Advice on Closing Cap 1, CLI on Amex Blue?

[Anonymous]

I saw an 1987 recently.

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
The 1997 thing is not a mistake -
Amex reports from when you were FIRST a member.

Makes me quite jealous.

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Whoa! This could be huge. I was approved for Amex Blue a few days ago. How distant is Amex's memory? In the 90's I had an employer-issued Amex with my name on it, same as an AU ?

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[weezie]

The upshot . . .

I called Capital One, was connected to a supervisor after a long wait, and I politely asked her to waive the annual fee. I politely told her I was seriously considering closing the card if they wouldn't waive it. Politely. Their charming customer service troll responded by saying, "I'm not here to argue with you. Consider your card closed." What?!? And then, click, she hung up on me. Seriously.

When I called back I got a message saying my account had been closed at my request.

(BTW, while I was waiting to be re-connected, I called American Express on another line. I spoke to a representative within seconds, asked for a 10K CLI increase on my Amex Blue and was approved all before Capital One even put me through to their call center. Hilarious.)

Anyway, after a 10 minute wait for the Capital One call center and a 10 minute wait for a supervisor, I not-so-politely explained what happened to the new supervisor. She said she'd re-open the account, give me a $50 credit on the $59 annual fee and lower the interest rate to 13.90%. Big freaking deal. She also said she'd increase the credit limit by 500 bucks, but she couldn't even make good on that promise because THEY closed the account and it wouldn't process. What a crappy, crappy company. What bad, bad customer service.

I've decided I'll leave the Capital One open while I'm working on getting all three FICOs higher than 760 or until the next AF is due in November 2008, whichever comes first.

But I'll warn anybody who asks that this Capital One Platinum card is NOT a card that will grow with you as your credit scores improve. It's sub-prime crap, end of story.

[SmartCookie]

Cruddy service for sure, that was bad.  Unfortunately Cap1 is very bad to grow with, but easy to get for rebuilding as they are opportunistic.  Gotta take the good with the bad but that still is not any excuse for such horrid customer service. 

Looks like you did a good thing by obtaining another CC as soon as you could after getting your CAP1.  You've only got a 4 month difference on your average age should you drop the CAP1... so that was a smart move.

Your PMs are disabled, PM me if you want the addy of the CAP1 departmental manager who waived DH's fee without a headache.  Maybe she can get your full fee waived or at the least, make sure that they didn't just screw up your account.

[Creditaddict]

My friend had a rebuilder card from capital one... $5k limit. they would never give him increase or lower apr... he called to cancel they offered him both!

I say call and cancel, if they offer you at that time keep it, otherwise go through with cancelling it.

Maybe instead of increase on blue, get a 3rd amex?

[weezie]

Thanks for your kind offer, SmartCookie. I really appreciate everyone's help!