I stumbled across this message board as I was trying to do research on Orchard Bank. I gave them all my information and they gave me 2 credit cards that I was likely to get accepted for. (my credit is less than steller) I hit apply for one of them and was told that I was accepted, but had to pay an application fee. To me this sounds normal, however, my boyfriend thinks that its a scam. From all I've read Orchard Bank seems to be a great way to rebuild my credit and a $19.00 fee on top of the $79.00 anual fee doesn't seem extreme to me considering my credit history. Do any of you have any experience with this? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Orchard Bank is owned and operated by HSBC. While they have garner voluminous consumer complaints for closing accounts for no apparent reason, they do report every month or very close thereto. In my opinion, they are a viable option in terms of "bad" credit unsecured cards. The upside is that their fee's are marginal to other subprime lenders and the rates are typically lower. The down side is that you lose the costs incurred via their fees. In my opinion, you'd be better off opening a secured account with National City with the hopes of graduating to an unsecured status and getting your funds back with such graduation or even when you close the account.
Orchard bank sucks too While it is a fairly easy card to get you might want to be aware that it will cost you an extra $6 to $12 to make each payment to Orchard. They don't give you any way to pay them without incurring a charge for paying them. One of the cheapest ways would be to pay them by a Wal-mart moneygram.
When did they start this? I'm aware of the "rush payment" option but, I've never heard of the practice of charging for merely accepting payment. Do you mean that they don't accept payment via U.S. Mail, online, phone, or by any means without charging a fee?
I am quite sure that they do accept payment by U.S. Mail without charging more money but the payment has to be there a few days in advance of the due date. If you want to pay by phone there is a charge and I think that fee is $12.00. I also think that they charge extra if you pay online too although that fee might be a bit less. If you pay online the only option they give is an online check. They won't let you use a debit card or a credit card to pay with. They really want you to use Western Union which is about $10 to make a payment but they do accept Wal-Mart money grams and those are cheaper than Western Union. Wal-Mart is starting their own bank but not in the U.S. They are starting a Wal-Mart banking operation in Mexico. U.S. banking regulators won't let them do it. The reason Mexico let them do it is because most Mexicans don't have access to banking and checking accounts the way we do because the Mexican banks are extremely expensive and have very high fees for banking with them.
"I am quite sure that they do accept payment by U.S. Mail without charging more money but the payment has to be there a few days in advance of the due date. " If they don't credit mailed payments for purposes of late charge and interest calculations based on date of receipt (possibly by a cutoff time on that date), they are suckers for a class action or unfair trade practices suit.
Pay online has two options, the free we'll get to it in a couple of days; and the paid "You mean it's five minutes before the close of business, and you just now realized that you forgot to put it in the mail" option.
Thanks for all your advice. After doing some more research, I think getting a secured card is going to be the most economical.
