Since 12/07, I had a Capital One Platinum Visa card with "no hassle" cash rewards. I found my Capital One experience to be little more than a hassle, however. Here are the reasons:
1. Cap1 did not used to report credit limits correctly, rather they reported your limit as your highest balance in history, thereby screwing up your credit score by increasing your utilization %. This has since been changed, but was not a good first impression. Capital One seems to be the first to make consumer hostile changes and the last to make consumer friendly changes.
2. When I first opened the account, my score was around 600 - not very good. Now, my scores are around 790-805 - excellent. I've never been late. They responded by increasing my APR by 4% up to about 17% after they passed the dubious credit reform bill. None of my other cards did so.
3. Although my credit is excellent, I've been repeatedly refused credit limit increases, thereby limiting the utilization I am willing to use without affecting my score (9%). My limit stayed at about $3,000, although Amex gives me $25,000, and new cards with Chase and Discover $6,000 and $5,000 to start with, respectively. Since the balance was so low (the $270 I was willing to use), I only used the card to pay rental on a storage bin.
4. Setting up AutoPay is a NIGHTMARE. With Chase, Amex, and Discover, the setup was done online in under 5 minutes (probably about 2-3). With Capital One, I first had to call and request a form to be mailed to me. A week and a half later, I received it, paid postage, and mailed it out. I then waited a few more weeks and received a letter back from them. It stated that it did not process correctly because the name on my checking account did not match my credit account. Of course, it is impossible, and I think illegal to open an account in somebody else's name, and the names matched exactly. They refused to review the records again. Also, THEY CANCELED MY EXISTING AUTOPAY WITHOUT PERMISSION! This then caused my payment to not go through, triggering a late payment fee on my account and interest charges on the late payment fee. I called them up, and had them revert back to my old autopayment (I tried to switch), and I don't think they did that right, at least not on time. I demanded the fees be reversed and they were, then I canceled my account.
I highly recommend that anyone that has a Capital One card upgrade to a Chase, Discover, or Amex, or maybe Citibank or someone else. It's only a matter of time before they stab you in the back, change terms, screw up paperwork, and raise your APR even though you've been both loyal and have perfect credit.In summary, Capital One is nothing but hassle, and it's definitely not in my wallet.
