Okay, Experts....please help! I am going to bt all of my balances onto my hubby's DMB card on which I am an authorized user, but it does not report on my CR. I figure this will get me close to 100% of credit available. (Well, I might not BT the cards that are at 0% until September, but this will still leave me at about 95% of credit available). I figure this will serve two purposes....Cap One, with whom I have a lot of cards with, will no longer look like they are maxed because CO doesn't report the CL. It also gives me an opportunity to negotiate interest rates with Providian while carrying no balance or prior to BT when carrying quite a large balance. So anyway...I was thinking...is now a good time to combine my Cap One cards? The oldest is three or four years old. Can the combine it onto my Platinum card which is new but keep the old opened on date? I haven't done much with BTs, combining, etc., so any advise would be greatly appreciated. Are there any pitfalls to doing it this way? Does it mess up average age of accounts, or does the combining make it look like I've closed a bunch of accounts at once? Thanks! L
Transfer the credit limit to the oldest card first. Then ask for it to be "UP-GRADED" to the new 8.90% NO HASSLES CARD... http://apply2.capitalone.com/5665/5...ardProd&s=05665005608XXCO31XX1PLATINUMXX&t=ad
Sorry I can't help but here's a bump. Okay people help whyspers out here, she is always good to respond to others. George is always a great help Someone must have opinion.
Thank you, Candi!!! I *know* there are those who know the answers...and I *know* who they are, too! <grin> Thanks for responding, George. I am just a lil ole country girl and need a little more info. I don't know what effect combining four (or five) cards into one will have. Won't someone take pity and go into some details about average age of accounts, etc? Thanks, L
I like George's suggestion. I would also suggest PFB and see if Mr. Cooke can accomplish this for you. I'd hate to see you close the newer one with better terms, and then not get those terms on the old account.
I have read here that you must request that the combined account be reported as the oldest trade line of the cards you combine.
This is what I have found out about combining Capital One cards. 1. All accounts have to be a minimum of 6 months old. 2. You can choose which terms you want to keep. 3. You retain the history of the account that you wish to keep open. 4. You cannot combine affinity cards like the Kmart card or secured cards. It would be best to keep your oldest Capital One card open if that card is your oldest tradeline. If all your combined limits equal 5k you can upgrade to Platinum. If your limits don't equal 5k you can keep all your Cap One accounts open and every six months get increases on all accounts until your limits equal 5k I don't know how many credit cards you have but having too many is not good. You did not mention how many Cap One cards you have. One more thing I have found out about the consumer advocate department is that they like you to wait at least six months before you contact them again regarding a limit increase or a.p.r. reduction. I hope this information helps you. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do with your Capital One cards.
Ok, here's what happened with my Cap One cards. I had 3 of them, the most recent was opened in jan, it was a 5k plat mc. I also had a regular mc, 4.2k which was my oldest at 6 yrs), and a gold visa 3.3k(4 yrs). The only one i used regularly is the oldest mc. I pfb'd mr cooke to combine all of them to my oldest. He said we could not touch the newest platinum since it was less than 6 months and I have 0%apr for 6 months. He combined my visa w/my older mc to give me a total credit limit of 7.5k and a 12.5%apr, he also waived the annual fee forever. So the visa was closed, and the new combined mc was upgraded to gold (probably because i already had a new platinum mc). It is still the same account number and same tradeline on my reports. I have 0 balance on both cap1 cards and even though they have decent limits, I'll just use them for gas every now and then because I'm using my newer cards to give them a higher rating. Hope this helped!
