My Credit Score Is 811. Here's Why American Express Still Denied My Credit Card Application.

The factors that decide who's approved for a credit card are tricky to pin down. Sure, it makes sense that your credit score would hold the most weight and that a high score would mean very few credit card issuers would deny your application. And while that’s not entirely false -- your credit score is important -- it doesn’t explain why people with excellent credit often have applications denied.

Like me. A few months ago, I applied for an American Express credit card with a credit score of 811. I was pretty confident I was going to get the card and even had some ideas on how I would spend the welcome offer. Imagine my surprise, then, when my application was immediately denied and American Express said it would send me its reason via mail.

About a week later, I got American Express's reason. And though it had nothing to do with my credit score, I'm still feeling a little crushed.

The reason I was denied

The long and the short of it is -- I simply have too many open credit cards.

I've had three hard inquiries into my credit within the last two years (four now, with the denied application). I also have several cash back credit cards, which I use frequently enough but whose total revolving credit is more than triple my annual spending. The American Express card was going to become my new travel credit card, but between the hard inquiries and the number of cards I'm using, American Express was not confident I'd make a suitable cardholder.

Even though I have a high credit score, the number of inquiries threw up a red flag. It's not as if I have a high credit utilization -- less than 1% -- but the fact that I have multiple revolving credit lines, almost triple what I spend in a year, likely made them wonder why I was applying for another.

You have to remember that American Express is very particular about who it issues cards to. Given that it makes money on merchant transaction fees, it wants to issue cards to people who will use them frequently and for large purchases. If it suspects that the applicant is signing up for the high welcome offer alone, it can deny the person's application, no matter how high their credit score.

In my case, it likely saw how many cards I had and suspected I wasn't going to charge a hefty annual amount to the card. It may have been spooked by the recent inquiries but more likely than not it was hesitant my spending habits weren't suitable for the card.

What you can do if your application is denied

If you have a high credit score, few recent inquiries, and only a handful of credit cards, you can certainly call the credit card issuer and dispute a denied application. Often, the credit card company feeds your application through an algorithm, which may or may not have gotten your situation right. Calling the card issuer directly will put a human on the case, who can look over your application and issue a second opinion.

As for me, I'm not going to dispute the rejection. I do have quite a few cash back credit cards, and I'm probably not the right person for that special American Express card. Besides, I've already applied for another cash back card and having had the application approved, I am pretty satisfied with my alternative.