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These websites (and they are others) are all a part of the same network: WFNNB, World Financial Network Bank. They usually pull Experian reports, but some may pull others. They are all retail cards, some are Visa branded, most are not. Mostly clothes, some furniture and other things. I have seen most in the mall or catalogs I get in the mail:
Abercrombie & Fitch
Ann Taylor
Ashley Stewart
Avenue
Bealls
Brylane Home
The Buckle
Catherines
Chadwicks of Boston
Crate and Barrel
Domestications
Dress Barn
Eddie Bauer
Express
Fashion Bug
Friedman’s Jewelers
Goody’s Family Clothing
J.Crew
Jessica London
KingSize
La Redoute
Lane Bryant
Lerner New York
Limited Too
MetroStyle
New York & Company
Newport News
Peebles
Pottery Barn
Roamans
Silhouettes
Spiegel
Structure
The Company Store
The Limited
Victoria’s Secret
SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER:
SOFT INQUIRIES
Since these are preapprovals by soft inquiries, your credit report does not get hit with a hard inquiry, therefore your credit score is not affected and other creditors do not see soft inquiries, only hard inquiries.
AGE OF ACCOUNTS
If you are rebuilding, you may want to add positive accounts now so that 6 months, a year or two down the road these accounts have aged and helped improve your scores.
CREDIT MIX AND UTILIZATION
These lines would help your credit mix and add to your total credit line. They may be small at first, so to help your score you could either pay in full each bill or only use a small amount. Yes, keep in mind I have heard 35% of your credit line used is ok, but 10% utilization is golden to your FICO scores.
Let’s say you have a $500 credit limit. If you use 35% of that, it is $175 the most you can use. 10% of $500 would be $50, the most you could use.
DO NOT APPLY IF NOT PREAPPROVED
If you are rebuilding and do not see a preapproval offer, I would not apply for the credit b/c then you will have a hard inquiry and we all know hard inquiries do hurt your score, especially after 5 in the last 6 months.
CREDIT LINE INCREASES:
These companies normally give out credit line increases in 9 months provided you have a good credit limit, etc. at the time. I haven’t had mine that long to say if it is true.
AS ALWAYS PLEASE BE RESPONSIBLE!!!!
You want to build credit so that lenders can see an excellent credit history. Getting cards and charging them up to the max can hurt your score really bad!!!
Please note, everyone’s situation is not the same so you may have different outcomes.
HOW TO SEE IF YOU ARE PREAPPROVED
Go to the website: http://www.victoriasecret.com or http://www.express.com for example.
Add a few things to your cart, an item or two and go to check out as if you would order normally and register when it asks. I don’t think you have to input any credit card info. After you register with items in your cart, the preapproval should just pop up. At that point you can accept the offer and it will let you know your limit. You don’t have to buy anything to accept the offer.
There are tons of WFNNB stores, but I’m not sure if this works for all. Somehow, their system softs your credit report and all it needs is your address and date of birth, maybe phone number. They may need your ssn to confirm the offer, but that is it.
Check to see what the store offers first before you check into the preapproval. You may not be interested in what the store offers.
I tried to post what I could think of on this. Please chime in on what you know also, thanks!
Ambersun, thanks for the useful list! I was wondering if store credit cards can only be used at that store and not anywhere else?
Not sure if I posted this, but it personally worked for me for Victoria Secret and Express.
@amy, usually they are only specific to the stores they are branded with. However, I know some of these cards, if you get one, you can use them at others like Brylane Home, Chadwicks and Metrostyle. My VS card can be used at Bath and Body Works also. I had a Chevron gas card back in the day and it could be used with Pro Flowers or one of those flower shops lol!. If you received a retail card and wanted to know if they could be used somewhere else I would ask customer service and I’m sure they would tell you. And if it was branded with the Visa logo, well you can use it anywhere Visa is accepted lol.
Wow, excellent topic and tips Amy. Thanks for sharing! I’ll try this out and report back.
What are the chances of being preapproved and then denied?
@fontanaman, not sure about that….on the one I accepted with Express, when I accepted it, it gave me a 7-10 day message(or something like that) I think I waited the next day and went through the motions again on the website and it offered again and it instantly accepted me that time with a higher limit. The first was $150 and the second offer was $350. Again, I don’t advise that you apply for anything…only accept the offer if it says you are preapproved.
Applying Directly= hard inquiry(HURTS CREDIT REPORT)
Accepting Preapproval=soft inquiry (doesn’t hurt).
If you are unsure then abort the mission!
Ok, I just did the pre-approval on Buckle.com and was approved with a $250 credit limit. I can just cancel the order now, and I’ll still get my card? I just want to make sure I do this right. Thanks!
Yes, if u accepted the offer you should be able to log back in the account at any time and your card info. should already be there otherwise it should come in the mail soon. You don’t have to complete the order – Congrats!
Thanks ambursun! That now makes two unsecured cards after only having the CapOne Secured card for 4 months. On my way!
How do they preapprove you without a SSN?
Not really sure, I know they are matching your address, phone number, and name to your credit report and then if you accept the offer (if i can remember) they then confirm your ssn and d.o.b.
Also, when you go into some stores this happens as well sometimes. Sometimes, if they have ran your card ( i think credit card, but could be debit also) through their system and they ask if you would like to open an account, this could mean they see a preapproval popped up on their screen for you. Sometimes they just ask everyone before you start to check out.
Also, sometimes the sun needs to be shining just right…I say that to say again, everyone’s situation is different so you may get different results.
The Buckle offer only confirmed the last 4 of my SSN, DOB, address, etc. I got a credit report update the day after and it showed WFNNB as a soft inquiry. It’s a pretty sweet deal as there are no annual fee’s and it adds money to your available credit.
Thanks again to ambursun for the tip as this was REALLY useful and helpful to my credit!
This is a great tip. Haven’t tried it yet, but will do so this evening. At what point should the pop-up appear?
FICO
Equifax – 606
TransUnion 625
hi zwyattw, sorry for the delay…..you have probably already tried, but you should see the pop-up somewhere near the end of check out or after you registrer the account. You shouldn’t have to enter your card info, but if you do, you shouldn’t have to submit the order at all.
Quick question. I was approved for the Buckle and Express credit cards. I have used the Buckle card and paid off in full prior to due date. It is already reporting and showing up on my CU. My question is if I don’t use my Express card will it report or do I need to use it? Thanks!
No you don’t have to use it before it reports. Its probably because of the billing cycle that its not reporting yet.
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