To make a long story short, I've had a Capital One card for over 8 years. I have a $4,000 credit limit, and almost always pay in full. Account has been in good standing since day 1. I obtained a small mortgage in early 2004 for a condo. The only other credit I've had is a small auto loan originating in early 2005. In May 2005, after obtaining the auto loan my FICO score was 794. A few weeks ago I shopped around for the best rate on another (relatively small) auto loan, so I have about 5 inquiries in my CR within the past 12 months, though they are all dated 6-10-06 reflecting that I was indeed simply shopping for the best rate. Received a pre-approval offer from American Express Blue in the mail about a month ago. I'm not a big fan of having debt, so I wanted another credit card (AmEx in particular) that I could use to charge things like groceries, gas, etc. and just pay in full each billing statement in lieu of using my VISA check card and having to annotate each purchase in my checkbook! Basically, to continue to build credit and track spending. I use my existing card for any tax-deductible subscriptions, business expenses, etc. I was surprised to find out that I was denied an AmEx Blue card, on any terms! The denial letter stated the following reasons: Lack of credit card experience, number of recent inquiries, low FICO score. I was also surprised to find 3 separate denial letters for auto loans citing limited credit history. I pulled free copies of my Equifax, Experian, and TU CRs. Capital One didn't report my credit limit on the Experian or TU report, and my Equifax report didn't show me as EVER having a credit card! Therefore, my FICO score was only 686, main reasons listed for my score were no credit card experience!! Last year, my CO account did show on my Equifax report. I called CO, and the rep said they do indeed report to all bureaus. I requested that she send an updated report for my acct. to all bureaus, to include my current balance and credit limit. She said no problem. It may sound silly, but I've always been pretty conservative and responsible with my finances (some call me cheap), so it certainly wasn't fun to see that I have a crappy score through no fault of my own. I've bene lurking on these boards for the past few days (lots of great info, BTW) so I figured I'd post this to see what (if anything) I can do to get my FICO back above 720, where it belongs. As a sidenote, I gave a former co-worker some credit improvement tips a few months back (her finances were and still are a mess) and she had a FICO about the same as mine, in spite of having several lates, and a chargeoff all within the past year!! Something is wrong with this picture. Sorry for the long post...
This weekend, Kenneth Harney's real estate column reported on a lawsuit in SC against the 3 CRAs over Capital One's failure to report credit limits.
What is high balance on your Cap One? If CL is missing, it appears that the scoring systems use high balance in its place. Just run it up to 80%, perhaps with a BT, let it post, and pay it off. If your scores are that dependent on one single CC account, you are too dependent.
Just read the KH article you referenced. Very interesting. High balance was about $1,800. But...I always pay the card off in full at each billing statement. Hopefully once they at least report that my account exists to Equifax that will get my score into the 700s again. The fact that my acct. wasn't even reported at all seems to be the only reason for a lower score. The rep said they would start to report my limit. If they don't (and refuse to), wonder if I could dispute with the bureaus (by providing a copy of my statement w/ the limit). Since that's accurate info, wouldn't they be obligated to correct within 30 days? I'm leary of even applying for another credit card now. I figure I should wait a week or two, check my report again and see if the lack of any reporting to Equifax is corrected. If so, then maybe apply in 2-3 months so I don't have too many inquiries/new accounts at once (since I just obtained a relatively small car loan- hopefully that will help even more with credit building). Thanks for the info.
For others who might be interested, here is the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063000609.html
Wow this is true. Been there, done that, and won't do it again. Some people forget/or don't know that some small local banks that have credit cards will report, but won't update the info on your reports...so before ya get one of those cards, make sure they report fully, and update often. And whoopee - Capital One just bought Hibernia (our biggest local bank) Thanks for the story link! - it was a good read.
Separate from this particular lawsuit, this is becoming a hot issue, because it affects the ability of lower income consumers and those starting out with limited credit to be able to qualify for mortgages at reasonable rates. HUD in particular has been pushing on accurate reporting and the effect that incomplete reporting has in preventing some possible home buyers from entering the housing market. If I remember right, SallieMae was another company that was only partly reporting loan information, on student loans, allegedly to prevent other lenders from raiding their loan portfolio.
I agree with the above statement. If you lurked on this board you should know already that CO does not report credit limits accurately. That is probably the worst card to have in your portfolio. In 8 years you should have applied for other cards to build your credit history.
