Consumer complaint received 2022-06-28
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: LA
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/22 I applied online for a U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card and some time later I received correspondence dated XX/XX/22 from U.S. Bank stating : " Thank you for your application for a U.S. Bank Signature Rewards Credit Card XXXX After Carefully reviewing your application and income information you provided, we are unable to approve your application at this time due to : Your debt to income ratio exceeds established maximum guidelines '' Then, farther down my income and expenses info was provided and was followed by : " In order to assist us in determining your ability to pay and assign a credit line, please include all income earned by you of any type : '' This was followed by various types of proof of income I could furnish. After this, on the other side of the page was a generic statement about the FCRA including : " Our decision was based in whole or in part on the information obtained from the following consumer credit reporting agencies : '' Farther down was : " The key factors that adversely affected your credit score were : '' - and several reasons were provided as the basis of why I was denied. 

A couple of weeks later I received in the mail a pre-screened offer from U.S.Bank for a State Farm Premier Cash Rewards Visa Signature Card. Confused as to why I'd get this offer so soon after being denied I called U.S. Bank on XX/XX/22 and inquired. I was told that the letter I thought was a denial letter was rather a request for additional information and that because I had not provided it within 30 days of my application the window had been closed. The U.S. Bank rep offered the State Farm card which I turned down. 

After consulting Regulation B I gave U.S. Bank another call and explained the situation once more. I stated that in contravention to Reg B I was not provided a reasonable period of time within which to furnish additional information and that furthermore the wording of the letter appeared more geared towards an adverse action letter. The U.S. Bank rep stated I was sent a letter notifying me that I had XXXX days within which to furnish additional income information to which I replied I had not received such letter. 

The rep then restated that the window for the Signature Rewards Card had elapsed because XXXX days had passed since the date of the application. 

In sum, the XX/XX/22 denial letter was ambiguous and misleading because I read it as an adverse action letter and it was not intended to be XXXX. It contradicted the pre-screened offer relayed to me not more than XXXX weeks after. Upon inquiry I was told that I should have received a letter providing a deadline for proof of income that I did not in fact receive. I was told that the application window was closed without being given a reasonable period of time to provide additional information - information I shouldn't have needed to provide regardless because U.S. Bank had decided I was eligible for its credit card.

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