Hooters Card App Question

[steadyd]

Hello all - Wish I would have found this site earlier. I just had my BK discharge on 10/13/06. I saw some postings about the Hooters card and decided to give it a quick try. I got the infamous "thanks for submitting.... we'll let you know in 7 - 10 days." From those others that have applied to Hooters is this a definite "NO", which I'm guessing it is? I don't know if this card actually approves online or not.

I'll keep looking through the posts to learn from all of your experiences. Thanks for your time.

[BassBoy]

First thing that must be asked here; "Have you cleaned up your credit report to ensure all accounts are reporting correctly?"

Next, why such a rush to get credit again? You were discharged less than 3 weeks ago and you're attempting to obtain new credit? I'm not saying that obtaining new credit is such a bad thing, but you need to cool your jets a bit and let time heal the wounds from BK.

[steadyd]

LOL - I guess you could just say that I'm anxious, probably overly, to re-establish my credit... not going out on a spending spree or anything. We'd like to refinance our mortgage rate so want something to reflect positive monthly payments again. The few things I read on this site led me to believe that Hooters might be a good first choice since I do have a couple of positive lines with my home / car. All I found wrong on one report I could view online was an account not yet closed and a few not yet showing discharged, as I would have expected.

[CindyLou]

Got this on both mine and hubby's. But give them a call. All they needed on ours was to verify address. Keep us posted.

[BassBoy]

Okay then, whatever is not reported correctly on your credit report, you should get corrected before you choose to apply for any credit or loans.

As for the refi on your home; unless you can get a lower interest rate, AND not extend the term, then I wouldn't advise applying for a home loan refi just yet. I would assume that you may get a higher rate. Are you hoping to shorten the term of the loan? For example, you took out a 30 year loan, 5 years ago.....are you staying at 25 years or going down to 20 years? If you go with another 30 year loan, you're essentially flushing money down the toilet.

[steadyd]

Thanks, Cindy & BassBoy. I gave them a call... no address needed here, lol. They just verified that they did receive the app and I'd receive something in 7 - 10 days. So, now that I'm shot down there I suppose I better take BassBoy's advice and wait until I receive the two credit reports I have ordered to be sure I have everything cleaned up before jumping back into the application game.

[BassBoy]

Good decision. Glad to hear that you're going about it this way.

We all understand your eagerness.......we've been there........and believe me, your time will come. Everything will return to normal for you.

Meanwhile, take a look through the forum. There are dozens and dozens of threads with valuable information to assist you in your quest to rebuild.

One last thing, forgot to welcome you to our forum.

[steadyd]

Thank you, BassBoy! I appreciate the welcome!! It's nice to be able to talk to those who can relate to what you're going through. This forum will hopefully become a solid support group for me, and hopefully someday I'll be able to do the same for others.

[HHM]

There are really only 2 things that you need to do to repair your credit post BK.

1. Make sure there are no mistakes on your credit report, i.e. that all your creditors have made the proper updates and entries relative to your BK.

2. Patience. Most of the negative effects of a BK on your credit rating tend to evaporate after about 2 years from when you filed your BK.

The only time I really recommend someone going out and getting one of these "second chance" credit cards is if they have significant negative payment history already on their credit report when they filed for BK, i.e. you didn't pay your credit cards for six months before filing BK (the keyword being "significant" a missed payment here or there doesn't count). However, if you went into your BK with a positive payment history (lol, it does happen), then you really do not need to get your hands on one of these cards.

If you do get one of these cards, do not charge more than $100 in any given month (or less if you can't afford to pay the $100 balance when the bill comes due), and pay off the card in full "as soon as" the bill comes in the mail. And then repeat this process each month.

You will soon get offers from more mainstream cards, have some patience with this, let time be your friend as the offers will get better with time. About a year out from BK, go ahead and accept an offer from a mainstream card (preferably one with No annual fee and an interest rate under 12% read the fine print to see what the rate will be after the promotional rate expires). Important step, stop using any other credit card and only use this mainstream card...agian, charging no more than $100 per month, and paying it off in full each month.

[poorme]

Hooters doesnt do on-line approvals. Call them back in 4-5 days and ask about your status. First time I called all they could say is they had my app and it was processing. That was one day after they pulled my TU. Called back 4 days later and was told I had an account nbr and I was able to get the amount of the CL.- card came a week later.

[CindyLou]

I agree. Try them back in a few days!!

[tradewiz50]

LOL - I guess you could just say that I'm anxious, probably overly, to re-establish my credit... not going out on a spending spree or anything. We'd like to refinance our mortgage rate so want something to reflect positive monthly payments again. The few things I read on this site led me to believe that Hooters might be a good first choice since I do have a couple of positive lines with my home / car. All I found wrong on one report I could view online was an account not yet closed and a few not yet showing discharged, as I would have expected.

Clean up your credit first. Then re-establish your credit. I did. Look at my sig for the results.