Saturday, November 23, 2024

Dear Scott,
I can't figure it out, my car broke down and I had to shell out $1,300 in cash. I applied for a card with auto service place and was declined! My credit score is 736. Last month I had my line of credit increased to $300,000 but only owe $70,000. Today, I had a $4000 auto increase on another card, number two. I owe zero. Credit limit $11,000. My other credit card (number three) limit is $29,000 but only owe $1,800. I have a history every year of paying my home off with a zero percent credit card, every year, I transfer $20,000 to a 12-month card and pay in full. I close it and open up a new one. Repeat every year. How could they embarrass me? The auto center made me wait 45 minutes for approval and then deny me! But my other credit card gave me the $4,000 increase the same day! What are they thinking? Is it that this credit card company is the first one who has figured out that I am going to pay it off after the zero percent for 90 days?

Is it that they are onto my game of getting out of debt fast and know that they won't make money off of me? Help...before I turn gray! Thanks for reading my email.

Greg,

Thanks for writing and being a fan!

I would be angry too! It is embarrassing to be declined when your credit is at the top level! This has happened to me as well, but there's not much you can do. Howeverl, you should get a free copy of your credit report from the agency that provided that information to the auto service place. It's the law that if you're denied credit, then you request a report, the agency must provide it. Maybe there is a mistake on your credit report that you're not aware of.

What was the reason they gave you for saying no?

No matter the case, you have the best revenge anyway which is that they're not getting your business. You're going to use other credit cards and those cards will profit. If that auto service credit line continues treating customers badly, they'll soon be out of business.

I had that happen once to me. I applied for a personal line of credit with a local bank and they said no. Later that year they went bankrupt. They were busy lending money to land developers that defaulted instead of lending money to me which they would have made a profit. Serves 'em right!

Talk to you later.

Scott
PS: Gerri Detweiler, author of many wonderful books on credit, sent me the below note with additional advice about Greg's situation...

Hi Scott,

Your advice is correct. The consumer should get a reason for the denial, and should check his credit report. But there may be something else going on here that the consumer isn't aware of. I learned about this problem from Evan Hendrick's excellent book Credit Scores and Credit Reports.

If you have a common name, or even relatives with a similar name, the bureaus may be erroneously putting that wrong information into your report or score when your credit report is requested. You probably won't find out about this when you order your own report because the matching process is better when consumers order their report than when the bureau does. Remember credit reports are only assembled when requested. A complete report isn't sitting in some file somewhere.

The consumer's description of his situation certainly make me suspicious that this could be a possibility.

Gerri

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