Introduction
Well this is a new one. A reader told me this US Bank cards had gotten shut down and he wasn’t sure what happened. And then a few days later, he got the rejection letter for the Flexperks card, and if you look at the timing on the reasons, it’s clear that not only did US Bank reject his new application, they decided to close his 2 current cards. NUTS!
Rejection Letter for the Flexperks business card
Closing of the Flexperks Travel Rewards card
Closing of the Club Carlson card
Lessons Learned
It seems that if you’ve had too many inquiries or new accounts lately, you may want to abstain from applying for a new US Bank credit card, else you may get the axe. I’m still in shock by this move.
I applied for 3 flexperk cards within a month. Gold was approved, Biz was approved after ID verification, and the AF Visa was not even considered due to recent # of inquiries. No recon was possible because the third app was hard coded to a denial. They denied me based on ARS which I then immediately froze (along with Sage). Also, even on approval letter of Gold they stated like 4 points on how I have too many inquiries, too much credit, etc. I guess I’m not applying for that AF Visa for a while lol
were the flexperks points forfeited?
Yes. He’s in process of CFPB them.
Would you mind asking the reader if I may get in touch with him to see if he’s making any headway? I am in the same boat and had 80k points forfeited. Thanks!
I asked him last week or so. He said CFPB got him nowhere. He’s going to try to take them to small claims court now. I may have a followup post once he’s tried that, but it prob wont’ be for a while.
Nuts. This is bad. They shut down our Fidelity Visas too. Completely forgot those are USB now. Lost those rewards too. Between my wife and I, 8 accounts total. We had opened personal and biz each for Olympics. Wife’s were both approved automatically. I had to recon biz to get that approved.
For my closures, they cited Equifax and gave the “number of recently opened tradelines” plus “Number of inquiries on credit bureau greater than maximum” reasons. There was never a hard pull on EQ and my Citi free EQ FICO is 794. But the one they gave was EQ Beacon 5.0 with score of 725. I have 9 total inquiries on there, with 3 from this year and 5 within past 12 months. Weird is the original hard pull was from EX and there were 15+ inquiries on there and when initially approved me using that. I’ve got 5 new accounts this year on EQ report.
Wife only had “number of recently opened tradelines” reason. They cited TU and gave Classic 04 score of 766 whereas Barclay shows around 795. She’s got 7 total inquiries with 4 from this year. Apparently 7 is ok and 9 is too many? She had about 14 inquiries with EX too at the time of approval. She’s got a bit more new accounts opened this year at 9.
Wow Ted. Sorry to hear. Looks like USB is beginning to be as bad as Comenity.
I’ve had a heck of a time trying to get my FP Biz approved. Already have 3 USB cards (including 2 FP) with lines of 22k total. USB sent my app to the naughty chair (cardmember investigations, as in, they’re investigating you). Underwriters have their hands tied. Tried to carve out TL from existing, was denied, and 6k credit vanished. Eventually got it put back but I really want the approval. I’m at 4 EX HP, 7 new accts this year (0 in last 90 days) so I guess it was a hail mary anyways.
USB and Barclays are credit Nazis so I’m not too surprised at OP’s predicament.
DP. Just applied for Flex points visa and business on the 3rd, I was instantly approved for both and have 9 inquiries on the bureau they pulled. I’m guessing if he’d been auto-approved then this wouldn’t have happened.
Agreed.
I wonder how many he had. My wife had 6 in the last 6 months and got approved. She didn’t have any US banks currently but had the CC card a year ago and closed it. We didn’t freeze any reports either.
Most likely more than 6 in the last 6.
Dude, you should name your blog shutdownsperday 🙂
You’re not the first reader who’s mentioned this. Haha
This is the same argument that Comenity uses regularly, right? It’s a bunch of BS of course, but pretty concerning to see it from a “major” bank.
No Comenity likes to surprise you with random Hard Pulls. At least USB is nice enough to wait until you request a new application before they look through your current accounts and axe you.
That is awful. I’m staying away from US Bank. I just applied for the Flexperks Travel card. It’s my first US Bank application and I was declined for having too many accounts.
Same thing happened to me and my wife (no US Bank accts either). Seems they’ve already tightened up.
Wow that’s crazy! I recently did the flex perks biz and after it went pending I chalked it up as denied considering my 20+ inquiries and several opened in past year. Pleasantly surprised to get approval in the mail with no other communication on the approval they send out. Wife got an instant approval on the biz. We’ve MSd about $10k each on the amex flex perks personal. Didn’t realize how much we were flirting with a shutdown! Yikes!
this one made me chuckle