topic Re: Cap1 Jail in Credit Card Applications

Cap1 Jail

Ecast6680 — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 01:20:22 GMT

I have a secured Cap1 card that has been open for almost 15 months and a QS1 card that has been opened for 9 months. Both accounts have been paid in full about 90 % of the time, but only have 500 CL each. My score is 596 Fico 8 after battling with alcoholism. I'm 3 years sober and trying to clear the wreckage of my credit. I understand that the secured product is never going to upgrade so I applied for regular Platinum Cap1 yesterday. I got the email today with info about my denial and it says that I have too many cards open. So am I really supposed to close one of my accounts and shorten my credit age in order to apply for the unsecured card? After almost an hour on the phone with them, that seems to be the case. Is this standard procedure?! I don't see why I can't apply and if approved, close one of the accounts! Someone please help me understand this box that I'm being put in. Thanks.

Re: Cap1 Jail

tcbofade — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 02:03:16 GMT

First, congrats on three years sober!

Capital One is well known to have various rules about who can have how many cards. They change over time, but you can only have so many of a certain class of card. From Capital One.

There are other lenders out there.

Your logic is not wrong, but Capital One gets to make the rules about Capital One products.

Good luck!

Re: Cap1 Jail

Shooting-For-800 — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 02:08:57 GMT

Congrats on your sober journey.

I would not close anything.

Find another bank if needed.

Under 600 is a tough score for any bank.

Time should help.

Check Discover prequal.

Once your score is closer to 650 some doors should open.

GL!

Re: Cap1 Jail

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 02:33:36 GMT

Congratulations on your sobriety.

If possible work on what’s suppressing your score, keep your accounts open, keep using the cards responsibly (I.e. utilization low, on time payments) and your scores should climb. Once in the mid 600s check prequalified offers for Dusco and Amex etc

Re: Cap1 Jail

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 02:42:43 GMT

Cap1 will allow you to have 5 prime cards and 2 sub-prime cards. The Platinum is a sub-prime card and you already have your two slots filled. Close the secured because it will never grow. The account will report for up to 10 years. The 6 month difference in age will be negligible by the time that happens.

Also, congrats on your sobriety from another recovering addict. I went down the same path as you more than 20 years ago.

Re: Cap1 Jail

addicted_to_credit — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 13:00:43 GMT

First off, congratulations on your 3 years of sobriety! That can be a tough road to walk as I understand it. I would recommend going to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action and pulling all three reports and go through them with a fine tooth comb. Dispute any inaccuracies on them and work on the what ever negative information that’s on there and accurate. I’d pay the smaller balances off then on the next just let it snowball and you’ll be in a better place credit wise before you know it. Most negative info can start coming off after 7 years and it could take up to 10 years. I wouldn’t suggest going to a credit repair service and paying them 100’s or 1000’s. All they do is dispute everything (which you could do for free if you wanted to go that route) in the hopes of the lender/collection agency doesn’t respond within the 30 day window. I’ll caution you though, if you use the credit repair services method of blanket disputes on all the baddies and get lucky disputing a valid negative account off your reports it can always come back.

Re: Cap1 Jail

OmarGB9 — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 02:16:12 GMT

Well first, closing accounts won't shorten your credit history age, the closed account will remain on your reports for up to 10 years. Secondly, when they said you have too many accounts, they meant you have too many of *their* (subprime) cards. You can only have 2 subprime cards, and since you already have a secured and a qs1, that's the 2 slots. Therefore, if you wish to try again, I'd advise you to close the secured card, get your money back, wait a month or two for your reports to update, and then try again for a quicksilver or another platinum. However, I'd still suggest waiting more and addressing any negatives you may have on your reports, because something is suppressing your scores.

Re: Cap1 Jail

CreditInspired — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 15:26:13 GMT

@Ecast6680 wrote:
I have a secured Cap1 card that has been open for almost 15 months and a QS1 card that has been opened for 9 months. Both accounts have been paid in full about 90 % of the time, but only have 500 CL each. My score is 596 Fico 8 after battling with alcoholism. I'm 3 years sober and trying to clear the wreckage of my credit. I understand that the secured product is never going to upgrade so I applied for regular Platinum Cap1 yesterday. I got the email today with info about my denial and it says that I have too many cards open. So am I really supposed to close one of my accounts and shorten my credit age in order to apply for the unsecured card? After almost an hour on the phone with them, that seems to be the case. Is this standard procedure?! I don't see why I can't apply and if approved, close one of the accounts! Someone please help me understand this box that I'm being put in. Thanks.

Usually a denial has more than one reason for denial. What were the other reasons?

Re: Cap1 Jail

MasonK — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 16:56:12 GMT

Congrats on your sobriety; I have many friends on that path.

I feel like you're describing a symptom of a problem. Your score probably isn't being depressed by a lack of credit cards, but by something else.

Can you share more information about your credit situation? Foreclosure? Bankruptcy? Collections? The people in these forums have a wealth of knowledge that can help you rebuild your credit; they took me from 494 to 714 in two years.

Re: Cap1 Jail

HeavenOhio — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 18:50:49 GMT

@Ecast6680, Capital One will deny applications for the Secured Mastercard, Platinum, QuicksilverOne, and Journey if you have two Capital One cards open. They'll decline to issue a Quicksilver, Venture, VentureOne, Savor, SavorOne, or Spark if you have five Capital One cards open. The silver lining is that these declines will be based on their internal records rather than credit report inquiries.

I'd try their prequal tool and see if any of their prime cards come up. They've recently been offering versions of some of their prime cards designed for people with marginal credit. Maybe that'll work in your favor.

Re: Cap1 Jail

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 22:23:23 GMT

See if you prequalify for a Discover card: https://www.discovercard.com/application/website/prequal?

I was prequalifying for a secured when my Fico score was in the low-600 range and when I got to around 630 I prequalified (and was approved) for an unsecured Discover IT. That card was the game-changer for me in my credit build. You might qualify for a Discover (unsecured or secured, who knows) and Discover will often "graduate" a secured card in several months (5 or 7, I can't remember?). In any case, Discover is a definite option.

Re: Cap1 Jail

Ecast6680 — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 06:22:01 GMT

Wow! I started to work on my credit around the same time last year, October 2018 with around the same scores. However, my scores haven't skyrocketed like yours! Please, how did you do it?! I would like to know everything you've been doing.

Re: Cap1 Jail

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 07:22:17 GMT

@Ecast6680 wrote:
Wow! I started to work on my credit around the same time last year, October 2018 with around the same scores. However, my scores haven't skyrocketed like yours! Please, how did you do it?! I would like to know everything you've been doing.

@Ecast6680 I sent you a rambling, long-winded private message but I'll recap it here.

I have a unique situation because everyone is unique! LOL! I had a pretty stellar credit history for many years (I suspect my FICOs were in the 800s before my trouble started). Then things came crashing down about 13 months ago (Nov '18). I had ONE card that I couldn't keep up on and it had a 90-day-late. The debt on it was HUGE. The 90-day-late killed my score to the mid-500s. When I was able to settle for less than the full amount (got a loan from family) and that settlement posted, my scores all jumped up to the low 600s. Overnight! So that's where most of the score increase came from.

My utilization was still at over 100% (because I still had debt—that I was able to keep current on with minimum payments) and I had no open cards since the other cards had been closed after my 90-day-late.

My score went up gradually after I got my Green Dot Secured card and paid on it for a few months. I suspect that maybe Discover approved me for the unsecured IT because of Green Dot (and I think I had an Overstock card and a Walmart card at that point).

I've probably been helped a lot by my long history and this ONE single bump on the road. I think I've been hurt a lot during this last year and have probably been declined for cards because of my still-high util (it's in the lower-60% range now, but it was much higher a few months ago). Also, my income is low (about 25K) which holds me back. (It just depends on the lender.) I suspect that you're in a better place than me in some respects because you've already got some Cap One cards and they won't preapprove me for anything, not even a secured card.

One thing that is universal for all of us is that we can lower our scores by "wasting" inquiries (I've been so guilty of that but am getting better) and time heals many things. Time can smooth over a lot of problems.

If you qualify, check out Navy Federal (NFCU). They are great for people like us. If you have ever served in the military, or if a close family member ever has, or if a parent or grandparent (alive or dead) has ever served, then you can get in with Navy! I called and applied over the phone and they let me in when I told them that my late father served in the Army. (I can get paperwork verifying his service online if they ask for it, but they haven't asked for it yet.)

Navy Fed will give people with score in the 500s or low 600s killer limits sometimes! I'm still in shock that they gave me a 17K limit on my AMEX. (I am a low-income earner so I was expecting a few thousand at most!) You have to treat them right and give them a little time, but they are awesome. Edit: Do a search on the forums on Navy Fed if you think you can qualify to join to get a better feel as to what to do and what to expect. But absolutely, if you can join them and just start with a little $5 savings account, DO IT!

Re: Cap1 Jail

CreditInspired — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 07:25:54 GMT

Thanks Tenaya for sharing your credit journey. And kudos to you for getting back on the horse and taking charge of the reins.

Re: Cap1 Jail

CreditInspired — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 07:53:17 GMT

@Ecast6680 wrote:
Wow! I started to work on my credit around the same time last year, October 2018 with around the same scores. However, my scores haven't skyrocketed like yours! Please, how did you do it?! I would like to know everything you've been doing.

I just wanted to provide you with some info too on how my scores went from 640 in 2016 to 800 today.

First, the biggest jump came when my one derog--tax lien--fell off all 3 of my CRs. So if you have any baddies, those have to be fixed and/or removed first.

Second, my one CC was 78% UT. So, after learning from the forum that that was two knocks against me, I paid my CC down to like 2% UT over a 5-mo period. And, I was lucky too that it was a NFCU card that I had going on 9 years. So again, learning from this forum because I was a newbie, I learned I could apply for another NFCU card. And NFCU gave me a $15K CL on my second card. Was I shocked? YES. Still am. I had not applied for anything creditwise in 7 years.

Finally, no matter what, make payments on time. This is the one thing I faithfully did, even though I wasn't aware of this--one late payment can throw everything into a catastrophic state.

So GL2U on working to get and maintain a positive credit profile. Just know that it takes TIME, but you'll get there.