A few weeks ago Vinh from Miles Per Day posted a set of letters from a reader stating that not only had their U.S. Bank credit card applications been denied, but their existing U.S. Bank credit card accounts had been closed for two reasons:
- Credit bureau report shows a number of recently opened tradelines
- Sufficient credit lines already available to customer
I linked to that post in one of our recaps, but with only a single datapoint it was hard to draw any conclusions (often people aren’t sharing the whole story when it comes to shut downs). Since then I’ve seen a number of other people report the same shut downs occurring:
- Accounts from last year closed within four new applications this calendar year (and applied for two FlexPerks cards during the Olympics promotion)
- Accounts shut down after calling reconsideration, 8 new accounts opened this calendar year. No new USB accounts before this application since 2014.
- Previous accounts closed and then reopened again
It seems like there are a few things at play here, in the cases of shut down I’ve read about two things seem to be consistent:
- People called reconsideration (and usually more than once)
- People applied for multiple U.S. bank cards at once
If you’re going to apply for U.S. bank cards, I’d recommend taking this into account and trying to use up any points you have before calling reconsideration or applying for multiples. It seems that U.S. bank is somewhat cracking down with them also denying some business card applications for people with frozen ARS reports. As always share your experiences and data points in the comments below.
Update: As Vinh points out filing a CFPB complaint also did not work to get the points reimbursed. Usually these complaints work best when multiple people are making the same complaint, so I wouldn’t let that discourage you from making a complaint but just keep in mind it hasn’t done anything in the past.
accidentally commented on old post, my b
update: Denied for the Biz FlexPerks because I refused to unfreeze my ARS and got a letter re: the personal card that I had not applied under the proper link to get the Rio bonus aftert I did my $2K spend.
Had it with USBank.
Somewhat related, I was denied when opening a US bank checking account online due to “frozen Sage stream report”. I did not approve overdraft protection, apparently they pull sage stream for checking accounts opened online.
I was asked to unfreeze the report, or to open the account in-branch which would allow a different non-sage report to be pulled.
Just a data point for me. I applied for this card in August and was approved after it going to pending for a week. I did not call and did not have my ARS credit report frozen. I had opened up 8 accounts within the last six months, none within the last three months (neither any hard pulls in the last three months). I had no existing cards with them at the time, although previously I had opened up two cards with them. Those two cards I applied at the same time and eventually got approval after going pending. The only time I did not get approved for a card was when I applied with them after having lots of inquiries within the last three months. It’s definitely possible to get approved without having credit report frozen and opening up lots of accounts.
I can also verify that US Bank now has a policy of denying you if you have your ARS frozen.
I got the personal FlexPerks during the Olympic promo but they are not giving me the Olympics promo and say they don’t see the code for it on my application.
I applied for the Biz FlexPerks at the same time and twice have had to call their security division for verification. On the 2nd call they said the 1st call should not have “cleared” me because there is now a new rule that you have to unfreeze your ARS to get approval. This seems to be a new rule this week.
In my case I am never going to unfreeze my ARS; a couple years ago after my credit line reached a certain amount Chase did an ARS pull on me and closed all my accounts for an “unfavorable” comment on ARS about me. ARS is a loose cannon to have out there for others besides US Bank.
And while I’ve had the Club Carlson card several years, US Bank is a PITA to deal with because of they’re being so unpredictable and closing accounts and reneging on bonuses on a whim.
Also, be forewarned- if you report different income amounts on US Bank checking applications and credit applications, it may trigger a manual review of your relationship that leads to a full shutdown.
This happened to me, due to inputting incorrect income info for the checking application (I was opening a second checking for the CC funding, after having received the recent checking bonus and being approved for the flexperks card during the Olympics promo). I assumed the income info shouldn’t matter for checking, so I didn’t bother to type the extra digits to make it correct. Hindsight being 20/20, that was incredibly stupid and lost me nearly $700 of rewards, because after the 2nd checking application, ALL of my accounts were shutdown, including checking, savings and the flexperks card.
Calling customer service has wasted much time and ultimately proved fruitless.
I know I could have been a lot smarter in this process and I made dumb mistakes, but I haven’t seen any DP’s regarding this danger so I wanted to let you all learn from my errors.
TLDR: Entire relationship closed due to differing income reported on different applications. No recourse was available.
thats terrible man. but seriously?! Reported income discrepancy and they shut you down? sounds way too ridiculous. are you sure? is that what they said? I have read no such DP about such a “innocent” thing totally wiping you out.
Its always related to GC transactions or MO or attempted CC funding of account or crap related to CRA.
If its was ONLY such a mistake, that is totally CFPB level dude. Get your accounts back. Thats BS. Otherwise, you are a terrorist and not telling the whole story. haha. jk.
Got an offer in the mail today for 30k amex flexperks but having just signed up for 4 cards last month I think I will skip. My flexperks visa is my oldest card (northwest carry over) so I don’t want it to be shut down.
well not only that, the 30k is standard. thats not an offer at all.
if a previous flexperks card is shutdown do you lose access to all your flexpoints if thats the only card with access to redemption/accrual?
Yes
I’ve opened about 6 cards this calendar year. I applied for Flexperks business, got denied for too many recent inquiries. Reconned and got approved. Applied for a personal card a few weeks later. Got pending but eventually approved without calling. No shutdown yet.
FWIW, I applied for flexperks business and personal cards during the olympics promo, was declined for both, called recon (for the business card) and was declined again, and my cards weren’t shut down (yet?). And I definitely have opened plenty of cards in the last year.
Thanks, Elliot!