When you apply for a credit card, you are required to fill out an application that’s typically a page long and includes personal information: name, address and Social Security number as well as income, income source and monthly housing payments.
When you hit the apply button, one of several things can happen. You can be approved within seconds, it can go into “pending,” or you can be rejected. If you don’t want to wait the week to find out the answer when it goes into pending, you can call customer service and have the agent gather more details to make a quick decision. Otherwise, you’ll get an answer in the mail and possibly your card.