated. You know, be really polite. Uh, and that's definitely going to help you, uh, with talking to the representative. All right, let's have a look at their next tip. Number two, mention why you'd be a good card holder. Example. I have excellent credit, so I'm surprised that my application was denied. And yeah, so obviously don't be a douche bag with it. I have excellent credit to don't you know, so I can't believe you would deny such a person as myself. You know, don't be a snob basically. I mean, just say, Hey, you know, like I, I do have excellent credit, so it's, I'm a little bit surprised that I was denied. Maybe you could have a look, you know, maybe there's been a mistake, something like that. So yeah. And then just like they say in the article, you know, the ideal card holder for the credit card company is someone who uses the card regularly pays off, you know, maybe occasionally carries a balance, but always pays on time. Never pays late. Maybe they pay the minimum payment one month, carry a little bit of balance, pay a little bit of interest, but in general, our accounts are healthy. Utilization isn't too high. Um, and yeah, you can emphasize all those things. You know, when you say you have excellent credit, you can also talk, you know, not just about your credit score, but you can also say, look, you know, if, uh, I've never missed a payment or, you know, if you do have a missed payment, um, it was like two years ago or something. You can say, Hey, my last two years, all my payments have been on time. Um, I would, you know, I've assumed that you'd approve for that. And speaking of being a good card holder, if you want to maintain your credit score and just kind of keep tabs on your credit utilization across all your accounts, get notified of bills coming up, et cetera. So you never have a missed payment. Why not check out the app max rewards. It's really, really useful. It gives you all your cards on one easy to use dashboard, showing you your utilization warning you when a payment is coming up. Um, it also will show you which card to use, where in your local area for the best rate of credit card points and rewards. And they also have max rewards gold, which is their premium service, which will activate chase and Amex offers for you. So you never miss a deal. It's just $4 per month if you get the annual plan, but actually you can get a free month with my link. Check that out below. So number three, ask for reconsideration. So, I mean, kind of, uh, that's what this whole thing is about, but anyway, let's go into more detail. So what they say is, um, I example, I'd really like to get this card. Could you take another look at my application? See if there's a way to approve it. So with this, you know, remember the politeness still being really polite, but then you need to get onto why. Okay. So you need to know the reason. So from the letter that you received, there may be a reason code that might say, Oh, too many credit card accounts open. Well, some of those accounts possibly could be authorized user accounts on other people's card, right? Maybe your wife has a credit card and she got you an authorized user account or your parents or whatever, right? So if that's the case, you could explain, well, you know, the letter said too many accounts, but actually one or two of those are authorized user accounts. So I don't have seven accounts. I have six or five. Maybe, uh, could I be reconsidered because of this fact, you know, politely, but, and that is possible. I have had success with that in the past. All right, let's move on to the next point. Number four, point out one or two benefits you like about the card, except the signup bonus. Now this is a great tip from NASDAQ or Motley Fool or whoever wrote this, but explain the benefits you like about the card, except the signup bonus. All right. Don't, you know, credit cards don't like people who sign up just for the signup bonus, get it and then cancel the card in their first year or after one year or something like that. Okay. They want long-term customers who are going to use the card. They're going to generally always pay on time, not carry too high balances. And you know, that's a profitable customer basically for the credit card company. So emphasize, you know, say, Hey, I really liked this card. I was really hoping I could get it. Um, you know, maybe I could be considered for reconsideration cause I, you know, I, I spend a lot say on grocery, right. And this card offers, like say it was the Amex gold. This card offers four points per dollar on grocery. And, uh, you know, I'd be really interested in that. I, I use it for my grocery shopping every week. Uh, and it would really benefit me. And I, you know, I'd probably put a reasonable amount of spending on the card. So, uh, you know, that's one particular benefit or maybe there are other benefits as well. Like let's say, um, it's a premium card and you're like, well, you know, it offers airport lounge access. I do travel quite a bit. So that would be really convenient for me. Uh, and I definitely want to keep this product longterm, you know, emphasize the sort of, you're going to be building a longterm relationship with the bank. Okay. Or with the credit card issuer, it's not like, Hey, I want that signup bonus and I'm going to get out of there. All right. And certainly don't say anything to do with manufactured spend. Like, Oh, Hey, I hear this. Uh, this card has a bonus for a grocery stores and my local grocery store sells gift cards. And I could buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of gift cards and then liquidate that much. Just don't go there. All right. Number five, address the denial reason. Now I realize I've already talked about this. I probably should have scripted this video out a bit better, but anyway. Um, yeah, do address the denial reason. And just, just know that you are going to be given a reason code in the letter, but this is a set reason. Okay. It's not something where someone looks at your application and they're like, Ooh, this guy appears to have too many accounts. Let's write that. Too many open accounts on your account. Sorry, you are denied. No, it's just like a computer sees, all right, he's got 15 accounts. Bing reason number 27, too many accounts open or whatever, like something like that. All right. I just made that up, but these are set reasons. Okay. So you can come back at them with kind of set responses like too many accounts. You could say, well, you know, one or two of those accounts are authorized user accounts. Like we said, um, you could also, let's say missed payments on the account. Like we said, Oh, those missed payments are a long time ago. Uh, could you reconsider based on my last 12 months? All right. Um, maybe high balances. All right. Let's say your balance is a little bit high, but perhaps it was higher, uh, like six months ago than it is now. And you could say, well, you know, I know it's for high balances, but if you look at, there is a downward trajectory of my balances. Um, maybe you could reconsider me because they've been going down for the last six months, something like that. Okay. So link it to the reason you've been given in the letter. And this is why, another reason why you shouldn't, um, just, you know, phone early when they're still considering your application. Okay. You need to wait until you're actually denied. So you know the reason why you are denied and then you can address that reason in your phone call to them. Okay. I hope that makes sense. So that's what the article says. But lastly, I want to add a few more points. Okay. So first point is be prompt. Okay. Make sure you call the reconsideration line within 30 days, because typically if you leave it past 30 days, you're going to have to do a brand new application anyway. Um, they can't base it off of an app, you know, base and approval off of an application that was 30 days, more than 30 days in the past. Uh, they're going to want you to do a new application and you'd have to have a new hard pull on your credit report. So you don't want that. You want to have your reconsideration based off of that application, which means you need to phone them up within 30 days of the application. Next point that I'm just going to add to this is know your credit score and the details of your credit report. Because if they ask you something about your credit report, you're going to look like a bit of an idiot if you don't know it right. If they say, well, you know, the reason was you had this, uh, this debt collection. And then you're like, wait a minute, what debt collection? So you need to go and go to, um, the annual website, like annualcreditreport.com where you can see your whole credit report or you go to credit karma or myfico.com and get your actual accurate credit report. So, you know, if there's a collection, and maybe that collection was for something like medical debt and you could say, yeah, look, you know, it was medical debt. Um, you know, it was just took me by surprise. Uh, I had an accident or something. That's why there was a collection. So you definitely need to understand what it was that they are referencing on your credit report and also know where your credit score, um, is at. Okay. Just remember though, the credit score they pull might be slightly different to the one you see on services such as credit karma or whatever. So don't be surprised if your credit scores, you know, showing like one 735 and they have like 727 or something like that. Um, yeah, don't be surprised by that because different systems display different scores. Then lastly, if you have an existing relationship with a credit card issuer, you can use that to your advantage. For example, if you already have a credit card with that company and they've denied you, and perhaps the reason is you've had too much credit issued across your accounts. They don't want to give you more credit, or you could phone them up and say to them, Hey, um, you know, I've got a $5,000 limit on this card. Uh, could you perhaps, you know, halve that to 2,500 and then give me this new card that I want with a $2,500 limit? Right. Just an example. But that's what you can do. Okay. Uh, if it's a bank as well, and you have say a checking account and a savings account with them or something like that, um, you could also use that to your advantage. So you'd be like, well, you know, you've denied me for this card, but look, I've got like $10,000 or $15,000 in my savings. Uh, my checking account also is, has, you know, uh, or if you don't have savings, you could point out, look, my checking account, it has say $5,000 salary being paid in every month or, you know, whatever. Right. Um, you can kind of emphasize those points if you do bank with them as well. So that was the NASDAQ article. Plus a few extra tips from me. Um, I think it's a great article. They did well, but it's just a little bit surface level. They could have gone in a little bit deeper. Um, so I've supplemented it for you there guys. So those are a load of tips for getting through credit card reconsideration. Uh, I hope you liked them. Uh, check out the sponsor of this video, max rewards. Their app is really, really useful and not only for keeping your credit score utilization low, everything like that, but also for getting access to deals. And, uh, yeah, if you want that free month, you can check it out link below as well.