Credit Cards

[angiebabe24]

I applied for the HSBC American Dreamcard featured on this site under the credit card finder and I was declined. Is it safe to say that since HSBC declined me for this card I shouldnt apply for an orchard card?

[creditwherecreditisdue]

Not necessarily. Follow the process found here:

http://www.orchardbank.com/ecare/homepage/ourappprocess

to see if they have a pre-app for you. If they do you can then decide whether you want to app for it or not.

[Underh20]

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creditwherecreditisdue wrote:

Not necessarily. Follow the process found here:

http://www.orchardbank.com/ecare/homepage/ourappprocess

to see if they have a pre-app for you. If they do you can then decide whether you want to app for it or not.

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Not sure about with Orchard, but with HSBC that pre-app tool can sometimes suck.  I've seen where it indicates qualification for a certain card, and then the app is declined for a long list of reasons.  Personally I think they shouldn't be able to do that.

[Missy_Bell]

Hi, I applied for an Orchard card with them on 9/23/09. I was offered a $500 limit, $59 annual fee, and 16.99 interest rate. These were terms that were hard to take but I swallowed them because I am rebuilding after all and considered a risk. However, today when I received the card, I read the fine print and saw that it was $500 limit, $69 annual fee, and 19.99 interest rate. I called them up and asked why they did a switch on me and some guy who could barely speak English said they are raising ALL of their interest rates effective 9.30.09, after I applied. If I wanted the card, I had to accept it on their terms because it was "based on my credit". Not sure what happened in those 7 days which forced them to charge me an extra $10 on annual fee and 3% on interest rate....I can't see anything other than greed. 

I have read differing opinions on this board that this is a card that may/may not grow with you, so I was willing to take the chance because I am going to keep the balance low and pay it off quickly so I didn't want to quibble on an interest rate that won't really apply.

Just beware!

Best wishes. 

Message Edited by Missy_Bell on 10-02-2009 04:47 PM