Getting approved for a Barclays card can be a crapshoot sometimes, so I thought I'd share my experience from today.
I applied for a US Air card yesterday and did not get instant approval. This was the first app of three today. The online application check said I had been declined. This would be my third US Air card (the other two have been closed). The most recent was closed in May after being opened a year before that. I also have an Arrival card.
Twice before I have called into Barclays to be reconsidered for a card (US Airways and Lufthansa). Both were failures, so I assumed this time would be as well.
One of the first things the agent asked was for my permission to pull my credit report. I assumed it had already been done when I applied, and when I asked her about it, she said the system sometimes doesn't automatically pull the credit report if there have been previous applications in the system.
She pulled my credit, noted a balance on my Amex, asked about how I use my credit cards, and asked about my income. She went away for a few minutes and (seemingly reluctantly) approved me for a new card with a $5k credit limit.
Here are my takeaways from this experience... Barclays can be difficult to get approvals from if you frequently open up new cards. This year has been fairly light for me (I think I've only opened 5-6 this year), so I think that worked in my favor. And as we already know, if you're denied online, it's worth a shot to call in. Calling the recon line rarely works with Barclays, but I was lucky enough to have it work out for me today.
Happy churning.
I applied for a US Air card yesterday and did not get instant approval. This was the first app of three today. The online application check said I had been declined. This would be my third US Air card (the other two have been closed). The most recent was closed in May after being opened a year before that. I also have an Arrival card.
Twice before I have called into Barclays to be reconsidered for a card (US Airways and Lufthansa). Both were failures, so I assumed this time would be as well.
One of the first things the agent asked was for my permission to pull my credit report. I assumed it had already been done when I applied, and when I asked her about it, she said the system sometimes doesn't automatically pull the credit report if there have been previous applications in the system.
She pulled my credit, noted a balance on my Amex, asked about how I use my credit cards, and asked about my income. She went away for a few minutes and (seemingly reluctantly) approved me for a new card with a $5k credit limit.
Here are my takeaways from this experience... Barclays can be difficult to get approvals from if you frequently open up new cards. This year has been fairly light for me (I think I've only opened 5-6 this year), so I think that worked in my favor. And as we already know, if you're denied online, it's worth a shot to call in. Calling the recon line rarely works with Barclays, but I was lucky enough to have it work out for me today.
Happy churning.