When Miles Whip posted on Doctor of Credit that Evolve was not charging fees for using a credit card because it was coming up as debit, I quickly reached over the closest Mastercard I had: Barclay’s Miles and More and dropped a grand into my auto insurance. On a similar note, I wish I had scheduled payments in advanced like Grant did. On top of those charges, my Nationwide Visa Buxx was recently reloaded using the Miles and More so I had about $1,500 in total charges.
The Theory:
If we go back to my post on new cards, I was originally denied for the UPromise with some BS answer of “you’re a great customer” with the on time payments, keep it up type of verbal garbage. My experience was very similar to this Reddit user Lupuscanis:
I recently applied for the Barclay’s US Airways Card, and my application was marked as pending. So I called the recon line and the analyst walked me through a few questions regarding income and tenure at my current occupational position. I answered honestly.
However, she also asked about my recent activity in opening so many new cards. I explained that I was new to this and especially for the UA Airways card that I would be flying with them several times in the next few years.
The only difference, I wasn’t new at this and had just about a 2 year credit file with Barclay’s. 8 days after the decline, I had the charges I mentioned above posted on my card. It was just pure coincidence that I had any kind of charge at the time of the second call to Barclay’s reconsideration with the aforementioned $1500 in charges
During the call, the second agent looked into the application and noted that I was already declined by the previous agent. I asked her to open the application again and to review it and tell me exactly why I was declined and I regurgitated all the positive things the first agent gave me despite all of these great things that were mentioned. The second agent asked me again what my salary and years of employment and was able to instantly approve me only if I moved some of the credit extended to me. I gladly accepted to move credit to be approved.
What this means:
I believe that if you sign up for Barclay’s every 3 months, then you need to use your card so the appearance does not look like you are signing up purely for the sign up bonus and sock drawering it. Beyond that, I’m not sure how they would handle folks who sign up and close accounts because my method is to open accounts and keep them.
Miles to Memories has a post about keeping at most 1 card opened for instant approvals. I’m going to keep my 3, and see what happens in 3 months to see if I can get card #4.
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