WAMU Credit Card

[Anonymous]

Hi,


Planning to apply for the mastercard online, because of the free FICO score. I have also heard horror stories about wamu.

Is the free fico worth to apply for the wamu credit card?

Also do they allow joint account in the credit card?


Pls advise.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the FICO Forums, quizzer!

Yes, WaMu is definitely worth it.  You get a free PFICO, generally low APRs, and high initial CLs.  No rewards (to start anyway) and CS leaves a lot to be desired, but hey, you can't have everything.

What horror stories have you heard?

To answer your other question, no, WaMu does not do joint accounts.

[Anonymous]

Thanks cheddar for the quick response.

Horror stories were about inefficient customer service, lot of hold times to reach the live person etc etc.

I have a checking and savings a/c with them...so can i do electronic payment  of the card from my checking/savings account?

Planning to apply online. will the decision be known immediatly?

How quickly will i get the card if approved? how soon will the pFICO score be available after i set the online account?

Its a great forum that i found today and hope all my questions will be answered.

Appreciate people like you who take time to respond to newbees like me.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

The pfico will not be available for at least a month or two. As far as how quickly you will get a decision that varies. I got mine from my online preapproval app instantly. But as noted in the other WAMU thread that you responded to it may take several weeks if they do a manual review. If you have not heard anything within about a week of applying call them and see if they can give you an answer or if they need any more info.

[Anonymous]

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quizzer wrote:

Horror stories were about inefficient customer service, lot of hold times to reach the live person etc etc.

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True, they do have pretty poor CS.  They are generally script-readers, CSRs who read answers from a script regardless of whether those answers directly address your concerns or not.  I have found that I have been able to get better help through escalation to a supervisor.

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quizzer wrote:

I have a checking and savings a/c with them...so can i do electronic payment  of the card from my checking/savings account?

---

Yes, you can, but keep a couple of things in mind about this.  The WaMu CC side of the business is entirely separate from the checking/savings side, so one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing most of the time.  First, having a checking/savings account with them for many years (as I have) will not help you get approved for a CC if you don't otherwise qualify.  Second, the website for managing the CC account is entirely separate from the regular banking website.  Finally, you can pay the CC electronically from any checking account, but paying it from your WaMu account does not make it process any more quickly than if you paid it from another bank (oddly enough).

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quizzer wrote:

Planning to apply online. will the decision be known immediatly?

---

I initially got an instant decline (a long time ago), and my fiancee got an instant approval, but I have seen reports of "we will notify you in 7-10 days."

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quizzer wrote:

How quickly will i get the card if approved? how soon will the pFICO score be available after i set the online account?

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The card comes quickly.  Within a week after approval.  The PFICO takes about 2 months to show up.  Some say 3 months.  Even after the PFICO shows up, it only updates monthly.

One other thing you may not be aware of:  WaMu bought Providian a few years ago, so they are one and the same now.  Be aware that they do blacklist those who had WaMu or Providian accounts included in BK. 

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quizzer wrote:

Its a great forum that i found today and hope all my questions will be answered.

Appreciate people like you who take time to respond to newbees like me.

---

Happy to help, and I'm glad you found this forum today, as well.  Ask away.  We live for this stuff.

Have you read the Credit 101 Thread in my siggy?

Welcome, again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks once again for the detailed response.

I will update this thread after applying. It may take a day or two.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

WAMU has been good to me.  they took over my old PROVIDIAN  acct and then gave me a new WAMU and a total of 2500 cli in a year.  0% for a year also.

[Anonymous]

I'll chime in because I'm a WAMU fan. I've had the WAMU visa for a year and it's been a good card. I just got approved for the MC and got an even higher limit. All the info above is dead on with my experiences, although, fortunately, I haven't had to call CS so I can't comment on that.

There are small irritations about the website for the cc's, but they aren't anything that I can't live with. I really like having my pfico's and it's one bureau on the visa and a different one on the mastercard.

My husband got his card Feb 2007 for $1K limit and at 6 months got a $1.5K CLI, so yeah - we like them!

[Anonymous]

Love my WAMU cards-

[Anonymous]

This is a great forum. I'm almost decided about going with WAMU mastercard now.

Just one question - Can Cheddar or somebody tell me about the electronic card payment process from wamucards.com?

I have wamu checking and wells fargo checking account.

How easy/difficult is to pay the credit card from any of these checking accounts?

Is there any setup involved (verifying account process or paperwork etc)?

Thanks