I just received my CapOne secured card($200) on Saturday... After reading all these posts about them, I kinda wish I hadn't applied for this card. Sam seems to have good experiences with Cap One, but the majority of you guys seem to have a bit of a problem dealing with Cap One. I guess the main argument is about them being stingy when it comes to limits. I guess I'll see how it goes with this card. Since this card has a grace period, I'll just use this card for purchases that I know I won't be able to pay immediately. My other 2 cards are issued thru Providian and I don't have grace periods on those, but I do want to use their cards frequently so that I can negotiate a grace or lower interest rate with them. I guess they're already generous with their increases, so I won't have to ask them for one. I would only ask them to waive whatever fees that may come with the offers. Anyway, thought I would just share my thoughts...
S.D., Good move on getting your Cap One card. I doubt if you'll have many problems with them. I haven't. Their customer service is pretty good. On my classic card, yes, they have been very stingy with the credit increases and I've had that card since 1996. However, on my gold card, I started out with a limit of $500. Three months later, without any prompting from me, they raised it to $3000! That was quite a jump! So, keep on making good progress on your credit and I bet Cap One will approve you for gold. If your experience follows mine, the increases will come more easily. From time to time, Cap One gets some bad press; but, overall, I think they're a decent company.
Thanks, Donna. I feel better now about getting this card. If I don't like it, I can always get rid of it...two years is a small price to pay for establishing some credit that will get you on the way to Prime Land! =0)
I have 2 Cap1 cards (18 months, 6 months), and so far there hasn't been any problems... The only issue is that they won't budge on raising your credit limits, lowering APRs, or unsecuring your card, before 6 months go by. Other than that, you won't have any trouble if you always pay on time and never go over the limit. Their customer service is better than average. Good luck !
RE: by the way I paid like $9 in interest to my secured card to date. I charged like 2x (the $500 limt) per month, and paid it off at least 2x a month. I used it for everything. Only carried a balance for a short period. I won't let them bastages get my money finance charge, they already got the $39 fee!! Really. Dunno if that helps, but with my $500 limit card, i charged between 900-$1000 per month, and paid it in full before they could get me. Right now i'm carrying a small balance like $200 but its 0% apr till march 1st. So theres no reason for me to pay it.. i use my citibank to carry a balance since its a few points lower on interest. My payments to citi are like $2000/month and charges a little more (everything, gets charged, i mean everything. except rent). I got a $100 increase after 2 months with cap 1 , then at 8 months got $200 more, then at 9 months for a special use line of $300 more at 0% apr then at 11 months got $500 unsecured gold card. I will get my $99 back at the end of feb, and make them convert my classic lines to the gold card, or cancel it. Too much headache carrying so many cards.
Good move to accept the card. In 1978, I got my first credit card, B of A visa with a $200 limit (Inflation adjusted $400). I was 19 years old. That same year, I got a Robinsons department store card and a credit union loan for a new car. Robinsons and the credit union extended credit to me as I had built a credit history of 6 months using the visa card. Ten years later, the visa card had a $5,000 limit and I never asked for an increase. They arrived automatically. Perhaps in 5 years or less your secured Cap 1 card will turn into a Cap 1 Platinum with a 9.9% apr with no effort on your part except to pay the monthly bill on time. High credit limits and a low apr. is just a function of income assets and time. Congrats!
RE: Good move to accept the ca I have not had any problems with my cap 1 secured card. What I find odd though is that I applied for the gold card about 1 month later and rec'd it, unsecured with a small ($200) credit limit.
Glad to hear no problems mt with your Cap 1 account. How Cap. 1 approves credit limits is not known to me. I hope that your increases come through regularly. I wrote that somewhat boring post to S.D. because she / he identified themself as college age in other threads.
Thanks to all of you =0). Sometimes, I guess I excpect too much too fast. I believe it was Donna who said she was very impatient when it came to waiting for a response from a creditor, and I am in the very same boat when it comes to credit! I guess only time will help my credit reports/scores, not to mention responsibility.=0) Thanks again...
You can only get credit increases with capital one if you 1) Never be late 2) Never go over the limit this is kind of hard to do with a $200 card. They do not like the unsecure their cards. They charged me $100 of my deposit it unsecure it. They will give you increases however, if you threaten to close the account. I think that sucks. They are just manipulating you. For that alone, i dont like their practices. They give low limits and stingy with increases. Do not let anything come between you and paying this card on time. roni
My what I have read about Cap1, I have 2 of them. the first I have had for about 8 months now and had two increases. It started at 200.00 went to 350.00 and is now at 500.00. I also had a 39.00 fee and it is now waived from here out. I will be asking for a gold in another month or two. I charge it to the max every month and then pay it a week in advance is all I do. The other I just got and will work on getting it the same way. All of you talk about secured cards, what is strange with my credit I thought I would be the one that would get secured cards but have none out of 3 I have.
About Capital One That brings to mind a couple of points about Capital One: (1) From what I've read and experienced, they seem to be very sensitive to the size of your payments. I usually pay only the minimum each month, partly because I gave up on them a long time ago. And because I pay only the minimum, they won't deviate from the "subprime" script for an instant or give me a credit limit increase. Those who get good deals from them seem to make larger payments. On the other hand, Providian seems unconcerned with my making minimum payments as long as I continue to use the card. They give me regular limit increases anyway, some of which come without upgrade fees. (2) People have reported about Capital One that to get the platinum Visa, or simply better terms on the classic Visa, you sometimes have to close your account and apply again. I once said that if you prove your loyalty by closing the account, then Capital One rewards you with a better card. What you or I would consider loyalty, they tend to confuse with stupidity. They force you to prove both your awareness and your ability to take action by actually closing the account, not just threatening to do so.
RE: About Capital One Of course, you can sometimes get a small improvement by threatening to close the account, but then what do you do the next time? I was referring to major improvements, like going from a classic Visa to a platinum Visa. As far as I know, no one gets that far without closing their old account and applying again.
How true. Capital One manipulates people all the time. That follows from their policy of market segmentation, of literally having 100 different policies for 100 different groups of people, which they never reveal until you force them to negotiate. They manipulate us, and thereby force us to manipulate them. I don't like their practices either. I'm dumping them at the two year mark.
I had terrible credit when i got my secured card. I had 11 defaulted student loans and 4 charge off/collections reported, All unpaid. this was before i started repairing my credit. Did you have credit worse than that? roni
