A friend received one of these offers in the mail and brought it to me to see what my views on the "wonderful" offer were.
I have worked for Citicorp Credit Services (Citibank) for several years. Let me tell you if you ever receive anything in the mail like the offer from First National Credit please throw it away. Any reputable company will always have a Terms and Agreement brochrue enclosed for the potential consumer.
The creditor wants to know that the consumer fully understands the terms associated with that particular credit card before they even apply. This minimizes the loss risk for the creditor.
The phone number for FNC is 949-448-8822. If you dial this number you will reach an automated voice response unit. However, no matter what time of day you call you will always receive the message "due to unusually high call volume only customers with an existing account can be assisted."
Let me assure you that with a reputable company that would never happen. Calls are always routed to a representative in the order received not on the basis of whether or not you already have an account. Don't forget these are BANKS we are talking about. They are in this business to MAKE MONEY. If they refused to take your call just because you did not have an existing account they would be telling you to go to a competitor. That is not something a reputable company would do because they want your BUSINESS!!!
Also on the recording it will ask if you have received an acceptance certificate in the mail and have questions to please press &. You will be instructed that you can write or fax in your questions. Again, this would NEVER be the case with a company that is above board. You will always be offered the option of writing or faxing your request if you choose to do so, but only in very specific instances (such as credit bureau disputes) would that be your ONLY option.
Lastly, First National Credit asks for the first 3 digits of your card number if you are an existing cardholder. Since I work for Citibank we have a database of the first 4 digits of virtually every credit card in the nation. Not one of the numbers I tried to enter into their system was accepted (which tells me there are NO existing cardholders anyway).
There is never even an option to hold for a customer service representative for assistance. Another BIG RED FLAG. I know this is lengthy, but it is my hope that people will read this and not be taken advantage of by companies such as this in the future.
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