I recently learned about a program that offers 0% APR for a new Microsoft Surface or Surface Book. I've been in the market for a new laptop and I was saving up the cash for it, but 0% APR is basically the same as cash, and if I qualify for the offer I'm going to jump on it.
The complication: I was a victim of identity theft and my credit is as frozen as Antartica. So if I applied for anything I'd most certainly get immediately denied.
I contacted the company offering the 0% financing (Klarna) via email, and asked how they would need me to proceed. I got a phone call back the same day from a CSR who told me they deal exclusively with Experion, and that I'd need to unfreeze my credit about a week ahead of time before applying just to be on the safe side.
A simple online form and a $3 fee to unlock my credit for a week and a half later, and I'm good to go.
Don't be afraid to contact a credit company ahead of time. They want your business, and they'll be happy to let you know their process for checking credit. There are websites out there that sometimes list which credit bureau a certain company uses for a specific state, but you can always just... ask. It's frustrating for them to have a hard credit pull bounce because it's locked, too, and as the CSR explained, it can make things a lot more complicated if you attempt to apply before unlocking the security freeze.
Submitted May 10, 2018 at 09:19AM by katarh https://ift.tt/2IqXVvr
