Wells Fargo Active Cash: Interesting Application Denial Datapoints

So I recently did an AOR (App-O-Rama) and the Wells Fargo Active Cash was one of the cards I applied for and failed to get. The datapoints in the denial letter are interesting.

I have had an Wells Fargo Personal Checking account for several months now. I opened it for the $325 sign up bonus. I received the bonus a couple months back and have been direct depositing over $500 into it each month to avoid the monthly maintenance fee — quickly withdrawing it after leaving just under $50 dollars in the account at all times.

They denied me for the Wells Fargo Active Cash four listed reasons. See scanned letter below.

Amount of Money in Deposit Account(s). I find all the reasons interesting, especially the first two: they appear to not like it when you have a deposit account(s) with them — as I do — and not have any substantial amount of money in them.

Too Many Inquires in Past 14 days. I didn’t know they look at this time period specifically. It is not mentioned in DoC’s 18 Things to Know About Wells Fargo Credit Cards.

High Balances Relative to Credit Limit On A Single Card. I have over 10 personal cards, most of them with zero balances. I do however have a Chase Freedom Flex at 98% capacity — taking advantage of the 0% APR. However my overall credit utilization is only 9%.

So these are all things I can easily fix in the future when I re-apply:

• I’ll just make sure to have more money in the Wells Fargo Checking account — or maybe no checking account at all with them, to avoid this altogether?
• I’ll be sure not to apply for any other credit cards 14 days prior.
• I’ll pay down any personal credit cards with high balances relative to credit limit.

Equifax. Oh I want to add, that for me at least, the only credit bureau hit was Equifax, which is a good thing since I have relatively little hard inquires on that compared to TransUnion and Experian.