The last decade or two has seen a real boom in credit card usage, with competition between issuers leading to ever-lower interest rates, ever-improving features, and a steady relaxation of acceptance criteria. Such has been the activity in the market that it has become quite normal for people to carry multiple cards, often amassing a large collection as new and enticing offers entice them to make another app. Card issuers were also desperate for personalization, such as the potential earnings available to them from each customer, so getting their application approved was usually a pretty straightforward affair.

Apparently, this situation has come to an abrupt halt, and many people have found that getting a new card is much more difficult these days. Why is this?

The basic answer is that we are facing a global credit crisis, with banks themselves finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the credit they need to finance loans to their customers. The causes of this crisis are complex and beyond the scope of this article, but in essence, the years of easy lending are back to haunt the banks. Lending criteria had become so lax that financing was extended to people who would never have been considered before, because their credit profile made them a risky prospect to lend to. The banks thought they had hedged the risks of lending to these customers through a complex system of financial machinations, so they lent money with what many analysts now call reckless enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, many of these loans are now in default, leaving some banks facing huge losses, and the entire moneylending system is freezing up as financiers worry about who owes what and how much will be lost. This is being reflected in consumer lending in the form of higher interest rates and drastically raised acceptance criteria, making it much more difficult to get your credit card or loan application approved.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t really get a new card with better features; you may need to try a new approach. First off, you may have to lower your eyes a bit and request one of the second-tier cards instead of a song-and-dance one from the best buy tables. These elite cards are only available to a select few, and many people who were once considered prime customers are now slightly less than prime as lenders tighten their criteria.

Also, it makes sense to do a deep clean of your credit file, making sure it doesn’t contain inaccurate information and that you don’t have overlooked unpaid debts you didn’t know about. Solving any small problem of this nature will improve your chances of being approved.

If you already have multiple cards, try to cancel the ones you no longer use, as having too much available credit will be a barrier to getting more funding. If you still have balances on these cards, then you may consider a debt consolidation loan as a worthwhile idea, allowing you to get rid of those old, expensive card debts and repackage them into a cheaper, more organized loan.

There’s no telling how long the current financial woes will last, and in fact we don’t know if we’ll ever go back to the days of easy credit, but by following the steps above, you’ll at least maximize your chances of having your application approved, no matter what. the future holds.