Barclaycard has a number of great credit card offers available and they are actively trying to compete with American Express, Citi, and Chase for your business. A few cards are available for airlines including: Lufthansa, American Airlines, & Hawaiian Airlines. In addition, they offer general point-earn cards that are redeemable for cash back opportunities for travel related expenses like the $400 cash back Arrival card. Yet, with all of these great credit card offers, they tend to be more conservative in approving multiple lines of credit than, say, Chase or American express. Therefore, if you are applying for multiple Barclay’s credit cards, follow these simple steps to be approved.
Four Simple Steps
(1) Apply for Multiple Barclaycard cards the same day.
If you have never applied for a card from Barclaycard, consider applying for more than 1 if you get instant approval on your first application. There are a number of stories of people being approved for 3 or 4 cards on the same day before their automatic approval system rejects an application. From my own personal experience, this worked for me the first time I applied for Barlcay Cards, but now since I already have Barclaycard accounts, each one needs a manual review.
(2) If you do not get instant approval, call the reconsideration line immediately.
The reconsideration line is 866.408.4064. This is a DIRECT number, so you will immediatly be routed to a customer service rep. When you call, be friendly and explain why you are looking to have the card. If you have more than one card with them, tell them why each card is important to you. (I.e. you need the Lufthansa’s Miles & More Card for flights to Europe which you take a couple of times and year, the Virgin America Card for West Coast Travel, and the Arrival Card for international travel due to the no foreign transaction fees.) By explaining each card to the representative, you are more likely to be approved for an additional card. They can be corky on who they approval and who needs a manual approval. In my experience, the sooner you call the better your odds. Do not be discourage and do not wait for the letter in the mail stating you were approved or denied!
(3) Move credit around.
Like Chase, they will work with you to move your current credit limit from one card to another. Did you apply for a credit card that you are no longer using? If so, then move that credit line to the new card. You also have the ability to reduce one credit line to create a credit line for a new card. You can easily reduce one credit card line from $8,000 to $1000 and open the new card with a credit line of $7k. If the representative does not suggest this, then don’t be afraid to!
(4) Apply for Barclaycards the SAME day you apply for cards from other banks.
Barclaycard does not like to see multiple new account credit inquiries on your credit history. If you have a number of credit inquiries on your account, Barclaycard may deny your application. Recently, when I applied for the Lufthansa Miles & More card, I had 6 inquiries on my credit history. The representative asked me to explain each one, afterwards he approved me. Be prepared to explain why you need each line of credit. Or better yet, just apply for each card from Citi, Amex, Barclaycard, Chase, etc. on the same day. By doing so, Barclaycard will not see the other credit inquiries from the same day. Barclays will then not question your intention. This will increase your approval chances. Today (the day I wrote this post), I applied for a Citi card, Chase card, and Barclaycard and they could only see previous inquiries from American express from 3 months prior!
Having the Same Barclaycard Twice
The upside to Barclaycard quirkiness is they sometimes allow individuals to have more than one of the same credit card. There is a lot of discussion on flyertalk about individuals being approved for the SAME credit card a mere 4-7 months after apply for the same card! This means you can DOUBLE your sign up bonus on almost any cards! One person reports having the same card 4 times in their wallet! But when reading through all the chatter you’ll notice that most people wait 4-7 months between Barclaycard applications.
If you are apply for the SAME card be sure to wait 6 months and try to limit the number in credit inquiries on your account. It’s easier to get an instant approval for a credit card that you already have than explaining to the reconsideration representative why you need a second card. Also know, Barclays has been known to close line of credits that are not active.
Reconsideration Bottom Line
Barclaycard is not the easiest bank to be approved by. If you remain calm, are reasonable with the representatives, and follow the simple steps above, you are more likely to be approved! I would highly recommend calling the reconsideration line at 1.866.408.4064 sooner than later, jump-starting your credit card churning ability.
