Instant Approval Isn’t for Everyone
Instant gratification is something that we frequently take for granted. Drive-through windows and fast food provide us with almost immediate benefits. Pay-per-view and video rentals allow us to watch movies whenever we want. If we use the ATM, we can access out cash immediately with no wait. No wonder instant approval credit card offers are so appealing!
With an instant approval credit card offer, you can apply online and often receive email noticification of your acceptance or denial within seconds of filling out the online credit card application. You don’t have to wait for an answer and can get instant credit card approval today. This is a good thing, right? Of course, as with everything in life, instant approval is not always as simple as it seems.
In order to receive that instant approval online, you must usually have either good or excellent credit. If you don’t have one of those ratings, then your approval will not be immediate, or may not happen at all. Even when you do have an exceptional credit rating, there may be certain circumstances that occasionally arise when more time is needed to determine if you are approved for the card or not. Just because instant approval is advertised, that doesn’t always mean that it is delivered.
Instant approval is actually a process by which credit card companies take your application information and make a credit decision “instantly” by using your personal information to pull your credit report online. If there are any access problems within the system, this can delay the process. Also, if your credit scores do not clearly fall into a preset category, the application will not be instantly approved but instead will be passed on for more analysis. In either case, the answer will not be as instantaneous as expected.
Instant approval can also be easily confused with something called instant decision. Instant decision is a term that actually allows bank to hold off on the decision to approve or decline the credit application until they can do some back-end work if an application credit decision requires more scrutiny. While it sounds immediate, it really isn’t.
Instant credit is another term that is easily confused with instant approval. Instant Credit actually provides instant approval and also gives the applicant a temporary credit card number that enables the applicant to make an online purchase immediately. Many banks have actually dropped this practice because of losses from fraudulent uses of instant credit. Instant decision, on the other hand, gives the banks a few days to verify the applicant’s information in order to make a safer credit decision.
In spite of the sometimes misleading information, instant approval applications are actually just as secure as filling out a paper application and sending it through the mail.
Instant approval site offer links to secure applications through major banks and credit card companies that employ the latest internet security data encryption programs. They are probably even more secure than sending the information through the mail.
If you do decide to take advantage of instant approval, keep in mind that despite the fact that you may be “approved” instantly, it will typically take around five to seven business days before you actually receive the card in the mail. So, even if the actual approval is instant, your ability to use the credit you have applied for may not be.