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My bank is not far from a college, so first month or so of school brings in a LOT of new accounts. And first-time loans.
From what I can tell, we're a bit more lenient than Ghel's bank, but if you have really bad credit, you don't get a debit card until you have an account for 6 months. If you have one chex hit within the year or multiple chex hits within five years (chex hits= accounts that were charged off with negative balances at other institutions), we won't approve checking at all: just savings, and the atm card won't allow atm deposits. Still lets people open account with no monthly fees and get direct deposit set up, so I figure it's better than a mart-o-wal card, even if you don't get the convenience of spending your money before you've earned it.
Of course, not everyone is happy about not getting full services approved. Of them, there are always that lovely few who stand out:
"But my friiiiend got a debit card...."
[Your friend has no collections in his name. You, however, cannot say the same.]
"But it wasn't my fault! The landlord screwed me by charging me when I broke lease, even though it was only because my roommate who wasn't listed on the lease moved out, and I couldn't afford the rent. And the cable company never billed me for my last payment just because I never did a forwarding address or told them where I moved to, so since I didn't know I shouldn't have to pay. And I'm disputing that cell phone charge because I never had service with them. And my sister was supposed to return those books to the library. And...."
[I have sympathy when you have to explain one collection, or even multiple caused by the same circumstance. But seriously, when everyone is somehow messing up your credit... maybe, just maybe, it might be you.]
"Why can't I get a checking account? That doesn't make any sense. FINE. I'll get the savings. I only have the $5 minimum to put in that, cause I just lost my job. Can I get a starter check on that savings? I'm getting a loan, but they said I need a starter check."
[...and this is why you get no checking account. Because that starter check, which NO you cannot get on a savings, is for a cash advance loan, a place you intend to screw over since you have no way of paying them back, and we'd be dealing with the charge-off in a few weeks when they tried to cash your unfunded check.]
"But my friiiiend got a $1000 credit card with no prior credit."
[I HATE people basing what will be approved for them off of what we gave to someone else. Circumstances are NOT equivalent, even for identical credit scores, or lack of credit scores. There is length of job history, length of account history, whether or not you have any collections (which don't form a credit score on their own if you have no loan or card history), whether or not you are an authorized signer on someone else's card (which actually gives you a credit score,even though you weren't responsible for the card payment), etc. And NO I will not go over the reasons for someone else's approval. That is based on their personal information. If they want you to know, they can come in with you and ask us to explain their business in front of you.]
"But my friiiend didn't have to have proof of income to get her first credit card."]
[Okay, it was actually sister, but there's a theme going on here. In this case, older sister got her credit card BEFORE rules changed to where, even the first-time, no credit required, low-limit card requires proof of income or a co-signer with income. Little thing called wanting to verify that you can actually afford to pay off the balance. Oh, your parents pay your bills? Well then they can co-sign if they want you to have a credit card.]
"Why won't you give my kid a loan, and no I won't co-sign! I refuse to be responsible for someone else's loan!"
[If you don't believe in your kid's ability to repay, why should we?]
From what I can tell, we're a bit more lenient than Ghel's bank, but if you have really bad credit, you don't get a debit card until you have an account for 6 months. If you have one chex hit within the year or multiple chex hits within five years (chex hits= accounts that were charged off with negative balances at other institutions), we won't approve checking at all: just savings, and the atm card won't allow atm deposits. Still lets people open account with no monthly fees and get direct deposit set up, so I figure it's better than a mart-o-wal card, even if you don't get the convenience of spending your money before you've earned it.
Of course, not everyone is happy about not getting full services approved. Of them, there are always that lovely few who stand out:
"But my friiiiend got a debit card...."
[Your friend has no collections in his name. You, however, cannot say the same.]
"But it wasn't my fault! The landlord screwed me by charging me when I broke lease, even though it was only because my roommate who wasn't listed on the lease moved out, and I couldn't afford the rent. And the cable company never billed me for my last payment just because I never did a forwarding address or told them where I moved to, so since I didn't know I shouldn't have to pay. And I'm disputing that cell phone charge because I never had service with them. And my sister was supposed to return those books to the library. And...."
[I have sympathy when you have to explain one collection, or even multiple caused by the same circumstance. But seriously, when everyone is somehow messing up your credit... maybe, just maybe, it might be you.]
"Why can't I get a checking account? That doesn't make any sense. FINE. I'll get the savings. I only have the $5 minimum to put in that, cause I just lost my job. Can I get a starter check on that savings? I'm getting a loan, but they said I need a starter check."
[...and this is why you get no checking account. Because that starter check, which NO you cannot get on a savings, is for a cash advance loan, a place you intend to screw over since you have no way of paying them back, and we'd be dealing with the charge-off in a few weeks when they tried to cash your unfunded check.]
"But my friiiiend got a $1000 credit card with no prior credit."
[I HATE people basing what will be approved for them off of what we gave to someone else. Circumstances are NOT equivalent, even for identical credit scores, or lack of credit scores. There is length of job history, length of account history, whether or not you have any collections (which don't form a credit score on their own if you have no loan or card history), whether or not you are an authorized signer on someone else's card (which actually gives you a credit score,even though you weren't responsible for the card payment), etc. And NO I will not go over the reasons for someone else's approval. That is based on their personal information. If they want you to know, they can come in with you and ask us to explain their business in front of you.]
"But my friiiend didn't have to have proof of income to get her first credit card."]
[Okay, it was actually sister, but there's a theme going on here. In this case, older sister got her credit card BEFORE rules changed to where, even the first-time, no credit required, low-limit card requires proof of income or a co-signer with income. Little thing called wanting to verify that you can actually afford to pay off the balance. Oh, your parents pay your bills? Well then they can co-sign if they want you to have a credit card.]
"Why won't you give my kid a loan, and no I won't co-sign! I refuse to be responsible for someone else's loan!"
[If you don't believe in your kid's ability to repay, why should we?]
) how often I hear that at the tax office. My friend got a $5k refund, why not me?
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