topic Re: Capital One in Credit Cards

Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:11:02 GMT

I have not carried a balance on my Capital One Card in three months yet my CR still shows an outstanding balance that I had three months ago. I am trying to get a home loan and this balance is pulling my score down. Is there a way to make my CR's show the correct balance?

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:12:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have not carried a balance on my Capital One Card in three months yet my CR still shows an outstanding balance that I had three months ago. I am trying to get a home loan and this balance is pulling my score down. Is there a way to make my CR's show the correct balance?

The problem with them is that when you don't carry a balance, they often don't report anything for you which means they screw you with the last reported balance and no history for a while. Only way I have seen to fix this was a friend who "disputed" if you will to have them update balance/history information and in a case I was involved with, I just put a small balance on there and let it report on the statement and then paid it off and the next month it reported again and went to zero.

Re: Capital One

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:24:28 GMT

I occasionally had this problem with my J.Crew store card. I called the card's customer service, and they swore that they updated every Friday. (yeah, right)

I finally got exasperated and disputed the balance with the CRA's. WFNNB (the bank behind the card) updated to $0, and it hasn't happened since.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:30:51 GMT

So I should begin gripping to Customer Service at Capital One. I hear they are not the best.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:48:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I should begin gripping to Customer Service at Capital One. I hear they are not the best.

Sure, if you enjoy p-ing in the wind. You are too kind, they are not only not the best, they are one of the worst. You'd have better luck training a field mice to sing god save the queen. You can try but don't hold your breath as they will almost certainly tell you: "We update and report your information to all 3 bureaus each month." a fancy way of shining you off. I guess it can't hurt though but be prepared to be disappointed is all I am saying.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:12:22 GMT

In my opinion, if a person contacts the CRAs to dispute the balance, that person might be taking the risk of losing the entire account from his/her credit report.

I haven't disputed the amount of the balance, but I did dispute a Sears Mastercard account because the payment history had not been updated in several months. Sears/Cit responded by instructing the CRAs to delete the entire account from my credit reports. Several years later that account is still missing from my credit reports after spending a lot of time and effort trying to get that account restored to my credit reports.

Re: Capital One

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:18:19 GMT

MojaveMoon wrote:
In my opinion, if a person contacts the CRAs to dispute the balance, that person might be taking the risk of losing the entire account from his/her credit report.

I haven't disputed the amount of the balance, but I did dispute a Sears Mastercard account because the payment history had not been updated in several months. Sears/Cit responded by instructing the CRAs to delete the entire account from my credit reports. Several years later that account is still missing from my credit reports after spending a lot of time and effort trying to get that account restored to my credit reports.

That's useful to know! I've always written to never, ever dispute closed accounts, as it's easier for them to drop the accounts entirely rather than to clean them up, but I thought that they were required to report all open accounts. It's part of their agreement with the CRA's.

What does Sears/Citi give you as a justification for refusing to report?

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:39:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In my opinion, if a person contacts the CRAs to dispute the balance, that person might be taking the risk of losing the entire account from his/her credit report.

I haven't disputed the amount of the balance, but I did dispute a Sears Mastercard account because the payment history had not been updated in several months. Sears/Cit responded by instructing the CRAs to delete the entire account from my credit reports. Several years later that account is still missing from my credit reports after spending a lot of time and effort trying to get that account restored to my credit reports.

an absolutely valid concern but that is usually a problem with accounts that are no longer open or being reported and it has happend to me but with active and reporting accounts, it has generally not been an issue. although companies like HSBC are real bad with this and will mark your account (in the comments) with "Consumer disputes account" which is so hard to get off and affects negatively. I lost a Discover re-eval because of that.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:11:04 GMT

@haulingthescoreup, exactly, thank you, you made my point for me, its usually a greater issue with closed accounts than active ones. closed they can choose to dump it unless you hunt them down and force them to report it which most wont, but with active sooner or later, it HAS to report.

Message Edited by Guardian on 02-02-2009 06:11 PM

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:09:51 GMT

You are better off charging a tank of gas or a 1/2 tank of gas to your Crap 1 card than taking the chance of losing the tl.

Something needs to be done to Crap 1 and their business practices, this is a prime example!

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:10:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You are better off charging a tank of gas or a 1/2 tank of gas to your Crap 1 card than taking the chance of losing the tl.

Something needs to be done to Crap 1 and their business practices, this is a prime example!

They are terrible and I can't wait until they are given a new port hole. But until then, either dump them or deal with them is all we can do. I personally dumped them but I know people who either have no choice but to deal with them or they are status quo with them and feel no need to rock the boat.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:43:03 GMT

Thanks everyone. I never would have gotten a capital one card if I had know how bad they were. I was in college and wanted a card to establish some credit. They are my only cc and I have no real desire to get anymore. To update I did contact them and was transferd to India. I then requested to be transfered back to the US. I spoke with an account manager in Dallas and got her name. She told me that they would update my account with the credit agncies on the 5th. I will keep everyone posted.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:38:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Something needs to be done to Crap 1 and their business practices, this is a prime example!

Here's something that will always stick out in my mind. For years Capital One didn't report its customers' credit limits. Several months before they finally started reporting them, word was spreading about this. I had had a chance to speak to their highest office for consumer issues about an ongoing issue. At the end of the conversation, I asked if she could confirm the issue about Capital One reporting the limits. The first word out of her mouth was "Unfortunately ..." I thought that said a lot about Capital One that they regarded it as unfortunate that they were ending the practice of hurting (some of) their customers' credit scores by not reporting the credit limits.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:47:21 GMT

Just a quick off-topic/on-topic suggestion. Capital One now makes it possible to set up a balance transfer on the internet. I realize that the people in the first tier of customer support are trying their best and are trying to be courteous and professional -- so, likewise, I always try my best to be as courteous and patient, too.

But even with my hearing being pretty good, I often times am straining to focus on every word being said because the language barrier is so bad -- this was how things were when I called to set up a balance transfer by phone with Capital One. From now on I plan to set up the balance transfers online so I have the peace of mind that there was no miscommunication about what digit or letter or amount was specified.

Message Edited by MojaveMoon on 02-02-2009 08:47 PM

Re: Capital One

oracles — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:08:08 GMT

What about if you have very good credit and get one of there better cards, how do they treat you?

good credit limits, good credit limit increases, low apr, custmer service?

Is it worth it?

I was thinking about getting one for int'l travel since they dont charge a fee.

Thanks to all those who respond.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:00:30 GMT

Another update. They updated my credit report today and the posted the worng amount. How the H**L is that even possible. First they dont update it for three months and now they put an amout I never had! Can I report them to some type of goverment credit agency?

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:53:39 GMT

You always have the option to file a complaint with the FTC https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ but that doesn't guarantee you any relief. The complaint system was to accumulate issues against entitites so that if ever it becomes obvious or necessary to take action, they have fodder. That's all. In rare cases, it will but not in balance discrepencies and stuff like that. I am sorry, you'll have better luck dealing with them directly or the CRAs.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:04:31 GMT

oracles wrote:
What about if you have very good credit and get one of there better cards, how do they treat you?

good credit limits, good credit limit increases, low apr, custmer service?

Is it worth it?

I was thinking about getting one for int'l travel since they dont charge a fee.

Thanks to all those who respond.

When I app'd for my C1 card my scores were low/mid 600s (I think) w/ very low util. I rec'd an instant approval for 3k. In 3 months I called and got it to 3750. When my credit steps kicked in, it went to 4250 two weeks later. At the 9 month mark I called and and they took it to 5250. The IR is 10.14 and the AF is 19. It's a basic, boring card -- just a Platinum w/o rewards. I had an intro period of 6 months w/ 0% and PIF before any interest hit. At 8 months I did a BT for 3500 bucks (0% x 6mo) -- fee capped at 50.

I can't complain at ALL about this card. I don't think they offer this exact card w/ the exact options anymore. When I signed up I ended up picking limited credit history b/c I didn't have a card over 5k. Originally I thought the card would max out at 3k, but I'm guessing it can go up to 15k. I asked the CSR about my ceiling and was told that I didn't need to worry about hitting it for quite awhile.

Re: Capital One

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:16:43 GMT

Just to add another personal experience which made no sense to me but might make some sense to you and help you, when I applied for CP1 business card, my scores were EX:640, EQ:705, TU:711, no baddies, nearly 0 util, 9-15 years of credit (everyone sees it differently for some reason) and they approved me for $500 and although they said they would reevaluate, after 2.5 years, nothing and I kicked them to the curb. Now, my wife applied with scores of EX: 423, EQ: 512, TU: 456, 5 baddies, 3 collections, 3 years of credit history, no active credit (basically 100% util) and they approved her one shot $4000 and raised it to $4500 in 6 months. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and I am til this day baffled.

PS. I tried for a regular card too and got declined while others have offered me 4500 and the lowest I got was 2700 from Juniper and she even had one judgement from one of the baddies that became a collection and so on. this was before we were married and I have since fixed up her stuff quite a bit and she is now in the mid 600s but that has till this day bothered me and makes no sense.

Message Edited by Guardian on 02-03-2009 03:16 PM

Re: Capital One

pattycake — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:38:14 GMT

I think they are most friendly when I call the backdoor number. I just combined my two cards into the one with the lower interest rate, and they were great.