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One day I applied for a SoFi credit card; it seemed pretty good, 2% cash back.
I wasn't enthused to learn that you could only redeem on your mobile app and not on your computer, or that to get 2% you could only redeem by depositing into a SoFi account, but neither of those inconveniences rose to the level of a strike.
Strike 1 was when I learned that they have a policy of no CLI's. You cannot get a credit limit increase, period. Later I learned why -- because they securitize all of their credit accounts. So you're totally bucketed in perpetuity, on all of their accounts, like Capital One does on some of its accounts.
Strike 2 was when I had a fraudulent charge on my card, I notified them, they indicated that the charge would be credited and a new card issued, and then .... they just let the fraudulent charge sit there until one of their "fraud specialists" gets around to looking at it, and to make matters worse they then reported to the credit bureaus the balance which consisted of the fraudulent charge.
I do not recommend this card.
@SouthJamaica wrote:One day I applied for a SoFi credit card; it seemed pretty good, 2% cash back.
I wasn't enthused to learn that you could only redeem on your mobile app and not on your computer, or that to get 2% you could only redeem by depositing into a SoFi account, but neither of those inconveniences rose to the level of a strike.
Strike 1 was when I learned that they have a policy of no CLI's. You cannot get a credit limit increase, period. Later I learned why -- because they securitize all of their credit accounts. So you're totally bucketed in perpetuity, on all of their accounts, like Capital One does on some of its accounts.
Strike 2 was when I had a fraudulent charge on my card, I notified them, they indicated that the charge would be credited and a new card issued, and then .... they just let the fraudulent charge sit there until one of their "fraud specialists" gets around to looking at it, and to make matters worse they then reported to the credit bureaus the balance which consisted of the fraudulent charge.
I do not recommend this card.
Thank you for the post, @SouthJamaica. I have been seriously considering the SoFi Credit Card to replace my AOD Visa Signature if/when it is nerfed for existing customers. I will likely find a different alternative between your experiences and those of @Anonymous.
@cws-21 wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:One day I applied for a SoFi credit card; it seemed pretty good, 2% cash back.
I wasn't enthused to learn that you could only redeem on your mobile app and not on your computer, or that to get 2% you could only redeem by depositing into a SoFi account, but neither of those inconveniences rose to the level of a strike.
Strike 1 was when I learned that they have a policy of no CLI's. You cannot get a credit limit increase, period. Later I learned why -- because they securitize all of their credit accounts. So you're totally bucketed in perpetuity, on all of their accounts, like Capital One does on some of its accounts.
Strike 2 was when I had a fraudulent charge on my card, I notified them, they indicated that the charge would be credited and a new card issued, and then .... they just let the fraudulent charge sit there until one of their "fraud specialists" gets around to looking at it, and to make matters worse they then reported to the credit bureaus the balance which consisted of the fraudulent charge.
I do not recommend this card.
Thank you for the post, @SouthJamaica. I have been seriously considering the SoFi Credit Card to replace my AOD Visa Signature if/when it is nerfed for existing customers. I will likely find a different alternative between your experiences and those of @Anonymous.
I only got it for the no FTF 2% with not too many strings attached, which at the time was relatively rare. I got a $30K SL so lack of CLIs wasn't an issue, but there are certainly lots of alternatives now, each with their own quirks.
Strike 2 is especially egregious.
@Bill77 wrote:Strike 2 is especially egregious.
Agreed. Any other financial institution with which I have dealt would issue a provisional credit immediately. And none would report the fraudulent balance to the credit bureaus, rushing to report it 6 days early.
@Anonymous wrote:
@cws-21 wrote:Thank you for the post, @SouthJamaica. I have been seriously considering the SoFi Credit Card to replace my AOD Visa Signature if/when it is nerfed for existing customers. I will likely find a different alternative between your experiences and those of @Anonymous.
I only got it for the no FTF 2% with not too many strings attached, which at the time was relatively rare. I got a $30K SL so lack of CLIs wasn't an issue, but there are certainly lots of alternatives now, each with their own quirks.
I have been seriously considering it because it is, specifically, a "no FTF 2% [Mastercard] with not too many strings attached." I think the SoFi might still be the only one of its kind in that respect. I have multiple no FTF Visas, but I am lacking a no FTF Mastercard (unless my Target RedCard converts, but that may never happen).
I dumped it a few months ago as they refused to pay sign-on bonus that was targeted for went back and forth and they never called back when they said they would etc. Was only $100, but if a company with proof won't honor that, what else won't they honor? Sofi Personal loan rates arent really competitive anymore either as they were known as the lowest at one point now they kidna are in the. middle. They just seem to not really know what they want do they want to be a bank a SL lender, etc? two many other option and a 9500 cl was pretty laughable which made me shy away for other cards with more cushion if i needed it due to the no cli clause. Some people got great CL's from the start others with good scores and incomes didn't get as fortunate. Nice thing there are many option in the 2-3% space now. AOD is certainly my go to for non-cat spending. and hopefully it remains.
@SouthJamaica wrote:One day I applied for a SoFi credit card; it seemed pretty good, 2% cash back.
I wasn't enthused to learn that you could only redeem on your mobile app and not on your computer, or that to get 2% you could only redeem by depositing into a SoFi account, but neither of those inconveniences rose to the level of a strike.
Strike 1 was when I learned that they have a policy of no CLI's. You cannot get a credit limit increase, period. Later I learned why -- because they securitize all of their credit accounts. So you're totally bucketed in perpetuity, on all of their accounts, like Capital One does on some of its accounts.
Strike 2 was when I had a fraudulent charge on my card, I notified them, they indicated that the charge would be credited and a new card issued, and then .... they just let the fraudulent charge sit there until one of their "fraud specialists" gets around to looking at it, and to make matters worse they then reported to the credit bureaus the balance which consisted of the fraudulent charge.
I do not recommend this card.
That's ridiculous!! That reminds me of the time I had fraud on my debit card with a now defunct/bought-out/merged bank, where holding the funds hostage until the fraud department could look at it, which is probably normal on debit vs credit, and probably related to why a FinTech might do the same with credit, took a month, month and a half.
At the end I also found out their "zero liability" only applied if the thieves were domestic, and fraud that occurred on foreign soil was non-reclaimable so only got part of the fraudulent charges back, and got hosed for a few hundred bucks they spent on transactions to Asia...
As for SoFi, I don't think I'll ever think of them as more than a football stadium.
Thanks for sharing these data points...wow Agree Strike two is truly reprehisble 😡
@Bill77 wrote:Strike 2 is especially egregious.
Agree. Far worse than strike #1.