I generally don’t like talking to human beings (preferring to do everything online), but if you’re applying for a lot of credit cards, eventually you are going to need to speak to a representative. This isn’t a necessarily a bad thing, as I’ll outline in the post below. Calling credit card reconsideration lines puts you in touch with people who can extend you credit (and thus approve you for new cards) when the computer algorithm dictates otherwise.
When to call the reconsideration line
There are generally two situations when you should call a bank’s reconsideration line.
1. Your application has been denied
Generally, if you don’t receive an instant approval on your card, you will be shown some version of a “pending” message (exact wording varies by bank). You’ll receive a decision within 7-10 business days of that. If the bank has denied your application, all is not lost! People assume if the bank says no, that’s the end of that. To the contrary, no doesn’t mean no – no means time to call the reconsideration line and ask them to reconsider. They’ve already pulled your credit and won’t need to pull it again, so you literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
2. Your application is pending and you are feeling impatient/you want to grease the wheels
I still haven’t been flat out denied credit, so the only times I’ve called the reconsideration line is when my application was pending. Calling the reconsideration line when your application pending can help being denied in the first place, or can just help speed things up. For me, I like calling just because I love the thrill of getting approved.
How to call the reconsideration line
Your goal for a reconsideration call is to make yourself seem like a worthy candidate of credit. (I should pause here to remind you that you should only being applying for travel credit cards if you can avoid to pay the balance off in full each month. If you can’t, your points will probably cost you more than they are worth in interest fees).
So how can you ensure your consideration call goes well? This is what I do:
1. Tell the agent you want to check on the status of your application.
This is pretty straightforward, this is how things get started. You can say this regardless of whether you are pending or have not been approved – just say you want to check your application status. If you haven’t given your information already, they’ll ask for it here, and they’ll probably reconfirm some things even if you have.
At this point, you’ll probably rattle off what current credit cards you have with that bank, and they might ask you about why you need the card. If that’s the case:
2. Discuss some of the benefits you like about the card, but do NOT mention the sign up bonus
Generally, you are trying to get a credit card for the lucrative sign up bonus. But don’t tell the rep that! Instead, you should do some research about the benefits that come with the card you are signing up for and mention those. Generally, these benefits are good, so tell the rep why you want them! For airline specific cards, you can talk about how you are interested in priority boarding or free checked bags. For cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the American Express Platinum, you can discuss the fact that there are no foreign transaction fees. For hotel cards, talk about how you like the status that comes with the card. For business cards, discuss how you want to keep your business and personal spending separate (which is really important, anyway). It’s easy to truthfully talk about the benefits you hope to receive from the card WITHOUT mentioning the sign up bonus.
At this point, you usually get put on hold, they go crunch some numbers, and unless you have tons of credit with this particular bank, they’ll come back and tell you you’re approved! Yay! If they come back and say they can’t approve you, that’s usually because you have a lot of credit with that particular bank already. If that’s the case, all is not lost!
3. If the agent hasn’t mentioned it, offer to move your credit lines around for the new card
A lot of times, you are being denied because you have TOO much credit with the bank. If the rep doesn’t bring it up themselves, offer to move credit lines around in order to open up the new card. Chase is particularly good about doing this, and it’s possible with Amex as well. For Citi, people generally report having better luck submitting a letter (snail mail!)
This hypothetical example illustrates how it works. Say I’m trying to sign up for Chase’s United Mileage Plus Explorer card but am denied. I already have a Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire Preferred, both with credit lines of $10,000. Thus, Chase has already extended me $20,000 of credit total. They are probably denying me because they feel it’s too risky to extend more than 20K of credit to me. No problem! I can ask the rep to move some money off of one of my credit lines in order to open the new card. So, for example, they might agree to change the Freedom credit line to $5000 and open the new card with a credit line of $5000. The bank’s risk hasn’t increased, because you aren’t being extended any new credit. Yet you win too, because you get a new card and the sign up bonus that you never mentioned. Profit!
4. If you don’t get the results you want, hang up and try again
The nice thing about dealing with humans instead of computers is that all humans are different. If your call isn’t going as planned, or if you feel like things aren’t going well, politely tell the agent you need to go and hang up. Then wait a bit, call back, and speak to a different agent.
Final Thoughts
Remember, you can call the reconsideration line as soon as you receive a “pending” message from the bank. Sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly impatient, I call as soon as my application is submitted. If you get denied, don’t fret! Call the reconsideration line! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain! At the bottom I’ve included the numbers for the reconsideration lines for the big banks.
Chase
Personal: 1-888-245-0625
Business: 1-800-453-9719
American Express
Application Reconsideration Department: 1-866-314-0237
New Accounts: 1-877-399-3083
Citi
Write a letter to:
Citibank Executive Review Department
P.O. Box 6000
Sioux Falls, SD 57117
[…] So here are some links for you. There is no reason for me to re-write a guide to reconsideration phone calls since it already exists here (with phone numbers), here (with video example), and here. […]