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I don't know if anyone opened a thread for this or not but does anyone have an unsecured Orchard Bank CC? What was your starting limit? How long you had it? and any significant cli?
The reason I'm asking is because I have had my Orhcard for exactly 3 years now. Opened it in 2010 with $320 cl. Received a $100 cli in 2011 and another $100 cl in early 2012. I still have annual fee and no rewards or cash back at all. I tried for a cli but no action because of the transition with Cap1. I called recently again to get the update on the transition but still in the process, they said they can offer to waive my AF for 1 year. I called again to see if I can get reward points or cash back and rep said no one gets cash bach or rewards for these type of cards.
I called once more to see if there's anything else they can do to keep me from paying off my balance and canceling the card. They said they'll look into taken the AF off forever and will get back to me nect week. My question, does anyone have experiences with Orchard being stingy with cli and is it norml for just getting $200 cli in 3 years? Any input would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
You need to get a hold of the executive office.
This is now owned by Capital One but for what ever reason they don't have access to them yet and therefore are not able to do anything up in the presidents office that many have had such good luck with... I did put it in with my email and I was told it was being sent for the higher ups in that sie to look into it and I did not get a call and I did not get a CLI but I sure did get a HP from them!
Sit tight and wait until it fully moves over... when you can add it to your capital one online account is when cap1 will be able to access it and possibly help out of the presidents office.
I don't have an Orchard, but I have a Household account. I think Household is a bit better and has a few different policies for their near prime accounts. I think that Orchard is their low tier product and Household is their middle tier product, I don't know where Merchant's fit's into it. The regular HSBC cards are their top tier accounts. From the research that I have done Orchard can be a bit restrictive and so can Household, but Household a little less so. With Household I got a CLI after I had the account for 9 months by request. I was due another one last month, but because of the Capital One policies they are now not giving any CLI's for any HSBC account. I do find that hard to believe, one would think that thier Prime Cardholders would be a bit upset about that. I suspect that these are the accounts that will transfer next over to Capital One as they are easiest to match to Capital One accounts and Capone's Prime category. I then suspect that Orchard cards will be the next to transfer over as most of those will also be easiest to transfer over to their subprime category. I think they will begin more of the transfers in about 2 months. It is at this point that I will probably have a nice conversation with their EO if my Household account transfers over to a subprime card. (I already have a 709 FICO score, so I don't want to be stuck in their dregs account any longer. In fact I will cashing out my points before the transition! I only need 8 more points for the next level!)
If HSBC EO couldn't do anything for you in regards to PCing your card then you will definitely have to wait until the transfer. Unless Capone changes their policy before the transition, then there is no way that you can get a CLI until then. Depending on your credit score now it might be a good idea to get a card with someone like Barclays and have that card as leverage when it happens. I have a lot of leverage with them now when I do my next EO discussion. From what I have read they tend to be more helpful to those who have other cards with higher limits, than those with no other cards. You might get a CLI without another card, but it might not be as high as it should. When I did the EO through a BBB complaint they nearly matched my limit that I had with my Marathon Visa. It's a shame they still have a policy in place which requires people to jump through hoops upon hoops to get what other companies would give through a normal course of business. I just don't simply want to close the accounts I have with them since they have no annual fee and are a bit older than others.
@MovingForward_2012 wrote:
I have an unsecured Orchard Bank card that I opened in 2009. The initial credit limit was $300, now the credit limit is $1100 after numerous credit increases over the years. My last credit limit increase was summer 2011, which was right before Cap1 took over. I was told by a Cap1 CSR that they are not doing credit limit increases until the transition is complete. So in July 2012, I applied for the green Cash Rewards card and was instantly approved with a $2000 credit limit. It has since been increased to $2500. And last month I was approved for a Chase Freedom with a $1000 credit limit. So I plan to start using the Freedom and Cash Rewards card more and the Orchard Bank card less but I will still keep it open as it is my oldest trade line and is also what got me in the door with Chase.
At least when they take it over you could call the EO and see about it being PC'd since you already have a Green card with them.
@bernhardtra wrote:I don't have an Orchard, but I have a Household account. I think Household is a bit better and has a few different policies for their near prime accounts. I think that Orchard is their low tier product and Household is their middle tier product, I don't know where Merchant's fit's into it. The regular HSBC cards are their top tier accounts. From the research that I have done Orchard can be a bit restrictive and so can Household, but Household a little less so. With Household I got a CLI after I had the account for 9 months by request. I was due another one last month, but because of the Capital One policies they are now not giving any CLI's for any HSBC account. I do find that hard to believe, one would think that thier Prime Cardholders would be a bit upset about that. I suspect that these are the accounts that will transfer next over to Capital One as they are easiest to match to Capital One accounts and Capone's Prime category. I then suspect that Orchard cards will be the next to transfer over as most of those will also be easiest to transfer over to their subprime category. I think they will begin more of the transfers in about 2 months. It is at this point that I will probably have a nice conversation with their EO if my Household account transfers over to a subprime card. (I already have a 709 FICO score, so I don't want to be stuck in their dregs account any longer. In fact I will cashing out my points before the transition! I only need 8 more points for the next level!)
If HSBC EO couldn't do anything for you in regards to PCing your card then you will definitely have to wait until the transfer. Unless Capone changes their policy before the transition, then there is no way that you can get a CLI until then. Depending on your credit score now it might be a good idea to get a card with someone like Barclays and have that card as leverage when it happens. I have a lot of leverage with them now when I do my next EO discussion. From what I have read they tend to be more helpful to those who have other cards with higher limits, than those with no other cards. You might get a CLI without another card, but it might not be as high as it should. When I did the EO through a BBB complaint they nearly matched my limit that I had with my Marathon Visa. It's a shame they still have a policy in place which requires people to jump through hoops upon hoops to get what other companies would give through a normal course of business. I just don't simply want to close the accounts I have with them since they have no annual fee and are a bit older than others.
I disagree with you about each product, I had both (got them combined by the EO) the Household bank had no rewards where the OB has 2% CB on everything. Also the HH grew way slower than the OB (opened them both on the same day) and the HH had a higher annual fee...
so as always YMMV
Maybe, unbeknownst to me, they actually had all three tiers at all three. I always thought they were a bit seperated by level. At least that gives more light to the situation, thanks. Maybe it was simply what product you were first approved for? (Not the company name!) I had an OB card long ago and I never got an increase and it had a fee. I was a bit strategic and it took me a few months when I got the HH card! I kept going to the sites and doing the soft pull every few weeks and comparing them to each other. The same day that OB said I had to pay a $39 AF I went to the HH which said no fee. Maybe that is where some of the impression I have came from. I thought it was weird that they were really the same bank but the fees were different at each! I obviously took the no AF option! The customer service at HSBC I think is much better than Capone! I am so sad Capone bought them out. So so sad!
My HH doesn't have cash back, it has points but they seem to actually accumulate pretty fast for how much I use the card. With the low limit it is hard to put through much on the card without making multiple payments each month. Now that it is held by Capone and the fact that I have the Discover and Chase it sees a lot less traffic.
Anyway, thanks again for pointing this out. I will rethink what I say about them. In many ways it is pretty mute at this point anyway. Let's see what Capone does with them though. This should be interesting! I kinda hope they don't do much with it and then I can call the EO and get a CLI on the HH and the Capone and then simply ask them to combine the cards! In that way I might be able to PC to a Venture card later!?!
I called the EO many times and the recent time I called was 2 days ago. They said no cli (transition period), no rewards or cash back. They said they'll look into waiving AF forever and will let me know but I think I'll wait after the transition is complete and see what happens than. Thank you for everone's input!!
I've had an unsecured Orchard card since 2004. Started at 700 Cl, it's now at 1700. Doesn't budge. I have no need for it and plan to cancel even if they waive the AF. CS is garbage and I'd rather get rid of it than SD it. My utilization is at 1% so that won't be an issue.