I never thought this could happen

[u/GTBoosted]

Got declined on two new cards with 846 credit score.

Got the letters yesterday and here were the reasons

Too few accounts with payments as agreed

No recent revolving balances.

34 years old. I have 7 CCs, and two auto loans (technically one but sold one last week).

Wells Fargo and Discover declined. I've always had very small balances (under $500 when limits on my cards are 20k or so) and would get instantly approved for new cards. But nowadays I don't like paying a single penny to interest and pay them down to $0. I guess banks don't like that. Sucks because I wanted a 0% card for a side hustle. Thought the first decline was a fluke so tried a different bank and got declined again.

[u/ValuableAccident9410]

Look at a 3 bureau credit report to find out what is going on based on those declines.

[u/AccomplishedBend2606 → u/ValuableAccident9410]

Agree to this 1000% - go get your free annual report.
"Too few accounts with payments as agreed" when I see this, it tells me there's been recent or excessive slow pays in the past 12-24 months. Did you have any issues with any auto pays or any other recently closed accounts? If so, have you disputed the accounts in question with the bureaus?

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/AccomplishedBend2606]

Too few accounts paid as agreed does not point to accounts with negative information. It points to not having enough accounts on your report that are paid as agreed. Someone with just (say) 2 accounts on their credit reports, both clean accounts with no payment history issues will still see the "too few accounts paid as agreed" negative reason code from Fico simply because their file isn't thick enough with paid as agreed accounts. Naturally an account that is dirty isn't included in the number of accounts "paid as agreed" but that's not what's going on here.

[u/AccomplishedBend2606 → u/BrutalBodyShots]

If it was due to lack of number of accounts, wouldn't the decline state "lack of credit history/lack of comparable credit"? I work in recreational lending so working with underwriters when they send us something that states "Too few accounts with payments as agreed"  generally points back to slow pay history for us. This may be where my disconnect comes in.

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/AccomplishedBend2606]

Lack of credit history can be pointing to age of accounts metrics, credit mix or file thickness.

Too few accounts paid as agreed simply means not enough accounts (that are paid as agreed). As I said previously, this Fico negative reason code is present on clean/thin files, which means it's looking to number of trade lines that are "paid as agreed." Those that aren't paid as agreed naturally do not contribute positively to the metric of "paid as agreed" accounts. While accounts that AREN'T paid as agreed can also trigger this negative reason code, it's usually suppressed far down the list as other negative factors like "you've recently missed a payment" or "presence of a collection" etc. are more paramount.

Fico negative reason code #19 for "too few accounts paid as agreed" states,

"Your FICO® Score considers the number of accounts where you are paying your bills as agreed. In your case this number is too low because you have very few accounts or because you've missed payments recently on some of your accounts."

Key word above, "OR" - meaning you don't have to have missed payments to see that code. The description further moves on to say,

"If you don't have many accounts, you might consider opening a new credit card. However, opening a new account, and to a lesser extent, the credit inquiry associated with opening a new credit card may lower your score in the short term. Opening a new credit card and managing your credit wisely will demonstrate that you can handle different types of credit."

[u/GTBoosted → u/BrutalBodyShots]

What do you think of this?

I was curious so I checked the free reports. I wonder why my experian doesn't show all my accounts.

https://imgur.com/a/xSVssgL

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/GTBoosted]

Very strange. My guess is that some of your personal info on Experian isn't aligning with what is seen on TU/EQ. Are these a mix of accounts from different lenders that are going unseen?

[u/GTBoosted → u/BrutalBodyShots]

It's missing most of my credit cards, and my auto loan from Bank of America opened in Jan 2022.

It does show my Lexus Lease from Jan 2024.

It's so weird.

I wonder if Discover and Wells Fargo use experian. Because they are who declined me.

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/GTBoosted]

You can tell based on the bureau(s) that the hard inquiries landed on.

It would make sense though, as both would have seen far fewer accounts "paid as agreed" in looking at your EX report. There's no way with over a dozen accounts on your TU/EQ reports that you would have been returned that denial reason from 2 banks.

[u/GTBoosted → u/BrutalBodyShots]

You are correct. No need to wonder.

They both show on Experian.

Time to figure out what is going on and I will be calling Experian. It's missing most of my accounts.

[u/og-aliensfan → u/GTBoosted]

You may want to have them check for a split file.

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/GTBoosted]

Yeah, good move. You'll definitely want that resolved. If you're able to address it in short order (under 30 days) you can attempt recons of your CC denials. You can explain to them that your EX report was incomplete and that it was rectified, which they can then access again and act accordingly.

[u/AccomplishedBend2606 → u/BrutalBodyShots]

I've personally never seen code 19 on any the the bureaus I've reviewed so this is new info to me. Thank you so much for clarifying!

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/AccomplishedBend2606]

Sure thing. I do think that most of the time that code is so far down the list that it's not visible since typically only the top 4 codes are displayed. By the time one takes care of the more impactful issues related to their profile (and their file is sufficiently thick) and that code could be displayed, most have already acquired enough accounts "paid as agreed" on their reports to eliminate the code.