My friend has three Capital One secured cards en route to her home. She wants to know how likely it is that: 1) She can combine two or three of the cards into 1 gold Visa. and 2) How long she should wait before asking for some or all of the security deposit back, and increases?
I forget if it's 6 months or a year of good paying with no lates or overdraft fees that one can ask for and get upgraded to gold. She will definitely do better faster if she will always or most always carry a fairly significant balance with them compared to how she will do if she pays the card(s) off in full every month. She should be able to get her security balance back after one year of no lates and no overlimit fees. Increases cannot come until she has the security deposit removed but both can happen at the same time. She will do better over the long haul keeping all the cards she now has.
good advice ... they will combine through advocates office, six months is the shortest, one year much more likely. Call and ask silly questions, with an occasional serious one.
FYI, Cap One does not combine secured cards. I had one secured and a regular as was declined to have them combined. They told me the card has to get unsecured. Also you can't combine affinity cards like the Kmart Master Card issued by Capital One. Wait about one year and then ask them to unsecure the cards and then combine them.
Very Correct, through the advocates office my other half had two cards unsecured in one month and then all three cards were combined the second month. Credit limit of all three plus $300, deposits were applied to the balance. Done with style by Mr. Miller. We have two k-mart cards (his n hers) and they will not combine them.
I've had my Capital One card a year and 2 months now. At the year mark, I fired off a letter via PFB and they upgraded the card to gold status at my request.
Matty, did Cap One also give you a credit line increase as well as the gold upgrade? I have a classic mastercard that I need them to upgrade because I have had it 3 years now.
First, I called in and threatened to cancel if they didn't lower my rate and increase my line. I asked to be transferred to retention or speak to a manager. My requests were filled. At that time, my credit line went from 500 to 1000. I also had the rate changed from 14.77 Libor to 12.9 Fixed. About a month later, I wrote another letter to them telling them how much I appreciated their service and how I would love to have a platinum card from them, and if I couldn't get that, even the gold. A week later I received a message in the mail from them stating that my account had been upgraded to gold status and I would receive my new card in 7-10 days.
Matt, I find it absolutely amazing that so many credit card companies are not aware of your date of birth. Sean
It is true a lot of credit companies don't check your age very well. When I was 17, I had the following credit cards: JcPenny Sears Lerners Lane Bryant Citibank I probably had better credit at 17 then I do now. Perfect payment history with no late payments. Then when I was in college my mom died and I couldn't keep up with the payments and they all went to a charge-off status. I have been fighting to rebuild my credit history since then.
