Checking Account & Credit Score?!?
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Checking Account & Credit Score?!?
| Tue, 10-25-2005 - 11:03pm |
I was so very mad today and couldn't believe what happened at the bank. I have two jobs and decided to open a second checking account to keep track of my "second job money". I have my "bill paying" checking account at Wachovia, so I decided to go to another bank to get a the second account. I went through the entire process and at the very end, the women behind the desk says "Oh...it seems I can't open the account today." Then she hands me a card with a number to Equifax on it. I tried to call, but of course, I couldn't get a live person...only a recording telling me how to order my credit report. I am a member of freecreditreport.com, so there was no need to do that. I was dumbfounded. Apparently, my 550 credit score won't allow me to open a checking account with the bank, whose name I'm not going to mention. I have never heard of anything like this!!! Has this every happened to anyone else? It wasn't a checking account attached to a line of credit or anything like that. It was just your basic, free, standard checking account. I'm astonished. I didn't know you had to have a perfect credit score to open a checking account these days! Geez! I guess that's even more incentive for me to get that all important little number into the 600s or higher.

Can you check with another bank? Maybe call ahead and ask whether they will open an account for someone with your credit score before going there? That does seem odd that they would deny you. I mean, how does someone start to rebuild their score without a checking account? I would definitely check around and try again.
Wishing you luck! :-D
Pat :-D
It happened to me. I went to the bank that I have an account for my Girl Scout troop, and they turned me down! I told them that I had an account there already, but they said it was different because it was a non-profit account. Whatever! I opened one that attached to my savings account at my credit union. Go figure!
Michelle
I've heard of this--not being able to open a checking account due to credit score. Banks do numbers well, and sadly that means that sometimes that's the only thing they do. Statistics show that people with credit scores under a certain number are a higher risk for writing bad checks and what-not, so they decide simply not to do business with anyone with a score under that amount, regardless of the reason or any other factors.
Sad, but true.
Try your local credit union, or a smaller regional bank. We've had really, really good experiences with RBC Centura (formerly just Centura), but they may not be available in your area, and I'm not sure whether all regions of the bank are the same. Ours was a regional bank before it merged with RBC (out of Canada), so it may be that we get better service than other areas that have been added since the merger--but I really don't know. Anyway, they have always treated us very well. Even when we went in for a mortgage, the guy didn't even check our credit score, just the report, and he had already prequalified us before he even looked at the report, and he followed through on all his promises. It was very casual and friendly, so much so that we almost worried that it wasn't legit (except that we'd been working with Centura for years, so we knew it must be)! LOL It was the way I've always heard old-timers describe transactions in the days before credit reports.
We also work with USAA, which is only available to members of the armed forces, their dependents, and existing members & members's families (i.e., I'm a member because my dad was air force, and even though I'm no longer a dependent, I'm allowed to maintain my membership from when I was; dh is a member because I am). If you are eligible, you should look into it--they are really a top-notch organization.
Anyway, good luck, and don't be embarrassed. The bank is looking at you as a number, and you are not a number. You are not your debt. Do what you have to to get by, and remember these experiences in later years when you're thriving and you can come back and post encouragement to someone else who is going through it. :)
Blessings,
Heather