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My wife just applied for a Marriot Bonvoy card…..Currently has a BA Amex (Black) and Amex Business Platinum….The Amex BA card she has held for 15 years and the Platinum business for about 18 months…Both balances are Zero and we always pay the full balance before the month end……Has not done churning…….She had an Amex Gold personal which she has not used for nearly a year and that was cancelled two months ago….We wanted the card (not for sign up bonus) but because her Bonvoy points expire in January and by spending a little we will add a few points (obviously we don’t get the bonus offer)….
Application declined……Anyone else have any similar issue?…..Her Equifax Credit Rating is 995
They seem to be declining a lot more these days. If she calls Amex and reduces her credit limits on other cards they may well reconsider.
Credit score is pointless. What’s her credit limit (including business card) relative to her income?
An Equifax ‘rating’ is an irrelevance/marketing gimmick and anyway Amex mainly uses proprietary credit models, with agencies providing other checks. A decline shouldn’t be seen as any reflection on her creditworthiness, but part of a global phenomenon that has been going on all year, as cheap and easy credit has all but evaporated. Most card companies are currently being very cautious partly of their own volition but also encouraged by both prudential and conduct regulators. This will inevitably get tighter so anyone expecting to cycle through cards and expect all applications to be successful may be disappointed.
Welcome to a cost of living crisis. In this environment it’s recommended that you get the desired cards in place, say 1x Amex and 1 x non Amex, that you are happy to stick with over the longer term, say 2 years. This is most certainly not the time in the economic cycle to go serial MS hunting as you may do serious damage to your credit worthiness with financial institutions and end up very disappointed.
This is most certainly not the time in the economic cycle to go serial MS hunting as you may do serious damage to your credit worthiness with financial institutions and end up very disappointed.
When did the OP mention any MS?
@NorthernLass ‘s is the best adviceWhen did the OP mention any MS?
He didn’t. My post was general, not specifically aimed at that contributers post, hence why my post wasn’t directly quoting his or anyone else’s, but more of an expansion on JDB’s post
Another data point for reduction in credit limits:
Player 2 had amex BAPP card before the summer, cancelled it and reapplied after the summer.
Nothing creditworthy happened to her in between, but her limit was reduced by amex from 12k to 7k.Another data point for reduction in credit limits:
Player 2 had amex BAPP card before the summer, cancelled it and reapplied after the summer.
Nothing creditworthy happened to her in between, but her limit was reduced by amex from 12k to 7k.That is slightly a different issue though..
When you close an account, the credit limit history goes with it. When you then open a new account, the new credit limit is assessed again and with an higher risk profile..
This is one of the reason why I am reluctant of closing my HSBC Premier World Elite Credit Card and rather downgrade to the Premier World: I started with a 7.5k limit, which was lowere of what they offered me as an Overdraft facility on my Premier account, and it took a full 2 years to get the limit to multiple times of my initial one, and I know if I simply close and reapply for the Premier World (as sometime suggested by the CS to avoid to have to do the paper request), I will have to start again from a lower credit limit..
Thanks for replies and just to confirm we have done no recent churning (past three years). After my wife’s declined application she applied for a Barclaycard Avios Card (free) and was immediately accepted and credit limit is £9,000. My wife banks with Barclays so this might have helped.
She applied for the Marriot Card with full knowledge that she would get no sign up bonus. We had an email from Marriott to say points expiring in January. Obviously we could simply transfer Amex Reward points to avoid losing points but my wife has about 148,000 points and there is a 50,000 per night redemption (3 nights) and we are looking at so getting 2,000 points from spend which is a very easy.
We will be calling Amex today based on the great advice of trying to reduce the limit on her BA Amex Card which is around £20,000 and frankly we only need £3,500.
Another reason for getting the Barclaycard for us is that Capital on Tap have cancelled both our cards as we don’t have a limited company but thats a seperate topic.
Thank you for all the responses.
Howard
We just spoke to Amex. They won’t give a reason but recommended we reapply in 90 days.
Thanks for assistance.
When did you get the barclaycard? Could this be a case of applying for multiple credit products in a short period of time?
I got nothing, otherwise…
We applied for Barclaycard just after being refused by Amex.
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