Not quite sure where to put this. Mods, it is fine to move it.
With the in branch CSRes offer soon to decrease, my SO waited until today when a few cards applied for in Feb. 2015 would no longer be counted in the 5/24 count. With 6/24 - 3 primary cards and 3 AUs - we figured a recon call was in his future.
Initially app was declined. First ever that went to "declined" right away for either of us!
Called recon from branch, was told that since the app was declined they cannot do recon and cannot tell him why.
Asked for a recon supervisor.
Was told they'd connect SO but supervisor also could not reopen it and "will tell you the same thing."
Supervisor says he has many cards. He explains 3 of the last 6 in the past 2 years are AU and he is not financially responsible. She asks multiple times "if you make payments on them?"
SO is a bit confused with this question but finally says "no" and repeats the magic words "that I am not financially responsible."
She confirms income, work, etc. I figured we may be in good shape when she compliments him on being at the same job for 30+ years.
Initially she says she is sending it for recon and it would take a week or two.
I signal SO to offer to move credit around.
She says well, that's up to you.
She says one needs at least 10K for the CSRes
SO offers to move 10K from the vanilla Sapphire (downgraded from a CSP, and lying around gathering dust) to the new card if that would speed things up.
I ask to speak, we go through the usual permissions, and I stress that SO is happy to move CLs around from his IHG, Freedom or Sapphire if that will get a faster decision.
She gives away the ending when she says "do you have any other questions before I move the 10K to the new card?"
No - go for it!
She puts us on hold to "do the reconsideration."
We remain a bit uneasy during the 5-6 min wait, but it came back approved.
She says it will arrive in 1-2 days; that this card gets expedited. [Aside - If that is so, it is new since for a while one had to ask and when the demand was so great, they stopped expediting.]
Meanwhile, the banker is like in awe. She is amazed at how I know exactly what to say and how to say it. I offer to give her the script I wrote for SO but she is unsure she is allowed to take it and declines. She offers to go over the benefits but then says, "Oh, you probably know them better than me."
Yeah. Probably!
So, if you are going down the recon road, don't believe the first person, ask for a supervisor, and offer to move CLs around before they do the actual recon or submit it for recon.
BTW, I am actually a fan of waiting out a Chase "pending" app, but in this case 1) it was declined and 2) we wanted to get the card fast, as we have a $2K bill to pay by mid-March.
Good luck!