Good morning everyone, hoppy happy Easter!  As part of my March App-O-Rama, I was approved for 8 new credit cards.  In this post, I will talk about my successful reconsideration calls for the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card and the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card.  If you are curious, I shared the other results of my credit card App-O-Rama here.  Long story short, I applied for both credit cards toward the end of my App-O-Rama and received pending responses for both credit cards.  At that point, I patiently waited for approval emails or denial letters.

Luckily, I received a call from Barclays a few days later regarding my recent application of the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  The credit analyst told me that Barclays had already extended enough credit to me and she noted that I didn’t use my 2 other Barclays credit cards much (Barclays Lufthansa Credit Card and Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card).  She asked if I would be willing to move credit from one of those credit cards to approve the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I said yes, that would be fine.  I ended up moving $10,000 from my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card (subsequently lowering that credit line down to $9,500) and having a $10,000 credit line on my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I thanked the rep for her help and asked if it were possible to get the credit card expedited to me so I could use the new credit card right away but I was told that there is a $15 cost to expedite the credit card.  I politely declined and agreed to the free USPS First Class Mail (snail mail) option.

After a week and a half, I received a letter from US Bank regarding my US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card application.  In the letter, I was told that my application was declined because I had enough credit with US Bank.  At that point, I *only* had 6 credit cards with US Bank (Club Carlson Personal, Club Carlson Business, FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature, FlexPerks Travel Rewards America Express, Cash Plus, and Korean Air).

I called the reconsideration department and asked the rep if it were possible to move credit from some of my existing US Bank credit cards.  She said that US Bank cannot move credit from existing credit cards, but she did tell me that I could close an existing credit card to free up some credit and ask the credit card underwriting team to resubmit my application and reconsider their decision.  With that info in hand, I asked her to transfer me to the general customer service department and I ended up closing my US Bank Korean Air SkyPass Credit Card that I opened last summer for 40,000 Korean Air miles (miles still unredeemed) – I haven’t used that credit card since completing the minimum spend.  The US Bank Korean Air SkyPass Credit Card had a $16,200 credit line.  After I closed that credit card, I called the reconsideration department again and told them that I closed one existing US Bank credit card and I asked them to resubmit and reconsideration my application for the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card.  I was told that I would hear back from US Bank in the next few days with their decision.  The following day (without receiving any information or communication from US Bank), I logged into my US Bank online account and noticed a new credit card account in the list.   I double checked that it wasn’t my US Bank Korean Air SkyPass Credit Card account, but the last 4 digits shown were different.  That was a good sign!

I did some more digging and clicked on the My Rewards tab and the new US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card was listed at the top of the page and the last 4 digits of that credit card matched the last 4 digits of the mystery credit card.  I haven’t been home in a few days, but I am sure my new US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card is waiting for me in my mailbox.  I still haven’t received any emails from US Bank about my new approved credit card.  US Bank is always sneaky about their credit card applications.

If you have any questions about either reconsideration call, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend and happy Easter everyone!