I am nearing two years post discharge with a decent rebuild. These past few weeks, I've been on an app spree after gardening for a little over six months.
Before I wrap up this app spree and head to the garden for at least a year, I decided to try for the Affinity Cash Rewards Signature Visa.
While I didn't find a ton of information on here about people with BKs applying for this card, I did see 1 or 2 posts of people with BKs on record saying they applied and were approved for the VIsa Signature card through Affinity.
I will add that getting a Visa Signature card again has been one of my goals in my rebuild.
I spent the next few days thinking about it and after calling Affinity and being told the only requirement of being eligible for this card (or any of their loan products) is one year post discharge with a rebuild, I decided to apply.
There was no instant decision. I called into affinity and they said an underwriter would have to review the application.
One thing I noticed on the application dashboard was that the status read "approved and accepted". After speaking to an Affinity rep, this is meaningless and does not mean in anyway that your application was approved.
After six days, I received a decision via email informing me that they could not approve me for the Visa Signature product but that they could approve me for the Visa Pure Rewards card with a limit of $500 upon verifying income (two recent pay stubs). They also listed that they pulled Experian with a score of 667.
I decided to call into their underwriting department and spoke with someone who agreed to have the app reconsidered for the Visa Signature. No dice. She said they're still pushing the Visa Pure Rewards.
I asked her a few questions about the Visa Pure offer and how that could grow. According to her experience (30 years at Affinity):
1. Affinity issues no auto credit line increases
2. Any manual credit limit increases will result in a HP if I do not want to stay at a $500 limit
3. If I wanted to swap the Visa Pure Rewards to a Visa Signature product in the future, I would need to apply in a seperate application, be approved and make that request after being approved.
3a. If I asked for the swap, the only thing that would carry over to the Visa Signature would be the Visa Pure Rewards origination date. The credit limits would not merge.
I thanked her for this information and she asked if I'd like to accept the counteroffer. I replied that I'm still going to think on it. She then made the suggestion that I email my proof of income anyway.
I decided to email back with my proof of income as well as another request for reconsideration for the Visa Signature card. I outlined my rebuild and the great relationships I've built (and rebuilt in some cases) with lenders who have approved me. I expect nothing to come of this but what could it hurt at this point.
Anyway, the question I'm struggling with is whether I accept the counter offer or not. On one hand, it opens up a relationship between me and Affinity but on the other hand, the card will never grow in anyway without a HP being involved. I also am not too sure about whether or not the Pure Rewards Visa's reward structure is much better than the cards I already have so I'm not sure how much of use it'll be for me.
What would you do in this situation?
Miscellaneous Info:
1. The rep in the underwriter department also mentioned that applying for a secured loan or secured visa through Affinity will result in NO HP
2. The rep mentioned that there is no cap on the deposit (which would become the card's limit) you'd like to place on the secured card
3. The rep did not know whether making a payment of 60%-80% of a secured loan would push the due date back but said it's possible and to ask a member services rep
The AFCU Pure Rewards is a part of the Hi 5! rewards (as well as the Cash Rewards you tried to get), so it is essentially like the Disco It and Chase Freedom with quarterly rotating categories. If this was one of the things that drew you to the Cash Rewards, then I say accept the offer. Let this account add some age to your credit profile, and down the road take the HP to increase your CL (like you would have to do for many other lenders out there, not just AFCU).
Okay, so I have until the 30th to decide before the offer expires. I sent a lengthy email about why I'd like to be reconsidered the same day I got the offer and the underwriter/their team simply ignored it.
Some part of me feels like taking the $500 lesser card offer means the hard pull wouldn't have been such a waste but the other part of me thinks this card is useless (due to the cards I already have) and that the relationship it might create might just be a pipe dream.
Still unsure of what to do and a little offended I didn't at least get a simple one-sentence reply.
Whatever I do, I won't be applying for anything until at least 6 months from now.
TLDR UPDATE: still struggling to make a choice.
FINAL UPDATE: Accepted Pure Rewards $500 counteroffer.
@Disregard wrote:Okay, so I have until the 30th to decide before the offer expires. I sent a lengthy email about why I'd like to be reconsidered the same day I got the offer and the underwriter/their team simply ignored it.
Some part of me feels like taking the $500 lesser card offer means the hard pull wouldn't have been such a waste but the other part of me thinks this card is useless (due to the cards I already have) and that the relationship it might create might just be a pipe dream.
Still unsure of what to do and a little offended I didn't at least get a simple one-sentence reply.
Whatever I do, I won't be applying for anything until at least 6 months from now.
TLDR UPDATE: still struggling to make a choice.
Just reading up on Affinity threads, I see in your sig you ended up accepting. Have you decided to still go for the Cash Rew in a couple more months?
I have. I'm waiting for the card to mature atleast 6 months and then I'm going to make the request.
As long as the information I received is correct, they can PC to the Cash Rewards and it'll keep the origination date of the pure rewards which will be nice.
For now, I'm trapped in the garden.🪴