My credit card application was declined. Now what? | Question of the Week Ep03 | 5-17-26
Frequent Miler on the Air
Frequent Miler
4.9 • 640 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My credit card application was declined. Now what?
We get this kind of question a lot. And the truth is, credit card application strategies may vary by bank.
For example, you can read our Complete Guide to credit card application rules (by bank) here. Let's say you have a letter that says there were too many new accounts, too much available credit, not enough usage of existing credit, etc. Then what? Don't forget that you can always call and ask for reconsideration...
We’ve been answering a reader or listener question at the end of each Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode. Now, we’ve turned the question of the week into its own weekly episode. Tune in every Monday at 5pm for our Question of the Week podcast. And if you have your own question you’d like to submit, you can send it to mailbag@frequentmiler.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Voyescape podcast. |
| 0:03.9 | You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. |
| 0:10.7 | This week's question of the week is, my credit card application was declined. |
| 0:16.4 | Now what? |
| 0:22.3 | Yeah, we often get some form of this question from readers or listeners to the show. |
| 0:27.2 | They'll have applied for a card and they don't get approved and they maybe receive a letter |
| 0:32.1 | in the mail that gives them some reason. Maybe it says that they have too many new accounts or |
| 0:36.8 | too many accounts or too |
| 0:38.0 | much available credit or not enough usage of their existing credit, et cetera, et cetera. And they'll ask us, |
| 0:43.7 | well, what now? Should I change things to make the bank happy? Should I close some of my cards or lower my |
| 0:49.4 | credit limits or do this or that or what's the solution? What should I do next? And so the first thing I always tell |
| 0:57.8 | people when they get declined for a card and they receive that letter in the mail is to know that |
| 1:02.2 | what the letter says may or may not matter. It may or may not even really be relevant to your |
| 1:09.3 | situation. I think a lot of times, like the computer system just spits |
| 1:13.5 | out a reason. It picks the most convenient, easiest reason. I feel like there must just be a set |
| 1:18.0 | number of reasons that are like pre-programmed and it spits one of them out that seems most |
| 1:22.5 | applicable to your situation. But it's not even always sensible. I mean, we, I've mentioned many times |
| 1:27.6 | before that we've received a report from a reader once who received a letter that said too many |
| 1:31.8 | new accounts, and they hadn't opened any new accounts in the last 24 months. So that should hopefully |
| 1:37.2 | give you the idea that sometimes it really doesn't mean anything. And so would I go closing cards |
| 1:42.6 | or lowering my credit limits in order to get |
| 1:45.0 | approved? Probably not. If that was the case, if it told me that I have too many, too many accounts, |
... |
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