mo. 17 of 2 orchards (whopping 300 CL). have used the cards every mo- even took them near the CL several times. clis so far? 0, nada, zilch, zip. called orchard about 2-3 wks ago- was told 'we constantly review CLs, you never know, may log in 1 day and see, bam, cli.' uh huh, right. sadly, orchard gets a break from the chopping block as i have to fire a cc lower than orchard (first premier) first.
things i've heard about hsbc/orchard- not sure if they app to any1 here, but it's what i've heard and i tend to believe it's true.
if you've ever burned hsbc, you will NOT get a cli. time for cli lockdown varies- some say you're on a CLI 'blacklist' for forever (10+ yrs), but others say the CLI 'blacklist' only lasts for 18 mos. we'll see. i've burned hsbc 2x (still on my reports for another 2 yrs), but given my lack of CLIs, i tend to believe i'm on a CLI blacklist.
CLIS may be a hard pull and you MAY be declined. orchard told me i could 'ask' for a CLI, but it WOULD be a hard, NO guaranteed approval, i'd have to pay $15-25 just to be considered for a CLI, AND it would likely only be 100-200. needless to say, i passed up that *sparkling* offer.
orchard did its job, but like first premier, it's time to go bye bye bye soon. sheesh, even cap 1 (who i burned long ago) put me in credit steps which will up my CL to 500 by mo. 3 and even BA (who i burned long ago) gave me a 99/500 cc.
from my experience, orchard/hsbc are a little bit like amex if you burn them.