I decided to apply for the Microcenter Insider credit card to take advantage of the 5% discounts. After applying on-line and expecting an immediate decision, I received an email indicating that "additional analysis would be performed" and that the results of it would be mailed to my home.
15 days later, I received a letter in the mail from "WELLS FARGO BANK". It stated:
"Dear JaSONJayhawk:
We're writing to let you know we are unable to approve your application for a MICRO CENTER credit card account for the following reasons:
Unable to authenticate identity of applicant
My credit score is 820 out of 850. Key factors for the decision, it states, are "No recent bankcard balances" and "No recent revolving balances" and "Lack of recent installment loan information."
Since when was my credit score an "I love going into credit card debt" score?
I then checked my TransUnion report and discovered Wells Fargo pulled a HARD CREDIT file on me. I would have been fine with this, but how could they claim (and write a letter to me) that my identity was unknown, if everything matched up to the security questions that I approved?
Does anyone know of any other way to join the Insider Club without a credit card? It seems unfair that it membership is exclusive to a credit card club.
edit: accidentally typed "Chase", but meant to say Wells Fargo pulled a hard credit request. Grrr!