Looks Like Barclays Business Cards Won’t Appear on Your Personal Credit Report…Probably

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Barclays has been a tough nut for me to crack.  But after a few denials over the years I was finally approved for the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business card.

I’m super excited to add the card’s bonus to my stash of American Airlines miles and see if I can book a Business Class award with one of American Airlines’ partners, like Etihad, Qatar Airways, or Qantas – fingers crossed!

Here’s what I did to increase my approval odds for the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business card.

In the past Barclays has denied for 2 main reasons:

• Not using my current Barclays cards enough
• Too many recently opened accounts

The first one was easy to remedy.  I just start using my current Barclays card more often, and I didn’t just throw a single huge purchase on the card and be done with it.  I kept it in my wallet and used it for everyday purchases over a few months leading up to my application.  I’d guess I spent less than $1,000 over the 3 to 4 months before I applied.

This could be overkill, but it worked for me.

I also limited my applications with other banks in the previous year.  I didn’t do this specifically for Barclays, I was working my way under the Chase “5/24” rule.

This is probably the biggest sacrifice to make and for some of you might not be worth it.  But I was still able to earn lots of big bonuses by applying for business cards which didn’t appear on my personal credit report.

I’m not 100% sure if this mattered or not because even if the business card account isn’t on your personal credit report, you’ll still have a hard inquiry.  And a lot of hard inquiries don’t look good on a credit report.  I didn’t have any hard inquiries on my credit report for ~4 months leading up to my application.

And just to be safe, I called and reduced the credit limit on the Barclays card I currently have ~1 month before I applied.  I’m not sure if this impacted my application or not because I reduced the credit limit on a personal card and applied for a business card, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.

But even on a business card application, they want to know your household income, so they know how much money you have at your disposal to pay them back.  And banks do limit the amount of credit they’ll give you based on your income.  And I don’t think the Barclays reconsideration department is very forgiving.  So I wanted to do everything possible to increase my chances of an instant approval.

The Barclays American Airlines Business Card Probably Doesn’t Count Toward Chase’s “5/24” Limit

The biggest question I had when applying for this card was whether it would count toward Chase’s “5/24” limit.  And for me, it didn’t.  There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on whether or not Barclays business cards will show up on your personal credit report.  And it is possible that it will vary depending on which business card you apply for.

Team member Jasmin has the Barclays JetBlue Business card and she says that it hasn’t appeared on her personal credit report.  So it seems that more often than not, folks are reporting Barclays business cards won’t count toward Chase’s “5/24” limit.

Please let me know if you have any experience with Barclays business cards one way or the other.

If you’re interested in applying for the Barclays American Airlines Business card, it currently has an increased bonus of 60,000 American Airlines miles after making your first purchase within the first 90 days of account opening.

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