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Hey all:
I am thinking about canceling my Capital One card. I have had the card since Dec. 2008, started off with $500 and increased through Credit Steps program to $1500 and I assume its stuck there because I have never been approved for a CLI. The AF is $60. Here is how my credit profile looks so far:
Military Star: $8300 Opened Feb. 2006
Chase Freedom: $1500 (recently approved for $500 CLI) March 2010
Discover More: $2000 Apr 2010
USAA Mastercard: $1000 (New card as of 7 NOV)
Capital One: $1500 (60.00 AF) Dec. 2008
Macy's: $850 Apr 2010
Best Buy: $650 Aug 2010
Any sugguestions?
I like the zero foreign transaction fee that Capital One has. I would try for a better Capital One card.
I tried to apply for a different Capital One card last year. I have a previous paid CO with Capital One and when I applied last time that was the reason for the decline. Not even sure how I managed to get the Capital One card I have now.
It sounds like you have a simmilar card to the one I do. They gave me the initial $500 CL almost 5 years ago when my Fico was in the low five hundreds. In Spring 2007 I called them for a CL increase and they upped it by $1k to its present $1500. I called them last Spring for an increase and it was denied. Fico about 650 at the time. I was so mad that I considered closing my account. At this rate I will be 90 before I have a credit card with a limit over $5000.
Shortly after my denied inquiry, they began sending me offers for a second "Rewards card". It started with an initial $500 limit. My FICO is now 682. As soon as the offers started coming I decided that that was why they din't want to increase the old card. Credit card companies are really pushing those "Rewards cards" right now.
I'm a bit surprised my CLs are still so low. Still, I would not close the account. It helps your usage ratio. I finally accepted Cap1's offer for the second card. That and paying down my other accounts so that now my credit usage is at 20%. Tonight I applied for "Bill me later" on Costco.com, for a large purchase, and was accepted in about 30 seconds. After 2 decades of low credit ratings, that was a nice surprise. Having the lower credit Utilization rate seems to have lifted me from fair to good.
I just signed up for "MyFico" tonight, because I heard this was more accurate than the Fako scores I get from my credit keeper. They still have me at 640, as of 2 days ago.
I'll be buying a house this summer. The simulator says I should have my FICO over 720 by then.
Sorry I rambled on a bit. It's my first post.
Hi BbyBear,
It's nice to hear from you - glad you're here. Welcome!