How long does it take Cap One to forgive a late payment?

[Anonymous]

My BF has a QS1 and a Platinum MasterCard with Capital One, both of which he has been trying to get CLIs and upgrades on for a long time. For the longest time, I could never understand why Capital One was never throwing him a bone  -- no CLIs, no upgrades, no offers for account combinations. Nada, niente, nein! (They even gave him a CLD on one of his cards like 6 months ago.) I always found this a little surprising, because he seemed to be a profitable cardholder for them (carried a balance at times, but usually paid more than the minimum, and always on time...or so I thought).

I finally found out for the first time tonight that he was a day late on one of his Capital One payments about 6 months ago, which I suspect is probably why Capital One has probably been reluctant to show him much love (and it's probably tied to the CLD, for that matter). Obviously, the payment was not late enough that it was reported to the credit bureaus, but it probably hurt his internal score with Capital One.

Anyway, my question is, in your experience or the experience of someone you know, how long does it take for Capital One to "forgive" a late payment on an account and start...well...loving again -- especially, in terms of CLIs, upgrades, etc? I know answers are going to vary, but he would like some real-life examples of how long it is going to take before those things start to happen.

Here are some stats:

Both of his cards are almost a year old.

Limits: $1300 and $1500

Both accounts have been paid down to 0.

All three of his FICOs are between 650-680.

One late payment on of the cards about 6 months ago. Other payments have been on time (according to him).

Let me know if you need any other information that I forgot to include.

[Anonymous]

Why are his scores so low? I'd imagine with no baddies reporting he should be much higher than a 650.

[Anonymous]

Oh, those aren't his only baddies.

He says he has two late payments within the last couple years on credit cards. He has a ton of inquiries (more than 10 on each bureau), and also has pretty high utilization (that he recently made a big dent in by paying off both of his Capital One cards, but the pay-off has not yet reported to the CBs). His utilization right now is between 40-50%, but it is probably reporting more like 60-70%. That will fix itself later this month probably.

[Anonymous]

one day late isnt affecting too much i don't think. like with most lenders, some profiles they love and some they hate. it's seird

[Anonymous]

weird*

[kdm31091]

This is Capital One. Sometimes, they just don't allow an account to grow for whatever reason. If his profile isn't fitting their requirements, he will see dinky CLIs if any. Just how it is with some of their accounts sometimes.

The best thing (IMO) is to improve the profile significantly, and then reapply for a QS (the normal one) and he will get a 3k starting limit at the least once he qualifies. Trying to figure out how Capital One operates with growth/CLIs is a definite exercise in futility. Some people's cards triple in limit in a year, others stay practically the same. Since none of us work for Capital One, there's no way to tell you "how long" it will take before they decide to let his account grow, which is why I recommend to just stop worrying about that aspect. Improve the profile and apply for a better tier card later. QS1 and Platinum are just in the bucket that Capital One rarely allows one to grow to a high limit with (and there's no real reason to even want a high limit Platinum as it doesn't offer anything).

With Capital One, most of the time the easiest solution is to just wait and reapply if the card isn't growing/has a bad APR/etc.

[Anonymous]

Check out Capital One's scoring on his account page.....I almost think that they are more concerned about the details on that model than on the FICO reports......Capital one gave me a great initial credit increase(from 300 to 2300), but has since grown cold and distant in terms of offers or promotions(of course, carrying a 40% balance for a year during the promotional APR might have something to do with that).....as many have stated however, there's always a reason....really

[creditguy]

I recently had a one day late payment with cap one because I made a mistake with my new checking account number, my bad and I accepted the late fee. Well the next day I had the nerve to hit CLI button and was granted one, so I'm not so sure his late payment is the issue, but then again I can't enter the right account number so what do I know.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Oh, those aren't his only baddies.

He says he has two late payments within the last couple years on credit cards. He has a ton of inquiries (more than 10 on each bureau), and also has pretty high utilization (that he recently made a big dent in by paying off both of his Capital One cards, but the pay-off has not yet reported to the CBs). His utilization right now is between 40-50%, but it is probably reporting more like 60-70%. That will fix itself later this month probably.

---

Yeah he probably has more he's not telling you. They aren't going to give him a CLI when from just what you are telling us he is having trouble managing the credit he has now. 

Always request credit when you don't need it. You're more likely to get it. 

[Anonymous]

They forget about late payment in about 6 months. I know because I missed a payment once last year and about 6 months later I stopped getting "missed payment within 6 months" excuse for not giving me cli.