Well took the plunge and applied online for JC Penney's card today and received instant approval for $100. Immediately called the credit department and was told this is standard for online apps, you have to go into the store to verify identity and we can increase the account to $4,000. Whoo Hoo! I was quite happy since this is only a store card, and I can do a lot of shopping at Penney's for $400 during a good sale (and I have a rule off never using more than 10% of any card). After going to store and talking with an idiot rep and supervisor from the credit dept over the store phone they offered $300. I promptly told the supervisor to close the account and made sure to let them know how much time I had wasted with this process.
After returning home still quite mad about the mornings event I decided to call the credit department again. I was told the credit rep called by the store was wrong and must have been new because on her computer it lists the "max amount you would be approved for is 7,500 so 4,000 is not out of line". I asked her if she could reopen the account and note the account of this CL because I dont want to go through this again. She promptly handled this request, but said she would have to block the account pending physical veriification (again). She was quite nice and kept apologizing for her colleagues error. After hanging up with her I went back to the store, showed ID and the was immediately given a temp card and 10% coupon to use pending receipt of my card.
I wanted to offer up this experience for all those who have dealt recently with csr's who have no idea what they are talking about. If you don't get what you want, try try again. I had an hour (and gas) wasted going back and forth to the store, but I did not waste an inquiry on my credit report due to a csr and supervisor who were both obviously new employees.
They pulled EQ (723).
My TL's average 11.5k-12 cc's & 7.5k-2 store cards. BTW, 6 new accounts and prob 8 inquiries over the past year. Note: the max they offered was the average of my 2 store cards. I am learning much by experimenting with my own TL's and reading all I can on this board.
But, always remember - YMMV.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
Message Edited by ocheosa on
09-01-2008 01:01 PM
[4/24] Scores 8/9: 700-800s. Util: 1-2%. Inq/12: EQ 0, EX 3, TU 2. AoOA=15.8y, AoYA=8m.
TCL $678.5K: Personal $562.5K, Business $116K.
