Questions and Answers

After the Equifax data breach, I placed a credit freeze on all my credit reports at the three major bureaus. A few months later, I applied for a JetBlue Plus card and got a pending decision notice. I was easily able to get in touch with the BarclayCard reconsideration line, temporarily lifted the freeze on the one bureau that they use, and got approved. I’m now trying to apply for an Alaska Visa Signature card and running into a similar situation but BoA is not helpful. I figured I would apply, call the reconsideration line, have them tell me what credit bureau they use so that I could lift that specific freeze. The card application was declined and I can’t get a dedicated reconsideration line number. Most numbers posted online don’t work and the agent I reached on the line for new applications simply said to wait for the letter to get contact information.

My question is what to do in this specific situation and in general how to deal with credit freezes when applying for new cards. It’s not that easy to figure out what bureau a credit card provider uses before applying. Is the lesson here that BoA is just uniquely terrible to work with? I’ve had better experiences with BarclayCard and Chase.

Welcome [USER=4034]@MDV[/USER] – I found [URL=’https://www.doctorofcredit.com/credit-bureau-bank-america-pull/’]this post from Doctor of Credit[/URL] back in Oct 2016 where it says there is mixed results with BOA pulling from one bureau when their first choice is frozen. There is at least one link in there that might provide something useful though I didn’t go down the rabbit hole to find out. But your best bet may indeed be to wait until you get the rejection letter.

I was a victim of a major breach that happened back in 2015. I am enrolled with a credit monitoring service that sends me alerts if there is an inquiry against my credit. I find it more practical than freezing my credit since I apply and cancel cards three to six times a year. The agency responsible for the breach is paying for my monitoring for ten years.