Is your application immediately approved over the phone or does it take as long as online? Is it recommended to do it via phone so you're sure they get it (instead of losing it in cyberspace)?

Well, from what I've been told when you apply over the telephone the order is actually submitted directly to the memberships dept., whereas the online enrollments actually are sent to a data entry dept. who then manually enter the orders then transmit the orders to the memberships dept. So in short, no.

Oh how I wish you were right though...

Will I get a membership # as quick as online so I can take advantage of the BOGO offers online?

That I couldn't answer. I've had online applications go through as quickly as the next day and sometimes as long as a few months. Same thing with phone applications. There's really no method to the madness, however, recent reports indicate that the approval rate is higher with applications taken over the phone. But in reality, who really knows...

Usually when they take your application over the phone and you pay by credit card your acceptance rate is 90+%. I usually see my credit card charged and money out within two days. Online applications (although easier in my mind) seem to be sort of a toss-up as to how long they will take or if they will ever actually be processed.

While you will probably get approved more quickly and reliably on the phone, you won't get your account number until you get the enrollment package (acceptance e-mails are rare with phone enrollments). To get it sooner, you will need to call in and ask the CSR to search for the new account. How much luck you have with this depends on the CSR and how many accounts you have had before. I have had too many accounts to make this practical. Be sure to wait until the real (not temporary) charge appears on your credit card before trying.

Where I live, enrollment packages take about a week from the enrollment date to arrive, but that depends a lot on where one lives and what Postal Service nodes they have to travel through. Columbia House uses Media Mail and that is the lowest priority at each node it passes through.

So, if I want the best chances of using the B1G1 deals with my fufillment - should i enroll over the internet? Am I correct that the sale ends 3/24?

How do I know the difference b/w a real and temporary charge?

A real charge will show up in your account history as -12.89 from Columbia House. A temprorary simply puts a hold on that amount but hasn't actually been taken by CH.

On my bank card, a temp. charge will affect the 'Available Balance' but doesn't show up in 'Ledger Balance' where all charges are listed.