topic Re: Thank you in General Credit Topics

Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2007 18:59:27 GMT

I have had an Orchard Bank secured (200cl) for the last 19 months. I have never paid late, never been over limit, or even come close to charging the limit. In addition, my overall credit scores have gone up, they are now TU 580, EX 615 EQ 581.

Everytime I try to get them to gradaute me to an unsecured card or raise my limit (without sending in my own $), they refuse. WTF?? And....with my credit scores (now) I could qualify for their unsecured card if I applied as a new customer....BUT..they only allow you to have one of their cards at a time. UUGGHH. I don't want to close a good credit record to get another crappy (slightly less so) card than the one I have now.

People on this board have told me of similar stories and that they have NEVER HEARD OF ANYONE BEING GRADUATED to an unsecured status (from secured) with ORCHARD BANK.

I called them on Friday and they still refused to graduate, but couldn't tell me why. I then told them (politely and professionally) to %^& themselves and that they made a poor business decision.

I'm so po'd at them. Are they so cheap they don't want to give back my $200? I am just kicking myself for not getting a secured card with someone like BofA or Washingtion Mutual. I feel like I've wasted 19 months. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME on this secured card. Use someone else. I only went with them originally because I didn't have the 500 min. for a BofA card. Huge mistake.

Please don't do business with these people.

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:12:25 GMT

bump-meister!

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Tuscani — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:23:17 GMT

On the contrary.. Orchard is one of the best cards for rebuilding.. I have very little experience with their secured products, but the unsecured cards have helped plenty of people rebuild.

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:43:48 GMT

I think they're ok. I had the regular card with the $300 limit. Had it for years and for years, they kept denying me a CLI. Have no idea why, but they did. Then, this year they decided to increase the limit without me even asking. Go figure. Give it some time, I know 19 months sounds like a long enough time, but they are just weird like that...

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:22:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have had an Orchard Bank secured (200cl) for the last 19 months. I have never paid late, never been over limit, or even come close to charging the limit. In addition, my overall credit scores have gone up, they are now TU 580, EX 615 EQ 581.
Everytime I try to get them to gradaute me to an unsecured card or raise my limit (without sending in my own $), they refuse. WTF?? And....with my credit scores (now) I could qualify for their unsecured card if I applied as a new customer.

Okay...let's take a good look at the situation here.

Your credit scores average 592. That's not very good. Not terrible--and congratulations on improving them to that level--but you're still in about the 12th percentile or so among consumers. Getting an unsecured card with a 592 FICO is liable to be an uphill battle.

Do you have any recent (2 or 3 years old or younger) baddies on your CR? Unpaid charge-offs and collections can make card companies nervous about giving you an unsecured card, especially if any of those baddies involved a credit card.

If you don't have any baddies (especially unpaid ones) from 2005 on, you might want to go for Bank of America's "99/500" card. For a $99 deposit, you get a $500 credit line. My scores were about 15 points lower than yours when they approved me. Then again, I was also a BofA customer--I don't know if that affected their decision or not. I got the card about a year ago, maintained a spotless record, and except for a three-month period kept my utilization under 40%, and in 13 months I was graduated. Note that my average FICO at the time of graduation was around 630, and my utilization was 9%.

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

smallfry — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:39:42 GMT

This is the 3rd OB thread you've started. Can you say please ban me?

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:44:13 GMT

At first Orchard was fine..They started me out with a CL of 1300?Wow! But for the past 21/2 years my CL is only 2000..They will not give me steady increases...The last CLI was 300...

I agree they are pretty decent for re-building credit. Been with them for over 5years however, I do not need their card..My credit is pretty good...720's...

Re: Stay away from Orchard Bank!

Tuscani — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:49:48 GMT

Seriously man.. please stop. You have said your peace, move on.

Thank you

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:22:14 GMT

I am in the process of applying for BoA based on your recommendation. Thanks for taking the time to be helpful.

Re: Thank you

SoulSmilen — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:45:34 GMT

By all means, stay away from them; I hear that street corner has bad traffic!

Re: Thank you

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:58:53 GMT

I'm not smart enough to get that joke....