hooters ugh

[slg]

i apped for hooters figuring that they would take my payment history on my credit cards for the past year and a half (no lates) and grant me a decent credit limit of at least 1k. well i get approved but the limit is only 300 dollars and i dont even have the card yet and its already showing on my report. I thought i would at least have a chance to decline their card if i didnt like the limit before they open an account on my CR - what gives? can i still decline this and get rid of it off my report? i dont need another 300 limit card - its not work it to make my aaoa go down with such a crap limit.

[Anonymous]

Im sorry to hear stories like this. I too have had a bad experience with the Hooters card. Im certain if the new account is already reporting it will likely stay on your credit report. I declined an HSBC/Discover branded product (4 years ago) didn't activate it, and it shows on my report to this day.  My advice to you is NOT to activate the card. Decline the offer, they cannot charge you an annual fee if you have not ACTIVATED the card. Merrick Bank (Hooters) is awful! There is a lot of info that can be found here about Merrick Bank and their practices. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm slightly biased but Merrick is terrible to deal with, if it saves you any potential heartache in the future. The customer service is terrible. They report incorrectly (not always but in my case and others), their apr and other fees are high. Not really a great bank to do business with. Unless of course you specifically want the Hooters card.
While they may be selling out to crap 1 soon the HSBC/orchard people were always great . Not a huge CL or anything but I never had a problem with them in almost 5 years. JMHO FWIW

[Anonymous]

Depending on your score you might try a credit union or one of the prime banks for a better limit.

[Anonymous]

Eighteen months with no late payments is not particularly impressive to a ccc (though you should be commended for your accomplishment.)  I think after five or six years you would see a big difference in a cl offer/

[ReVeLaTeD]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm slightly biased but Merrick is terrible to deal with, if it saves you any potential heartache in the future. The customer service is terrible. They report incorrectly (not always but in my case and others), their apr and other fees are high. Not really a great bank to do business with. Unless of course you specifically want the Hooters card.
While they may be selling out to crap 1 soon the HSBC/orchard people were always great . Not a huge CL or anything but I never had a problem with them in almost 5 years. JMHO FWIW

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Have no idea what you're talking about.

Hooters is my second highest credit limit.  I've never had to call customer service because they don't **bleep** up.  No misapplied payments, no fees, nothing.  I don't really swipe them that often but they're one of my favorite cards.  I usually bill major purchases to it.  Two auto increases after a solid payment history; unlike HSBC who is blatantly stingy with the increases.

[ChesterPDexter]

The APRs are high and I must be at the top of the limit they grant (I have a regular Merrick at 3,300 and a Merrick Hooters at 3,200) but I have to agree that the customer service is fine, and polite, and they've never made any mistakes and they credit payments immediately.  No problems using the cards.

I wouldn't be happy with a 300 CL either, though.  It might grow rapidly but it might not.

They're fine to deal with, though.  My husband has a "Merrick-H" as we call it (Hooters) also and they LOWERED the APR unexpected for both of us within the last year, by two percentage points for each of us.  And they weren't at penalty-rate or anything.  I have no idea why they were nice enough to do that - in the husband's case, after he had opted out of a rate increase by closing his account and paying the balance down. In my case, the card is still open and active.

[Anonymous]

I should note that my experience with them was between 3-5 years ago. Things may have changed since then.
They do grant higher limits than orchard though. Good to know that others have had good experiences with them more recently. Best of luck

[ReVeLaTeD]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I should note that my experience with them was between 3-5 years ago. Things may have changed since then.
They do grant higher limits than orchard though. Good to know that others have had good experiences with them more recently. Best of luck

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If anything, Hooters was apparently even more loose 3-5 years ago.  Hooters happens to also currently be my oldest physical credit line.  I got them in the beginning of 2009, I believe.  But there were people in 2008 and 2007 claiming that Hooters gave them cards with all sorts of crazy negatives going on and with credit limits of at least $1,000.  I've heard of denials, but never tiny credit limits.

Only thing I can think of is that some bean counter panicked at the peak of the bubble bursting and started opening up the cleavage for more money to be shoved in by customers.  Dunno.