Okay, is CapitalOne good or bad? I've senn mixed opinions on the board about them. I heard they're stingy, too. A few weeks ago, I applied for an unsecured CapOne. Received an offer for $200 secured w/ $199 deposit. I didn't accept, and just yesterday, I got another offer from them. This time $200 secured w/ $99 deposit. I'm debating on if I should take this card or not? Is it worth it? The only other card that I'll have is the Providian Gold, which should be arriving in a few days. Should I wait for a better offer or just forget about CapitalOne all together?
RE: For what reasons, I opened a secured card account with them back in 1995 with $500.00. From May of '95 until June of '99 did I ever get a line increase. I inquired numerous times for a C/L increase and the return of the funds (I never had any lates or overlimits and paid more than the minimum). Each time I made a request, they pulled a CR on me and denied me because of a paid collection with a hospital. That was the only negative I had on my CR. I just has a lack of a credit history. I tried to get the APR reduced, but they said they don't negotiate the APR on secured accounts. Anyway, I closed the account. Their policies may have changed, but their reputation with me has been damaged.
My opnion S.d Stick with provdian . Cap one isn't going to grow at all and 200 limit . isn't worth the high annual fee and the none limit reporting .
I have Providian and Cap1. Both are unsecured. I got my Cap1 in June w/a$200 limit. In September they increased it to $700. I have had the card long, but I have no complaints so far w/Cap1. They have the advantage of a grace period, which Providian does not, but Providian will reward your good payment history much faster. I say pass on the Cap1 secured offer. Once you build a good history with Providian, they will probably send you an unsecured offer. I'd wait until then to apply. Since you are just starting to (re)build your credit, I also suggest you try to get a secured card from Chase or another prime bank. Of course the limit will be low depending upon how much you deposit, but you will be building a history with a prime bank at the same time you're building a history with Providian. This might help you avoid the "sub-prime" trap that I'm trying to get out of now.
The truth about capital one. 1) They dont report your true credit limit which hurts your credit score ratios. The report your highest balance as your credit limit. 2) They will grant increases only if you pay ontime and have no over the limits. Orchard Bank will not increase you even if you pay ontime for almost a year... 3) The annual fee is one of the lowest, $29. The only ones who can beat that are the ones with no annual fee. 4) They try to sell you every freaking thing under the sun with all their marketing partners. ie. Life insurance, MCI, Privacy guard, auto coverage....... 5) They unsecure a card only after twisting their arm, usually 6 months. They do not pull any credit reports for increase though. Important point: there is a major difference in the way they handle unsecured vs. secured card accounts. I had a unsecured card for 2 months and they gave me a $300 increase to keep it open. The secured account that I had they only unsecured it after I paid $99. My deposit was $200 and I forfeited it and got $101 back from them. If all you have is providian surely you should know that you need more positive trades. At least 3 my friend. Dont wait too late. Take the capital one secured offer. Capital one was my 2nd credit card after FNBM (which sucks). I know that there are worse banks than capital one, even though we all complain about them. You must crawl before you walk. roni.
Thanks Thanks for the input! =0] I guess I'm just gonna have to think about it real hard and weigh the pros and the cons of this card. Maybe I'll accept and see how they treat me once I have it. I dunno...
Although I have not dealt with Cap 1, I must offer some advice Please don't take this the wrong way. I know you are eager to rebuild your credit, i too was very eager to start building my credit last year. I received a prime card first, but then I start getting offers from everybody under the sun and I took alot of them, alot were retail and some were not. before I knew it I had 11 accounts, not at any time were all these maxed out, but I believe I opened too many accounts too fast, thus damaging my credit rating. Like I said I got 2 prime offers first and accepted them, I should have held off a bit b/c once I accepted some more the good prime offers disappeared. Thankfully I found this board and I know what I need to do. I am really pulling for you to get your credit back on track. Just thought I'd share my little story with you Mom
If it's a good card or not I'am waiting and watching these posts before I decide. I can give you this very recent experience. I received there pre-approved secured card and passed. Within 3 weeks I got a pre-approved Gold Card ($300.00 Limit) and went for it. I think they may try to see if you'll bite at the first bait and if not offer you something better. Are you that pressed for time ? My opinion is that even if there is an expiration date on the app. they will accept it after that date -it has happened to me. You might wait to see if you get another offer and if not go for the secured if that's what you think will work for you. Here's a possible negative- I make alot of my payments online or by phone, their cuttoff time for posting payments is 12:00 their time east coast. they didn't tell me Iam on the west coast my payment arrived at 12:30 an they charged me a late fee. When I called in to complain they removed the late charge and applied the payment to the next month. The next month they didn't apply the late payment to the following month and charged me a late fee again. I called and they removed it.Now all these screw ups will delay my chances at increases, on the positive side they remove the charges and admit that it's their fault. Iam still waiting to find out how often they do line increases.
Thanks, Mom. I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll wait until I establish something w/ Providian so I don't get caught up in a big mess with a bunch of other cards.
That's very true Mom.. S.D Honestly it's not the number of accounts you have it's the best looking ones with the time spend with these creditors. Previously I had a couple of accounts with 2-3 creditors including providian . and at about the 2 year mark I started getting all types of prime preapproved offers . But unfourtunatly I had took most of the suprime ones that came first and the 1 one reason for deniel was new accounts so in reality although you may have an older file with good pay history your file gets treated like a new one with new accounts until you stick with them. So best Advice stick with 2 or 3 accounts for a while and save the inquires to the prime offers happy thankx giving S.D
That is some very good advice as well newcomer2. And it is the ONLY reason I am sticking with capital one. roni
