Did Discover Screw me?

[CreditMagic7]

Interesting thread. At the expense of suggesting or sounding off to the classic "bait &switch", i canned 2 mail preapprovals last year from them. One of them showed 0% Apr per x amount months. When i finally found time to consider them from yet another mailing, i "assumed" the terms remained the same.

After getting the card "and then reading" the "modified" terms, turns out the 0% Apr expected was actually 22.99 immediately!

Although it was my bad for the overlook, i chuckled over their methods in shuffling preapproval offers. Nice one Discover. I used it a few months, PIF, and its earned a nice cozy place in the SD for the foreseeable future.

[SeoulTrain90]

Basically the same thing happened to me. I applied for the student card, expecting to get 6 months 0% APR. When I got my card, it said my APR was 21.99%. When I called to ask, they said I did not select the 0% intro APR on my application?? Then another rep flat out told me I wasn't approved for it. So I felt like an idiot. Apparently, they gave me a 10.99% balance transfer for 6 months instead (which was useless on a $500 CL). I was told that my CL was low and my APR was high because of 2 delinquent accounts on my TransUnion score. I checked into this and it was a reporting mistake so I never had an account in collections. I wanted to keep my account open with them, as long as they were willing to give me a CLI and a lower APR. They told me I couldn't get a CLI until my account had been open for 3 months. One rep told me that I couldnt get an APR reduction done until the account was 6 months old, and another told me that my APR couldn't be lowered so I would have to close my account and re-apply. Even though the high APR was caused due to a mistake, they were still unwilling to work with me. At the end of the day, I paid my balance in full and closed my account. I will continue to give my business to American Express, regardless of what my annual fee is. 

[Boragard]

When I applied for the Discover card for 0% 14 months, I was not approved right away.  Instead, a screen popped up and said if I wanted, I could choose the 22.99% APR or get denied.  I chose the latter, of course.  I then called and asked why, I was told because my credit was not "Good" enough for the 0% terms.  However, they said I am eligible for a reduction in APR and a CLI after 3 months. 

[CreditMagic7]

Let me also share my experience at that proverbial 3 month cli that they suggested to me also. They told me that no SP was possible right now but that they could "try" a HP for one.

No thanks. I may be naive at times but not stupid. I declined them firmly. Besides i had a sneaky suspicion that they were setting me up to ding my report with a denial. Common sense dictates, and others results strongly indicate that 3 months of a new account is way too early for many lenders. The exceptions being Amex, gecrb, and such.

[enharu]

Its in the T&C when you apply..... Read it.

Many other issuers have similar policies for some of their products. For example, if you applied for the thank you premier or thank you preferred, and citi is unable to approve you for that, then there's a chance they might approve you for the regular thank you card instead. US Bank does the same for the cash+ and several other products. Barclays will sometimes approve people for the platinum MC as opposed to world MC, though the card rewards structure stay the same.

[rlx01]

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@enharu wrote:
Its in the T&C when you apply..... Read it.

Many other issuers have similar policies for some of their products. For example, if you applied for the thank you premier or thank you preferred, and citi is unable to approve you for that, then there's a chance they might approve you for the regular thank you card instead. US Bank does the same for the cash+ and several other products. Barclays will sometimes approve people for the platinum MC as opposed to world MC, though the card rewards structure stay the same.

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No it isn't. It depends on the specific offer applied for.

E.g., I have a 0% for 15 months then 10.99% offer that they keep spamming me with. There are no 'we reserve the right to approve you at a higher rate' T&Cs or any such nonsense. So if I applied, I would *expect* a straight approval for the terms they've sent me, or a denial. Not some BS APR 'counter offer'. They've had their hands slapped a bunch of times by the CFPB about this. People have successfully removed both TL and HPs from such applications.

Why anyone would want to do business with a company that engages in such practices is beyond me. This is not the same as the other issuers since the APR is not switched on you. Since, you know, that's borderline illegal.

[enharu]

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@rlx01 wrote:

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@enharu wrote:
Its in the T&C when you apply..... Read it.

Many other issuers have similar policies for some of their products. For example, if you applied for the thank you premier or thank you preferred, and citi is unable to approve you for that, then there's a chance they might approve you for the regular thank you card instead. US Bank does the same for the cash+ and several other products. Barclays will sometimes approve people for the platinum MC as opposed to world MC, though the card rewards structure stay the same.

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No it isn't. It depends on the specific offer applied for.

E.g., I have a 0% for 15 months then 10.99% offer that they keep spamming me with. There are no 'we reserve the right to approve you at a higher rate' T&Cs or any such nonsense. So if I applied, I would *expect* a straight approval for the terms they've sent me, or a denial. Not some BS APR 'counter offer'. They've had their hands slapped a bunch of times by the CFPB about this. People have successfully removed both TL and HPs from such applications.

Why anyone would want to do business with a company that engages in such practices is beyond me. This is not the same as the other issuers since the APR is not switched on you. Since, you know, that's borderline illegal.

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Well, it really depends.

Contrary to what you think, there is indeed a clause in the T&C that states: The terms of your account, including rates and fees, are subject to change, to the extent permitted by law.

Yes, it is borderline shady as it is a blanket statement that can essentially mean a 100 different things about your account, but it is what it is.

What they could potentially argue is that each Discover offer type is marked as a different product, similar to what Citi and Chase do. Chase has many different types of Freedom, including Freedom Ultimate, Freedom Signature, Freedom 10+10, etc, due to changes over the years and also acquisitions of other banks, but to most people all they know about is that There is only 1 Chase Freedom product. Citi does the same for their TYP, with different sign-up bonuses, rewards structure (5x groceries, gas and drug stores vs. the standard rewards for example), and 0% promo durations. Each is internally labelled as a different product, though they are all labelled as the same product (on the surface) to consumers.

I'm not trying to justify what the lenders are doing. Personally if this happened to me I would be somewhat or outright pissed, depending on how bad of a offer I got. The best way to get around this is to either call someone in upper management to have them "fix" it, or to simply close the account and take your business elsewhere.