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Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

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lhova2000
New Contributor

Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

The first thing I'd like to say it that Capital One is horrible! I've had Capone for almost ten years and I've never been late. It started as a $200 secured card based on me having bad credit and throughout the years it has become a non secured card with a $500 limit. It has been stuck on $500 for 4 years now! i really didn't know how credit worked when I had the card but I tried everything for the limit to increase. i asked for increases, I used the card and paid the balance in full each month, I even purposely carried balances and paid the minimum so that they could get interest from me. I figured i had no options due to my bad credit but I have corrected my credit problems and i have maintained a 740+ credit score across the board for over a year now. Capone still wont increase the limit and even though they tell me they routinely check my credit report and will automatically increase if they deem me worthy, but as of yet it is still stuck on $500. What worst is that with my new great credit i decided to get another card who would give me a true limit so I went with a Chase Freedom. Needless to say that they suck also because I had to talk to an account rep just to get approved and then they would only approve me for $500 based on the Capone. I even explained that I make $100,000 a year and they still wouldn't budge based on that Cap1. So the best decision that I made was to go to the BofA site and use their credit tool to see if I would qualify for their card. Based on the tool it said i would qualify for their cash rewards card with a 3k limit, needless to say that I was stoked so i applied but got a message that the app would be processed and i had to wait 30 days for a decision. I figured something was wrong so I called them up and they said that they couldn't find my online app but they could take an app over the phone. I did that and I was approved for $2500 with the rep. i jumped on it. Now here's the good part, the original app must have gotten approved as well because I recieved 2 cards in the mail 1 with the $2500 limit and 1 with the $3000 limit. i called BofA because I was gonna close one of the cards but then the rep told me I could combine the balance to 1 card and leave $500 on the other giving me a BofA card with a $5000 limit!! Now I'm totally pumped and hoping that Cap1 would see this and up my limit but it's been 8 months and they still haven't.  Now I just applied for a Discover More card after countless mailings from them and even though I had a $1000 charge off from them (one of hte reasons why my credit was bad when i got the Cap1 10 years ago lol0 they approved me for $7500!!! Now my main problem is that I want to cancel Cap1 due to the low limit, the AF and the high interest rate but they are my longest credit file and I'm scared it will hurt my score.  I don't kow what to do but I know I want to get rid of that card and get it our of my WALLET!!

EQ 782
TU 782
EX 785
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

i need more paragraph .. lol

seriously hard to read ..

Message 2 of 10
Boonie
Frequent Contributor

Re: Capital One got me in a stranglehold.. Please Help!!

Wow, calm down!  Smiley Happy  Your scores are good and you now have good new accounts to use.  Why waste anymore energy with Cap1 with a low limit...

04/10/17 - FICO 8s - EX 769, EQ 710, TU 724
Message 3 of 10
voidman
Established Contributor

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

Which is the next oldest card after cap one?

-void
Message 4 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

I would not close the cap one if you need the AAoA but if you dont shred the sucker. Seems to me like you have two cards that fill your credit needs do you really need more? So like I said if you dont need the AAoA get rid of it the age of the account will still show up for 7 to 10 years if you had it in good standing like it appears that you do.
Message 5 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!


@lhova2000 wrote:

The first thing I'd like to say it that Capital One is horrible! I've had Capone for almost ten years and I've never been late. It started as a $200 secured card based on me having bad credit and throughout the years it has become a non secured card with a $500 limit. It has been stuck on $500 for 4 years now! i really didn't know how credit worked when I had the card but I tried everything for the limit to increase. i asked for increases, I used the card and paid the balance in full each month, I even purposely carried balances and paid the minimum so that they could get interest from me. I figured i had no options due to my bad credit but I have corrected my credit problems and i have maintained a 740+ credit score across the board for over a year now. Capone still wont increase the limit and even though they tell me they routinely check my credit report and will automatically increase if they deem me worthy, but as of yet it is still stuck on $500. What worst is that with my new great credit i decided to get another card who would give me a true limit so I went with a Chase Freedom. Needless to say that they suck also because I had to talk to an account rep just to get approved and then they would only approve me for $500 based on the Capone. I even explained that I make $100,000 a year and they still wouldn't budge based on that Cap1. So the best decision that I made was to go to the BofA site and use their credit tool to see if I would qualify for their card. Based on the tool it said i would qualify for their cash rewards card with a 3k limit, needless to say that I was stoked so i applied but got a message that the app would be processed and i had to wait 30 days for a decision. I figured something was wrong so I called them up and they said that they couldn't find my online app but they could take an app over the phone. I did that and I was approved for $2500 with the rep. i jumped on it. Now here's the good part, the original app must have gotten approved as well because I recieved 2 cards in the mail 1 with the $2500 limit and 1 with the $3000 limit. i called BofA because I was gonna close one of the cards but then the rep told me I could combine the balance to 1 card and leave $500 on the other giving me a BofA card with a $5000 limit!! Now I'm totally pumped and hoping that Cap1 would see this and up my limit but it's been 8 months and they still haven't.  Now I just applied for a Discover More card after countless mailings from them and even though I had a $1000 charge off from them (one of hte reasons why my credit was bad when i got the Cap1 10 years ago lol0 they approved me for $7500!!! Now my main problem is that I want to cancel Cap1 due to the low limit, the AF and the high interest rate but they are my longest credit file and I'm scared it will hurt my score.  I don't kow what to do but I know I want to get rid of that card and get it our of my WALLET!!


And that's why they call them CrapOne.  Smiley Wink

 

If you nuke CrapOne the account will still help you maintain your average age of accounts.  Since it only has a $500 limit and you have replaced it with limits over ten times that amount, your utilization shoud, if anything, improve.  I doubt it would hurt your score to nuke CrapOne.

Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

I got a Cap1 cash reward card as my first credit card when trying to rebuild my credit ,    they started me at $750,    and i got two $500 increases in the first year,   but no   thing over the past two,  I even spoke to them to try and get it increased as I just purchased a business and wanted to use that card for business purposes ((since i didnt have enough business credit to get a business card)   Citibank approved me for a $6500 limit card,   Discover for a $3000,   but Cap One has me stuck on $1750. 

 

 

Now to be fair,  it's in Cap1's best interests to keep me there,  since i never carry a balance on that card,  and i use it where i would spend cash, since Cap1 has no limit on monthly online payments,   Once the charge posts i pay it off and keep the 1 or 2% cash back.  they are basically paying me to use the card.

Message 7 of 10
GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

I think you might want to consider looking at this from a different perspective. Is this how it went?:

1. You trashed your credit and didn't bother to learn how the system worked.

2. Most CC wouldn't give you any card but CapOne gave you a secured card.

3. You learned your lessons, kept up a good history and CapOne unsecured the card and raised your limit.

4. That good history gave you enough credit history to get a Chase card with a $500 limit.

5. You are disappointed that CapOne won't raise your limit. The problem I see is that CapOne KNOWS you were a poor risk at one point. The others can only see your reports and view your credit as "better" than CapOne does. I think you are expecting too much out of having a good FICO for a year, which isn't very long. I also think you are expecting a big credit limit based upon income, when the creditors are more interested in your credit history.

6. Now with two CC reporting, you were able to add a BofA card with a much larger limit.

7. Now able to get a Discover Card.

 

Seems CapOne helped you a bunch! Since it seems to be your oldest card, I would think it is worth it to keep it. After you new CC have aged a bit, you might want to apply for a new CapOne card out of their higher end cards since I think the starter cards never go above $500 limits. My two CapOne accounts started at $18K & $20K.

Message 8 of 10
mauve
Valued Contributor

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

I'm keeping mine for now with its sad $500 limit because there's no AF & it's my oldest card.  I was just looking in these forums to see if they'd started, you know, raising limits or lowering interest rates for anyone.  I agree with 06 - you can close it and keep the history.  It will fall off of your report 10 years after you close it, approximately.


Starting Score: EQ 583 TU04 619 EX 592 (lender pull) 2010
Previous High Score: EQ 700 TU04 712 EX 726
Current Score: EQ 740 TU(Discover) 750 EX(AMEX) 747
Goal Score: 740+ all around


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Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One got me in a stanglehold.. Please Help!!

I agree with GregB... Never looked at it that way, but explains alot.

Message 10 of 10
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