I received an invitation in the mail to apply for a loan with Discover. It was advertised mainly for debt consolidation. Seeing that the possible APR could be 7.99%, I decided to apply and use the money to pay off a similar loan that I had taken out a year ago for debt consolidation at 11.99%. When I called to apply, I told the lady what my plans were for the loan and how I usually took advantage of ways to save money such as balance transfers.
She immediately went into a bashing mode. She was so negative about balance transfers that I couldn’t believe her attitude. I told her that balance transfers aren’t always at a short term low rate, that in fact I have done two balance transfers in the past with two different companies where the rate will remain their original low transfer rate until the balances are paid off. I really didn’t appreciate being forced to listen to someone who clearly didn’t know what she was talking about.
After I went through the process of applying for the loan, I was placed on hold while she processed my application. I expected this to go as smoothly as when I took out the similar loan from another company. But when she returned to the phone, she started naming off ALL of the accounts that she saw listed on my credit report.
I asked why we were going over my credit report. I told her that I was fully aware of what was on my credit report. Her only reply was that she was doing her job. I asked her what was her job then? Then I reminded her again that I knew what was on there. All she would say was that she was doing her job.
How in the world is naming off my accounts that I have doing her job? I had already told her that all the credit card balances I have are under 5% because they are on long term balance transfer rates. And I had already told her what I planned to do with the money. Maybe we didn’t have this part of the conversation when we were supposed to since we had it at the beginning of the call before she processed the application, but I was really starting to feel rather harassed.
She basically said that it was completely up to her if I was approved. I was tempted to remind her that if I had chosen to mail in the application rather than called, that I wouldn’t have been badgered like this.
Realizing that I was about to hang up, she finally told me the results of the application. She wanted income verification, saying that a W4 would do just fine. I informed her that was the wrong form since I was self-employed. It was clear that she didn’t know anything about that either.
Since she wasn’t volunteering it, when she took a breath from talking me to death, I asked what the APR was going to be. Lowering her voice as if she wasn’t supposed to say, she responded 13.99%.
I reminded her that this was to pay off a loan that was at 11.99%, which meant that this loan through Discover would actually be a waste of money. She offered to close the application, and I responded that’d be best.
What makes me angry about this… She was fully aware of what I was looking to do, what APR I wanted, and I’d already told her that if I wasn’t getting an APR lower than 11.99% that I wasn’t going through with the Discover loan. But instead of telling me the APR that came back for my loan, she pushed forward trying to get me to take it out. I no longer felt like I was dealing with a reputable company like Discover, but more of one of those shady money loan companies that we’ve been told to avoid.
