I received an Aspire pre-approved visa application in the mail a week ago (9/1), and signed up for the card over the internet and received a limit of $1750. I just called them today to find out when I would receive the card and they told me that they accidentally processed my application twice (on 9/1, and 9/5), and that I was approved for the first card , but I will be receiving a decline letter for the second. Will this show as 2 inquiries on my CR? I have yet to receive their card, and they are already f***cking things up. Anybody have anything good or bad to say about Aspire? I already know the cons - their APR in somewhere in the stratosphere, and they don't report to the CRA's. These humps are pissing me off already, I hope it gets better from here on out with Aspire.
I would hope that you received the pre-approval (cough) letter via a promotional inquiry into your credit report. Even if there were 2 seperate inquiries, they would not cause harm. Promo inquiries are not counted against your score... since the CRA was kind enough to sell your name to Apsire. Good Luck, BarryN
since you applied online, and sent in the pre-approved acceptance form you most likely will have two inquiries on your credit. But that is not always the case. You probably were not yet in their system, thats how it got processed twice(online app, and pre-appoved)They have separate departments for processing apps ect, so they wouldn't know you had already applied until the processed the sent application. Perhaps at that point they saw you already were being issued an account. Hope this makes sense ugh Good luck, if you don't recieve your card soon give them a call.
"I already know the cons - their APR is somewhere in the stratosphere, and they don't report to the CRA's." I have yet to discover what possible good can this card do you. Saar
The Aspire card is no help in building or rebuilding credit because they don't report to the credit bureaus. I'm sure you've already noticed that the interest rates are highway robbery. On the positive side, Aspire does have great customer service, and they post your payments promptly. It's not a bad card to have in case of an emergency, or if you pay off your balances each month. The do offer a 25-day grace period, and there are no annual or monthly fees. Depending on how much you use this card and what your balances are, you might actually save in the long run compared to some other sub-prime cards.
If you carry a small balance, say $500, the Aspire Visa is actually less expensive than most of the subprime cards with annual fees. Of course, this begs the question of whether ANY subprime card should be used for credit alone. All of them being rather expensive, perhaps their only legitimate purpose is building your credit for something better. The Aspire Visa obviously cannot accomplish that purpose.
Possible good? RichGuy said it well in an post last month: "We should also consider whether there are circumstances in which you would not want a card reported to the CRA's. To have credit available for emergencies without affecting your reported ratio of available credit to income could be an advantage. Of course, these points depend on the cardholder either using the Aspire card to less than its maximum credit limit or paying off Aspire balances quickly." Lack of an annual fee does help and Aspire has demonstred that in order to keep a customer they will lower their APR.
The guy was talking about credit (re)building, not about maintaining it after it's built and enhancing its utilization options in extraordinary circumstances. Also, we must remember that if an account becomes delinquent, chances are it'll eventually show up in one's report, entered by either the original creditor or a collector. So this strategy only works as long as it is in good standing. The only reasonable way to use an Aspire under this appaling APR is to pay it in full every month, and for that purpose, almost any debit card would do. Sure, for debit transactions you need to have the money in your account. But that is required anyway - if you intend to pay in full, you must have the funds in your account within a relatively short time period after completing the transaction. And if all else fails, you're still better off getting a secured Optima: reputable company, very low annual fee, reasonable APR, plus - balance payment can wait till the due date, hence enjoying a grace period. Recently someone posted he was also able to have it entered to his credit report (although I understand you wish to keep this one unlisted) Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the secured Optima either, but given the terms, I don't see Aspire having a single feature that would make it worth having. Saar
