Two very different experiences applying for the Wyndham Earner Business card

The Wyndham Earner Business card feels more valuable to me lately than ever before. It’s been fun writing about all of the possible status matches and how you can (at least at the time of writing) get fifty seven nights of free hotel rooms and nearly-free cruises by starting with this $95 card. And I’m not just being theoretical about this stuff — I’ve booked a bunch of this stuff myself. Now I’m getting some family members on board, too. But it isn’t all smooth sailing: one family member recently had a difficult time getting approved for the Wyndham Earner Business card — and from the sounds of it, she’s not alone. I’ve seen a number of reports lately of Barclays following up for additional information for some applicants. The good news is that people seem to typically get approved after providing the requested information, but I wanted to share the two very different experiences of family members who recently applied.

Instant approval for one family member. The polar opposite for another.

There were plans in my family for a 2024 family cruise that existed before we had taken the first of our “free” cruises last fall. Everyone had expected to pay full price for this family cruise that has been under discussion for years. However, thanks to the opportunities to snag free cruises via casino status matching, a couple of family members decided to get on board with the process so that we could bump that family cruise up to 2023 at a steep discount.

To that end, two family members recently applied for the Wyndham Earner Business card and had very different experiences with the approval process. I’ll change the names to protect the innocent and we’ll call them Pat and Jan.

To my knowledge, Pat has just a few credit cards (think something like 2-3 cards, consumer cards only) and a shorter credit history than Jan. She applied as a sole proprietor (she has a couple of legitimate side hustles, like delivering groceries for Instacart) and much to my surprise she was instantly approved.

Jan only has two rewards credit cards, one of which is about 30 years old and the other of which is about 2 years old and she has no blemishes on her record and no debt at all (no mortgage, car loan, etc). Her application went pending and quickly became a denial. In hindsight, I have a guess as to one problem: she used her cell phone number on the application, and while she’s had the number for a couple of years, the bill for it is not in her name and it is not associated with her other cards or bank accounts. She probably should have entered her landline for her phone number on the application since that probably matches her public profiles.

At my suggestion, she called reconsideration a couple of days later. Barclays asked her to provide proof of identity: she had to fax a copy of her driver’s license, social security card, and a recent utility bill. They called her a day or two later to ask her to re-send because the quality didn’t come through clear enough (oddly, I’ve heard many other people report the exact same thing recently…..or maybe it’s not odd since we’re talking about ancient technology — why are we faxing stuff?). Additionally, Barclays initially didn’t want to accept the utility bill provided because it had Jan’s landline phone number on it, not her cell phone number. She only had one utility bill in her name, so they eventually called her back on the landline and then relented on that issue.

However, about a week later, she received a letter in the mail asking for a 4506-T to prove her income. When I explained to her what that meant (it’s a tax transcript that essentially shares whatever information is reported on your federal tax return), she was (understandably) annoyed. She’s rarely ever sought financing for anything, but never had trouble getting approved for anything when needed. It may be that she has a relatively thin credit profile given no installment loans and only a couple of credit cards, but her Average Age of Account is high and payment history flawless. I was annoyed for her that they wanted tax transcripts for relatively low-profile business credit card. I felt bad that this was her first experience with a business credit card because it did not at all reflect what the experience is usually like with most banks.

Nonetheless, we she wanted in on the cheap family cruise, so she provided the 4506-T even though I was actually lukewarm on the idea (at that point I was ready to throw in the towel and help her get FoundersCard for Caesars Diamond status). She mailed the 4506-T on a Wednesday afternoon. She had asked the postmaster when it would be expected to arrive and she was told that the earliest it would arrive would be on Saturday. I didn’t even check the application status for several days after that because I figured that it would take them at least a week once they received the 4506-T before they would approve the application.

But the following Tuesday I was surprised to check on the status for her and see that the application was approved — on Friday. That was 2 days after she mailed the 4506-T. I think it is very highly unlikely that they received the 4506-T and reviewed it and approved it that quickly (and I also doubt that happened because after seeing proof of income I’d think they might have approved her with credit limit of more than $1,000). She got the result she wanted (getting approved so that she could go after the free cruises), but why request the 4506-T if you don’t need it to make the decision?

Other readers report similar experiences

I’ve been surprised to see a number of readers report very similar experiences in terms of needing to fax in identifying documentation — and then being asked to fax it again because it couldn’t be read.

From there, experiences diverge a bit. Barclays did call Jan a couple of times following up, but other readers report going weeks in without any word from Barclays (or in some cases readers reported calling Barclays weeks later for an update only to be told that they needed to fax another copy of the identity documentation to move forward).

Requesting proof of identity doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. I know that most banks don’t do that and in stark contrast tend to instantly approve large credit lines in seconds. Frankly, I have always thought that the system as it works is kind of nutty in terms of the ease of getting credit. But the tough thing here is that Barclays is requiring proof of identity to be provided via fax. Besides the fact that nobody has a fax machine at home anymore, I don’t love the idea of my personal information sitting out on a fax machine waiting for anybody in the office to grab it. I would think that in 2023 there would be a secure electronic means of confirming identity (even the IRS does this online when you sign up for an account!).

Tied together with the fax issue is that many readers report Barclays failing to follow up at all, even when they need additional information. If you get stuck in this sort of loop, it  seems that the best course of action is to call Barclays at least once a week to see if there is anything else you can provide.

Bottom Line

Ultimately, both Pat (instantly) and Jan (after a few weeks) were approved. Barclays never sent Jan any notification that she was approved. We only know she was approved because the online application status changed from “Sorry, we can’t issue you a credit card” to “Congratulations! You’ve been approved!” (she hasn’t yet received the card). Communication definitely isn’t a Barclays strong suit.

That said, the moral of the story is that if you are not instantly approved, don’t give up. In almost all cases I’ve heard, people who continue to follow up and submit the additional documentation seem to eventually get approved. Obviously everyone would prefer instant approval, but while that is possible, it definitely doesn’t seem to be  guaranteed here. Still, good things can come to those who wait — that family cruise is probably going to happen this year and cost all of us far less than it otherwise would have thanks to the Wyndham Earner Business card.

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