Combining Orchard Cards

[laz98]

I don't even know if they will let me combine, but here is my question anyway.

I have an Orchard Gold & an Orchard Platinum.  The Gold card has a higher limit but also a higher APR.  The Platinum card is newer & has a lower limit, but it has a nice APR (8.9%).

Do you think they would let me add the Gold limit to the Platinum card, so I can take advantage of both a higher limit AND a lower APR?

For those who say APR doesn't matter, I do carry a balance, so APR matters to me.

[Anonymous]

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laz98 wrote:

I don't even know if they will let me combine, but here is my question anyway.

I have an Orchard Gold & an Orchard Platinum.  The Gold card has a higher limit but also a higher APR.  The Platinum card is newer & has a lower limit, but it has a nice APR (8.9%).

Do you think they would let me add the Gold limit to the Platinum card, so I can take advantage of both a higher limit AND a lower APR?

For those who say APR doesn't matter, I do carry a balance, so APR matters to me.

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They might, but keep in mind that when you combine Orchard cards, they do not guarantee that you will keep the full combined CL.  For example, assuming you want to combine two cards, one with a $300 CL and one with a $500 CL, there is no guarantee that the CL on the combined card will be $800.  It will be somewhere between $500 and $800, but you won't know exactly how much it will be until it's done, and then it will be too late to change it back if you don't like the results.

[laz98]

they won't tell you what it's going to be?  that's stupid!

[Anonymous]

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laz98 wrote:
they won't tell you what it's going to be?  that's stupid!

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Welcome to the world of Orchard/HSBC!  Nothing is as simple or straightforward as it seems like it should be.

[Anonymous]

i read about someone who combined a 2k card and a 1k card and ended up with a 1k card and a hard

[laz98]

that's outrageous!  i guess i'll just keep what i have. 

[jaysdad2k]

I combined an Orchard Gold from 2006 with $500 and an Orchard Plat from 2007 with $300 this past May. I ended up with a Gold with the longer history and I got the $800 CLI. So, it went smoothly.

Last month they finally agreed to raise the gold to $1000, although it cost me $20. My APR is 9.9%, but I PIF.

[laz98]

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@jaysdad2k wrote:

I combined an Orchard Gold from 2006 with $500 and an Orchard Plat from 2007 with $300 this past May. I ended up with a Gold with the longer history and I got the $800 CLI. So, it went smoothly.

Last month they finally agreed to raise the gold to $1000, although it cost me $20. My APR is 9.9%, but I PIF.

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Well, that's good to hear.  To be fair to Orchard, I decided to email them & let them tell me what they will do.  We'll see what they say.

[GST2008]

When you get the email could you please share the results.  I have a gold with 2.4k and a plat. w/2.2k and would love to combine them and keep the gold since the history is much older.  Neither of them have a balance and I just keep them for reporting purposes, so it would be nice just to have one larger balance reporting cause they will not give me a cli (although maybe if i put more then ten dollars a month on them, it would help).

[laz98]

This is the email that Orchard sent me:

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the consolidation of your
accounts.

In order for us to determine account eligibility, please provide the specific
account number you wish to retain along with the account number (s) you wish
to close.

We will review this information to ensure eligibility of this request and
notify you in writing.

I guess I will have to call them.  I don't trust them NOT to consolidate the accounts if I just email them back.  I definitely want to make sure it's in my best interest to do so, before I do.

I thought about it some more, though, & I probably won't combine them.  My newer card has better terms (except for a monthly fee), but I would want to keep the history of my older card, which they probably won't let me do.  So I guess I will just keep them separate.