Hacks to get your credit card approved!

Credit cards are awesome. They let you earn crazy rewards on the money you’d spend anyways.

There’s a card for everything. Travel benefits? You got it. Fuel discounts? Sorted. You can even earn rewards on UPI payments!

And if you believe what the credit card companies say, getting approved is easy. Just have a good credit score and income above the eligibility criteria, and they’ll ship your card in no time.

But, sadly, that's not how it works. It’s not just about your credit score or income. Approval is a tricky mix of many things that nobody really talks about.

So, if you’ve tried applying for a good credit card, you know this already—

It’s not as simple as it seems!

The truth is, a low credit score will almost always get your application rejected. But even a high score doesn’t guarantee approval.

Here are 6 facts about getting your credit card approved that might shock you:

• Your credit history matters as much as your credit score.
  
  
• You need a 100% on-time payment record for the last 1 to 3 years.
  
  
• If you have any “written off” accounts in your past, banks might never approve you.
  
  
• If you’re salaried, a good score and decent history usually work. But if you’re a freelancer or run a business, it’s not that simple. You need minimum 2 years of ITR filing records and an income much higher than the eligibility criteria to start with.
  
  
• Banks actually decide which cards to approve in which pin-codes. For example, you probably won’t get the Swiggy HDFC card in Tier-II or Tier-III cities. Even the SBI Cash-back card is only approved in some pin-codes — straight from an SBI Card sales agent.
  
  
• If you have existing loans or lots of credit enquiries in a short span, it can hurt your chances.

But don’t you worry, because as always we went a step further to help you tackle this!

How to increase chances of your approval?

1/ Entry Level Cards

Every bank has a few cards which can be very easily approved by just passing income eligibility. Though such cards may not offer great rewards, they can help you build a history and credibility for getting better cards.

Pro tip: Once you spend 6-12 months using a credit card and paying the bills on time and in full, you can ask the bank to provide you with a better credit card. This time the chances of approval are high because they don’t want to disappoint a regular customer right?

2/ Secured Cards

You can ask the bank to give you a card against making an FD in the same bank. Banks can easily approve such cards since these are secured by the FD of the creditor. Such cards again can help you build a credible history and you can repeat what’s mentioned in the first point as well.

3/ Get added on as a user

Another smart way to build a reliable record is by getting added on as a user of an already existing credit card with any of your friends or family members. This way you can even enjoy the benefits of a good card help by someone you know and still build a good history to get yours soon.

4/ Fill Correct details

This may sound like a no-brainer, but it's crucial. You might not notice small mistakes while applying and neither would you be notified about it while submitting. But your card will just get stuck somewhere in the process and you’d never know the exact reason. Not only would you loose this card but also reduce your chances for getting any other soon because of the enquiry.

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