Consumer complaint received 2019-10-12
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Application denied

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019 I submitted an online application for a Barclays credit card account. On the spot I got : ( 1 ) a hard inquiry placed on my XXXX  credit report ( 2 ) a message on the screen from Barclays stating they needed more informaiton from me to further review / process my application. 

I then called in Barclays Credit Card Services and got XXXX on the line, who : ( 1 ) verified my information, ( 2 ) then asked me a lot of questions about my business, ( 3 ) placed me on hold and took a look at my credit to make a decision She then went back to the line and advised me that everything looked great on my credit report but that as I had the same product in the last 24 months, she could not approve my application. She advised me it was a hard policy in place at Barclays and that she could not do anything to overturn it. 

I advised her I did not know anything about such a hard policy and that, if it did exist, my credit should have not been pulled and all the time spent on calling in, answering business questions and waiting on hold for her to review my application could have been avoided. 

After all, if such a hard policy is in place, why was I pulled on the spot my credit report? Barclays ' system should have found that I had the product in the last 24 months and spare me the inconvenience and hard pull. 

I explained to her how my situation had changed and why I was applying for the same product : I had been recently awarded with two international projects and anticipated a lot of travel on XXXX XXXX so it made sense for me to apply for the product and keep my accounting separate for my expenses for international clients as well. 

She would not budge and then I kindly requested to speak with her supervisor. 

XXXX, operator ID XXXX, got on the line. I explained to him the situation and he reconfirmed that because I had the same product in the last 24 months he would not be able to approve my application. 

I then complained to him about all the inconvenience I had to go through. If they had hardcoded in their system to deny me because I had the same product in the last 24 months, I should have been declined on the spot and my credit report should have not been pulled. 

The inconvenience was greater because as I was not declined, I spent time calling in, answering business questions, when Barclays and their underwriting system seemed to had hardcoded from the beginning to decline me based on this unheard 24-month-same-product ineligibility policy. 

I then kindly requested him to have at least the hard inquiry placed on my XXXX  credit report removed as my application should have not been even processed by them as their system would decline me automatically based on the aforementioned 24-month-same-product ineligibiliy policy. 

He apologized for the inconvenience but refused to remove my hard inquiry. 

I do not think this is fair. If Barclays has such a hard policy in place it should be embedded on their system and not pull customers ' credit reports uselessly. 

At least this is done by other financial institutions such as XXXX or XXXX XXXX XXXX whose systems do not pull customers ' credit reports if they find an ineligibilty hard policy in place on their end for the product that the customer applied for such as the one described by Barclays. 

My credit report should have never been pulled and all the inconvenience I went through should have been spared. 

I then kindly request to have this hard credit inquiry removed as my application should have never been processed based on Barclays ' said and unpublished 24-month-same-product ineligibility hard policy. Also, all the time spent on the call answering business questions should have been spared if, as acknowledged by XXXX and XXXX, there was no credit reason to decline me, just the aforementioned hard policy.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation