What is Verizon's credit criteria for new service???

[Garemlin]

So we just got back from Best Buy. With no new phones. Says we need $125 deposit per line. We were floored. I have a credit score of 760 and my wife's is a 720. Plenty of established credit and everything is always on time. Those credit scores don't require a deposit IMO. Six years ago I got Verizon service and my score was around a 620 and I didn't have to put a deposit down. What gives???

 

[Backnblack]

Go to a corp store and see whats up...Those scores do not warrant a deposit.

 

[dezymond]

why didn't you just go to a verizon store? Dealing with "authorized dealers" is more of a headache than it should be. I went through that experience once, the salesman lied, we went back 2 days and he got fired. I went straight to an AT&T store instead (yes this while awhile back) and they treated us very well and gave us some gift cards for our stress.

My experience with Verizon was painless and very easy. They set everything up for us and even waived off the activation fee.

 

[kdkinc]

My first Verizon phone I got from one of those Verizon farm stand stores ( authorized reseller).
The resell had me sign an additional contract stating that if I broke my contract early not only would I have to pay the early termination fee to VZW but I also had to pay her a $200.00 penalty fee.
I was glad to get the Verizon phone because of my credit without a deposit.

 

[joshua117]

Yeah with those scores I don't see you having to pay a deposit, especially per line. You also went to BestBuy and they are never to be trusted.

 

[brendanstl]

So we just got back from Best Buy. With no new phones. Says we need $125 deposit per line. We were floored. I have a credit score of 760 and my wife's is a 720. Plenty of established credit and everything is always on time. Those credit scores don't require a deposit IMO. Six years ago I got Verizon service and my score was around a 620 and I didn't have to put a deposit down. What gives???

I had some terrible credit about a year and a half ago, I had no problem whatsoever getting service with them, they didnt even make me pay a deposit. I did mine over the phone.

 

[General_Lee86]

Thats why I always get mine online at VerizonWireless.com or from the verizon wireless store down the road from me, I never liked buying phones from other places thats for sure.

 

[mth04]

Sounds wierd to me. IF and please understand there is no way for us to know, but if they found an "unpaid" account from a different cell carrier they would want a deposit. with those score it's doubtful but IF.

With those scores in this economy no deposit should be required. I would contact VZW directly

 

[wildrage]

I've been rebuilding my credit, and at the time I got service about 6 months ago I was only at a 575 or so....i got a line of service with no problem from verizonwireless.com

 

[thelion]

Those scores are ok, but nothing spectacular. They are around the new average. $125 is a small deposit for VZW. I have seen them charge up to $400 per line. Particularly with the high end phones.

Call them and see what's up. Maybe you don't have enough credit. You can have high scores with few accounts and too few accounts = deposit.

Also, are your scores FICo (as in from myFico) or somewhere else? If they are from somewhere else, they are useless and can be up to 100 points off. Just an FYI.

 

[Garemlin]

Guess I am a little confused. What difference would it make going through a corporate store?? Best Buy still has to run the credit through Verizon. After this came back we went home and and pulled a free credit report. Nothing. So I called Verizon and to find out what the deal was. They escalated it to a second review and it came back the same. We are using my wife's because we get a discount through her employer. They said with those deposit levels it is considered a moderate risk or not enough established credit. That doesn't make any sense. We have a mortage, car loan, a car loan paid off, a bike loan and a few credit cards that are not even charged up. We both have plenty of established credit.

Miami: We currently have AT&T. My wife had them before we met and we still have them. Everything has been and still is current.

thelion: Nothing spectacular??? Hers is A (because of a late payment about 6 months ago) and mine is A+ Tier 1.In this economy that is considered pretty damn good. Ask any loan officer how many people they see coming through these days with 720+ scores. Hell I just got a pre-approval letter a month ago for one of those AMEX Centurion Cards. Didn't take it because I have no need for it. Point is with credit scores like that there should be no need for a deposit of any kind. And we do have plenty of long established credit and those are our FICO scores.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Well, the deposit is something we can only guess about. Something flagged a somewhat higher risk for you. You do know that the $125 deposit per line is refunded with interest after 1 year. There's certain things like paying your bill on time each month and no interruptions of service for non-pay.

 

[Garemlin]

We just traded in our bike on a new one back in October. The loan officer at our Credit Union always shows us our reports and FICO scores. My wife has one late payment on a store credit card six months ago because they changed her to paperless w/o her knowledge and I didn't get the statement. It was paid and paid off as soon as I found out about it. Other than that our credit is clean going back as far as they go. Not one late payment or anything else.

 

[vzwmandroid]

I gave a $400 deposit a year and a half ago and its bin smooth sailing ever since. Look at me now I got both Droid phones, 5 lines to the account and just about six months ago they sent me back my deposit with 15% interest on top of that I got a $700 credit line with Verizon.

 

[Speeding Wheels]

I have absolutely terrible credit (not bragging, just stating a fact) and when I did the A.O.L to get off the family share plan with my sister VZW initially told me I'd need a $125 deposit but the phone rep escalated it to the review team and within 10 minutes they had knocked me down to $0 deposit...

That was about 2.5 years ago.

.... I still have terrible credit and last week I billed my Droid to my acct so I could pay it off with the next bill cycle :icon_ banana: