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It seems like a lot of Apple reps are saying soft pull, but people are seeing evidence of hard pulls. I think I'd trust the credit report over the Apple rep, as much as I'd love for it to be a soft pull.
 
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For those of you who got denied, how much cash advance do you have on the card you used?

This charging of an existing CC as a cash advance and pulling a credit check every time we get a new phone is bull! If Apple doesn't change this then I won't do this again. Apple should have been a lot more clear about this beforehand.
 
Felt like I should bring this over from the "Declined for Apple Upgrade Program?" thread:


I ended up calling Barclaycard last week just to be proactive about having an available balance and they had me verify with them that I would be starting the Upgrade Program.

Honestly, even with the Citizen One issues, and for all those of you with amazeballs credit, it's likely your credit card company ****blocking you and you just need to verify new loans with them.
 
This charging of an existing CC as a cash advance and pulling a credit check every time we get a new phone is bull! If Apple doesn't change this then I won't do this again. Apple should have been a lot more clear about this beforehand.

This is a f*#king nightmare. They said nothing about t ha info to be a personal cc so of course I used my biz cc (with my name on it) as I always do. Declined despite immaculate credit. They had me call the bank who was clueless other than to say run it with personal card. But even after doing so the aup doesn't show up. Manager getting involved now. If they hit my credit twice I'll be pissed. Already wasted a lot of time.
 
This charging of an existing CC as a cash advance and pulling a credit check every time we get a new phone is bull! If Apple doesn't change this then I won't do this again. Apple should have been a lot more clear about this beforehand.

Wait a sec, they did not charge it as a cash advance. Where in the terms would it say they would do that?
 
Although we attempted four times, for now it appears that it only hit my credit score once.

Credit agency records no more than one inquiry from each creditor per day. So you can apply many times at the same bank and you will get one inquiry. But If you apply to two different banks, you will get two inquiries.
 
There's no tax.
What do you mean there is no tax? There is only no tax if you live in a state with no tax. My receipt from Apple shows 7.75% tax rate for Ventra, CA. It says on the receipt my first payment for my loan will include tax. My first payment is $92 and change, and my remaining payments are $36.58 for 23 months.
 
I almost want to get in on this for the possible class action.

Take this for what it is worth, as it is from just one Apple employee at one Apple Retail Store, however my sister was in a CA store this morning to purchase the 6S. The Apple employee told her that "A LOT" of people are being declined and that it is causing a lot of frustrations for everyone involved. When my sister asked how many "a lot" is, the employee told her that at times it felt like about half. I cannot imagine it is nearly that many, however it does sound like a significant number of people are running into approval issues with Citizens Bank.
 
What do you mean there is no tax? There is only no tax if you live in a state with no tax. My receipt from Apple shows 7.75% tax rate for Ventra, CA. It says on the receipt my first payment for my loan will include tax. My first payment is $92 and change, and my remaining payments are $36.58 for 23 months.
Purchase was made in Delaware. The receipt I have is $849 for the phone, $129 for Apple Care, Tax is 0, total is $978. Citizen has a charge of $122.25, which is three payments of $40.75. If you take $40.75 times 24 payments it comes to $978. I have a 64 GB iPhone 6S Plus.
 
F$@king waste of an hour and a half. Heading home to await fedex with my full price phone. Should have known better than to try to get in on such a poorly implemented 1.0 program.
 
Purchase was made in Delaware. The receipt I have is $849 for the phone, $129 for Apple Care, Tax is 0, total is $978. Citizen has a charge of $122.25, which is three payments of $40.75. If you take $40.75 times 24 payments it comes to $978. I have a 64 GB iPhone 6S Plus.
The bottom of my receipt (below that info) shows the financed amount, first payment amount, and tax. I almost missed it.
 
I was in and out in 20 mins this am. I was skeptical about getting approved and ready to just buy outright after looking at my score on Credit Karma this morning. I was approved with Trans Union at 624 and Equifax was 696 but both were in the 7s earlier this year. I have no idea what metric they use for approval. Just happy I have a 6s Plus 64 gig space gray. Goodbye Android, you won't be missed!
 
Take this for what it is worth, as it is from just one Apple employee at one Apple Retail Store, however my sister was in a CA store this morning to purchase the 6S. The Apple employee told her that "A LOT" of people are being declined and that it is causing a lot of frustrations for everyone involved. When my sister asked how many "a lot" is, the employee told her that at times it felt like about half. I cannot imagine it is nearly that many, however it does sound like a significant number of people are running into approval issues with Citizens Bank.

Kinda was tough in mouth but if card issuers are processing this as a cash advance thats a major issue.
 
I used the iPhone Upgrade Program this morning. All went very smoothly except I was not able to use my business AMEX card for the purchase / installment plan. When we first tried it, the Apple Store employee told me it was an issue with my card, not with my credit check. So I called AMEX and they told me I was the 5th person to call in the last few minutes with the same problem.

I can't say for sure if the hangup was an AMEX thing or if it's on Apple's end by not allowing business cards of any kind. AMEX told me there was nothing they could do on their end because of the way the transaction was being processed by Apple. They said on their end, it looks like Apple is trying to process it as a cash withdrawal and they said that's a no-go. It was very strange. I ended up just running the transactions on my personal credit card.

I am a small business owner, and the AMEX has my name on it and is tied to my credit and my SSN, but it was still a no-go. It's almost as if the process of the credit check is tied to the verification of using a personal credit card as well. I hope to be able to login and switch the monthly payments to my business card, but we'll see. My personal credit card now has two charges, one each for the two phones' first installments plus tax.

The bottom of the receipt states "LOAN IS WITH CITIZENS ONE. For information on your loan, see www.citizensoneloan.com." So this is a very unique transaction. You're basically getting a loan, then paying off that loan with your credit card.

FWIW, I have very good credit and purchased a 6S+ 128 and a 6S 128 on Verizon, while in the middle of our two-year contract. No problems on any of those fronts, and no upgrade charges.

As a follow up to my own post, I was able to create an account at Citizens One's site and successfully change my recurring monthly payment option to my business AMEX. So basically you just have to use a personal card when initially purchasing the phones, running the credit check, etc, but you should be able to change it to whatever card you like, or even an ACH bank draft, once you get setup on Citizen One's site.
 
I tried with 2 different credit cards and both time I didn't get approved. I was an idiot and just walked out empty handed. I should have paid full price and exchanged it once the issue with the upgrade program is sorted out. I just moved so am guessing it's an issue with addresses not matching. I updated my address on my credit cards but not AT&T or my drivers license yet. I could try to go back but they have a 2 hour wait and no guarantee the color/size I want will be available.
 
Added 2 phones to the upgrade program this morning... used my USAA credit card and was in and out of the Apple Store in under 20 minutes.
 
I am inside now and tried to do the Upgrade Program and T-Mobile site CANNOT verify the IMEI. They don't have another phone to try because all the other phone in the store is reserved to someone else.

So they cannot allow me to do Upgrade Program because of this. Oh, and the T-Mobile rep left the store.

They're trying something else, but this is the biggest cluster **** I've ever seen.

Why do I need to have the device verified by T-Mobile is I am going through Apple Upgrade Program?!
 
This is a f*#king nightmare. They said nothing about t ha info to be a personal cc so of course I used my biz cc (with my name on it) as I always do. Declined despite immaculate credit. They had me call the bank who was clueless other than to say run it with personal card. But even after doing so the aup doesn't show up. Manager getting involved now. If they hit my credit twice I'll be pissed. Already wasted a lot of time.
It's been listed right there in the terms since the day the program was announced:

  • Credit Card. To enroll in the iPhone Upgrade Program you will need a valid and eligible U.S.-issued personal credit card as designated for inclusion in the iPhone Upgrade Program. Debit, corporate, and prepaid cards are not accepted.
 
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