Credit cards have really revolutionized our lives in many ways and nowadays rather than having to take cash with you when you go out shopping you simply carry a small piece of plastic. Better even than that however you can now shop from the comfort of your own home by telephone or over the Internet and buy everything from groceries and clothes to airline tickets.

Credit cards today are big business and competition between the credit cards companies is fierce with advertisements appearing everywhere these days and people literally falling over themselves to press application forms into your hand. Surprisingly enough though many of these application forms, which cost the companies a fortune to get you to fill in, are then rejected. So just what is the reason for this high rejection rate?

Some are rejected as a result of simple human error in completing the form such as a misspelled street address, incorrect zip code or wrong telephone number. These might sound like very small mistakes but they can be enough to get your application automatically rejected.

Another common error is to omit a piece of mandatory information from your application. Most applications will have a number of mandatory fields which must be completed, together with other fields which are optional. Missing just one mandatory field can be enough to get your application rejected.

Yet another reason for rejection is the inability of the application processor to read your application. You may have filled your application in correctly getting all of the details right and completing all of the mandatory fields, but if you have completed the form in your own hand and the processor cannot read your handwriting it is likely to be rejected.

Now most of these errors are relatively minor and can usually be corrected and the application re-submitted for further consideration. In this case you will suffer a delay in getting your credit card but that is about all.

If however your application is correctly completed and is still rejected then in the vast majority of cases it will be rejected because you have a poor credit history and a low credit score.

Anyone who has had credit in the past in the form of such things as credit cards, car loans, a mortgage and one hundred and one other forms of credit will have a credit record, which basically shows how well you have handled that credit and how much credit you currently have available to you. So, if you have had a loan and have made payments late on that loan, or missed payments altogether, this will be recorded on your credit history and reflected in your credit score.

If your credit card application is rejected because of your credit history then, assuming that your credit history is accurate, there is very little you can do and you will simply have to work to improve your credit score and then apply again at a later date.