My 6th Application for Altitude Reserve – Finally Approved

As some of you know I’ve been trying to get Altitude Reserve for a long time.  Several people in my family hold the card but I had been denied for this card for 5 straight times.

To be fair to US bank I was also denied this time around because “credit obligations with U.S. Bank have not preformed as required”.

What it essentially means is that I had a business card with US Bank and it had unpaid balance….except I didn’t and haven’t. I was simply an employee in a business credit card account that was closed by US Bank due to bank account funding but even that account was fully paid on time.

Anyway, once I called, found out denial reason, and and objected, everything was shorted out within a matter of 2 minutes and my application was put back on queue. A few days later I received Altitude Reserve via mail.

So Why Did I Apply for it 6 Times?

Obviously because I think Altitude Reserve is a really good card. I think the real time payment has made it even better than before.

Now, having said that, most of these apps were made at a time when there wasn’t much known about just how sensitive approval process is for Altitude Reserve.

Regardless I would not have submitted to many apps if my TU report got much usage. In fact, US Bank is the only inquirer in last year or so. Having said that, you would not be wrong if you said I was literally meming my applications.

What Did I Learn?

I only got approved after taking 7 months break from (a) new inquiry hitting my TU and (b) new account hitting my credit report. Obviously YMMV.

In my early times I was officially denied for new inquires and accounts. In my latter apps, the official denial reason changed to new inquires (recon did mention new accounts though) which was funny because my “new” inquires were literally applications to the very card I was denied for.

I know people who’ve had far far easier time getting this card than I did. I have recommended this card to several people I know in real life and they were all approved. Some of them were around 6/24 while others were 10+/24. You can find 20+/24 approval DPs online.

What Does This Mean?

If you’ve had a ton of cards like I do (50+) and still want this card then you can still get. Worst case scenario, you keep whatever report US Bank pulls clean for 6 months and you should have a good shot at getting this card.