Online credit requests, are they always immdediate?

Question

I have been used to the idea that submitting a credit card request online, if you are approved they will tell you on the spot, but if they tell you "your request can’t be processed immediately, we will mail you" it always means that you got declined.

Now two days ago I requested credit for a Chase credit card that myFico told me I would apply for, but I got something similar to the "we will mail you" message, only they never told me an excuse of "we were not able to process your request automatically"

Now, I am in doubt, my credit score supposedly should allow me to apply for that, do some companies ever say "we will mal you" and do so with an actual approval?

Answer 1

Basically there are only two ways of applying for a credit card. You can sit at your desk and fill out the mail in application, put it into the postage paid by addressee envelope, drive it to the post office, mail it, wait three weeks, get a letter saying that you forgot to put the check with the application fee, and repeat the whole process again.

There is something comforting about this system, this process of filling out the application by hand and mailing it. A sense of continuing a time honored tradition, your parents applied for their credits this way, so did your grandparents. Heck your great-great-great grandparents probably applied for their Sears Roebuck store credit card by Pony Express. And if they had a credit card in the stone ages your most distant ancestors probably mailed in the applications.

We have moved past that point. We now have the luxury of applying for a credit card on-line. Instant gratification! When you fill out an online application you're approval or rejection is in your e-mail almost before you've finished filling out the application. read more about it at: http://www.credit-card-gallery.com/article/123,Apply_Free_Online_for_a_Credit_Card

Answer 2

I have had a we will mail you and actually got a credit card. I can not remember which company it was because it was so long ago. They said that they needed to do further research on my credit and could not make an on the spot decision

Answer 3

If you get the 7-10 day message, wait a couple days and call them and ask for the status of your application.

They probably will be able to tell you at that time.

If they are having a problem with your application, something was entered wrong, they need proof of something, etc., you may find out about it in that call and have the chance to take care of it.

Answer 4

Sometimes they are sometimes they aren't....