UPDATE 9/21/20: It appears that it is safe again to apply for business cards. See this post: Chase resumes approving business card applications
We’ve seen reports in recent days of changes at Chase that suggest a tightening of the belt in terms of business credit card approvals with several changes in the application and approval process.
There have been three key changes according to several reports around the Internet:
- You now need to log in to apply for most of the business cards as seen in the screen shot above. Note that this is not the case for referral links — those still have an “Apply now” link. This restriction indicates that Chase is looking to narrow the applicant pool to customers that already have a relationship with Chase.
- There have been anecdotal reports of tougher approval standards recently. I’d ordinarily take this with a grain of salt as even a dozen similar reports does not make for a useful sample size. However, one thing I’ve seen several times is people who had difficulty getting approved because of a lack of deposit accounts with Chase. That would line up with the new requirement to log in for applications from the public landing pages, so perhaps Chase is indeed looking to limit the applicant pool some.
- The public application pages in most cases now require you to list some minimum of business income and ask for a business established date. Previously, it was possible to be approved with a new business that had $0 in revenue. I don’t know if there is now a specific minimum. Additionally, the referral links still ask for a number of years in business, whereas the new style applications ask for the date your business was established. A few reddit reports indicate denial for businesses that were too new, though at least one person in the past few days reports having applied through a referral link with $0 revenue / 0 years in business and still being approved. YMMV. We have both the public offer and referral offer as an alternate offer on our card pages when available (see the Chase Ink Business Preferred for example).
Overall, I’m not surprised to see these changes given the current economic environment and what had previously been a seemingly tightening set of standards from all issuers over the past year or two. It is possible that all of this would have happened without the pandemic, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the COVID-19 situation expedited some of this. Banks are in the business of managing risk and in an environment with 20+ million people out of work and a volatile stock market that becomes increasingly difficult. Even if you run a tight ship with your business, it’s certainly conceivable that whatever your customer market is could dry up if they are out of work for an extended period of time, so it isn’t surprising to see things become a bit more lean in the short term.
Assuming the economy turns around, I doubt we’ll see a full swing in the opposite direction on this, but at the same time I doubt they’ll shut new customers out of business cards (since they can’t log in) forever.
H/T: Reddit via Doctor of credit here and also DoC here
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[…] FM, […]
Just got denied for the Ink Preferred. Letter stated reason was “business structure” which was sole proprietorship. Bewildering, given they approved two other business cards in the past with the exact same application submission values. Established in 1999, so time is not an issue. Income isn’t either, nor is credit score (883/900). At this point, I see no reason to apply with Chase for anything until the pandemic subsides….
I recently (early April) signed up for a Chase Business Preferred card for my personal business and was approved. I would now like to sign up for another Business Preferred card for my actual business. I have two questions:
1) Would I still be able to get the bonus points with this new card? Is there a way to know for sure?
2) What is the optimal time to reapply for this new card? Is there a mandatory waiting period with Chase?
I was denied yesterday in applying for the Ink Cash to complete my array of cards (and was hoping to get the signup points and cancel the CIP, which no longer provides much use to me). Was denied. Letter posted to my account stating it was due to not having any money in their deposit or investment accounts.
Adding another negative DP – Husband just applied today (04/21) for Ink Preferred through this site’s referral (sorry, Frequent Miler). He received immediate denial. Not going to bother calling recon. Bummer for the hard pull on his credit through… 🙁 Above 800 credit score, sole propriertor, 6 yrs in business, legit business, high household income. No dice. Kicking myself for not reminding him to apply last month.
Yup u sound like me but banks do what they want . Wait a few months then reapply that’s all . I’m sure u can hit the min spend in a month anyway . The banks are going to be really sorry for giving cards to people who have no idea how to deal with credit .
Tiny set back LOL ..
#stayincave
[…] cardholder has confirmed that they will indeed cancel (as opposed to bluffing). Still, paired with recent news of things tightening up on the business side, it looks like things are potentially getting a lot tougher all […]
30% of the 4/1 mortgages were not paid didn’t they learn anything in 2008 ? Lots of BK’s coming up and CC’s will be very bad too .
#stayincave LOL
Nick, thanks for being positive about this overall. I really hope this isn’t a longterm thing. As a “business” owner, I’m a little worried.
My wife just got denied yesterday for a business unlimited through a referral link that I had sent her. Legit business with EIN and a low annual revenue but with a high enough household income that it is usually no problem. Five years in business. Reports income to IRS. The business has a chase checking account. She is under 5/24 and we had reduced her credit limit on all chase cards to under $45k in preparation for making the application. Two other biz cards from chase. First denial for either one of us on a business credit card application in the 8 years or so that we’ve been playing this game. It will be interesting to see what the denial letter says.
Makes no sense. I can understand if you apply for business card as a llc or corporation. But as a sole proprietor they are not at more risk with a business card than a personal card.
Or maybe they just don’t care to make that distinction.