What should I do if my credit card application was denied?
I just tried submitting an online application for Capital One after receiving an offer in the mail but it was denied right away. I read somewhere that your credit score can be lowered from getting denied from too many. It’s my first time trying to get one so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. How am I supposed to know which ones will deny my application? What should my next step for getting a credit card be?
You might wanna go to
they offer credit cards to new people. They will start you out with 500 dollars I believe. They can also give you an instant answer
If you apply for credit too many times in a two year period the inquiries will lower your score slightly…. but this is very negligable.
Your first credit card is likely going to be a department store card (JCPenny, Sears, Etc). Somebody might tell you no, but that’s not uncommon, and your credit limit is only going to be about $500 (maybe). This simply puts the mark on your credit report and says, “Hey! Somebody trusted me and I didn’t ***** it up!” After about six months apply for a discover card online. It’s a great card and they don’t have annual fees. Just starting out you will likely have an interest rate in the 18% range, but don’t worry about this too much. You aren’t planning on maxing the thing out, and as long as you pay off your balance within 30 days you won’t have any finance charges. As time goes on you can trade up your cards and cancel the ones you had at first… By this I mean… once you’ve had credit for about 2 years you will be offered new cards with lower interest rates. I traded up until I had a Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, and American Express. My interest rates are below 9.9% on all of them.
While initially building my credit I also stopped by the bank once a year and took out an installment loan. At first they wanted collateral, but once they know you this won’t be necessary. Just take the money and put it in an account. Make the minimum payments for about 6 months and then pay off the balance. This once again says, “Hey everybody… I borrowed money and payed it off early!” It looks good down the road.
Other tips… Don’t have more than 4 credit cards. Once you have a major credit card (Visa, MC, Dicover, or AMex), cancel your dept store credit card. Dept store cards actually reduce your credit score down the road, but at your stage it’s more beneficial than harmful. Also, every 9 or 10 months call your credit card company and ask for a credit limit increase. Higher credit limits raise your scores, because you have been trusted with more responsibility. Each of my cards carries a limit of around $20,000 but I hardly ever use them. They don’t need to pull a new credit report to do this.
Remember also… you never want your combined balances or individual balances to equal more than about 30% of your available credit. This is a sign that you are living beyond your means.
The only other thing that affects who gives you credit is how much money you make. Higher salary equates to higher credit limits and lower interest rates.
best of luck.
Those offers in the mail aren’t “firm” offers… they’re “we’re hopeful” offers as from the part of the offerors.
Apparently you don’t have enough credit history or you have tarnished credit. You’re gonna have to improve your credit score before capitol one will touch you.
1) Get a credit report on yourself and see what’s on it. I use Truecredit.com. (I’m vigilant on my credit - i have the subscription where i could literally run it every day if i wanted to, $14.95/mo). The “triple bureau” score is a good deal.
2) Improve your score by paying off debts.
3) Dispute any wrong information on your report.
4) Start with store credit cards (target, walmart, ikea) and wait a few months, and THEN try for visa / mastercard. On your first visa / mastercard in your situation, expect a low annual fee. if you get nowhere with that, you might have to turn to “secured” visa/mastercards, where you have to deposit money in a bank account as a security until you build up your score.
Good luck.
Try First Premier Mastercard. They gave me a $350 line of credit when I didn’t have credit and no other companies wwould give me a credit card. They do however charge a annual fee which I think is $30. Just get it to start building your credit then find a better card and use it and get rid of the First Premier. Hope this helps best of luck and happy holidays
I had to star this question as interesting because I deal with this everyday at my job. I have to make decisions to either approve or deny people for credit, so my heart goes out to you. I understand that bad things do happen to good people sometimes and most times I try to give the benefit of the doubt and try to allow the least possible.
You are correct that anytime you apply for credit whether you’re approved or not, a “hard inquiry” is created which can lower your score 5-10 points each time. So it’s important to be real selective about where and how often you apply for credit. So, I can give you some inside advice on what you should do from here on out.
You are entitled to a free credit report since you got denied for credit. I would definitely get it by all means. This way, you can see where you stand as far as who and how much you owe. As a matter of fact, you should also check for any inaccuracies as well. I’ve denied people for mistakes on their report, and later on, approve them, so I know it’s possible.
If you’re really needing a credit card, my suggestion would be to check with your bank to see if secured credit cards are offered. The main difference between regular and secured cards are that a collateral deposit is required for a secured card, which determines the limit. For example, you deposit $300, your credit limit is $300. A secured credit card helps you understand how to discipline yourself when it comes to credit cards, because since you’re putting up the deposit, you have something at stake. Also, the deposit is usually linked to a savings account which can gain interest while credit is established, so the deposit isn’t just sitting there. Also, another benefit is that the credit line can be increased by adding to the deposit. So you can think of it as establishing credit with your own money by custom building a credit card.
A good way to use the card to build credit but not go into debt would be to make very small purchases ($10-20) and pay it off on time every month while adding to the deposit to increase the credit line which can help your credit because it not only shows responsibility with high limits, it creates a cushion between the total debt you have and your available credit. People don’t realize that you don’t have to go into debt, in order to build credit. You can build credit by just buying little stuff that you normally would every month, and pay the credit card off every month. By keeping the balance paid off on time, usually after a year, the card upgrades to a regular card, and most importantly the deposit isn’t needed and it’s given back to you, which you could use to start an emergency fund, or repeat the process with another secured card if you like.
I’m sorry that I didn’t come across your application, chances are I probably would’ve approved you, who knows? But I provided some information that should help you out, including several links below to some secured card companies.
I thank you for reading and good luck!