topic Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me in Credit Cards

Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 12:38:45 GMT

I received my first actual credit card with Cap1 QS1 in March of 2016. As I was just starting out I received a SL of $300. Since then my FICO has increased to 748, and I have at least five other accounts now. In February I decided to start gardening and received other credit cards with much higher limits. After requesting a CLI from Capital One they bumped it to $400. While my youngest accounts Barclay and AMEX SPG gave me a starting limit of 2.5k and 10k. They have increased my credit lines to 5k and 15k (AMEX) without me even asking.

I really like Capital One QS1, but it seems I do not fit their profile since they cannot increase my credit limit or even upgrade me to the QuickSilver which has no annual fee. Would my FICO score take a dive if I just close the card with them?

Any input will be appreciated

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 12:58:20 GMT

With 5 other cards since then (only 1.5 years ago) and significantly higher SL, your credit score would only take a small, and temporary, hit. It'll be temporary since your average credit age goes down, so depends when you got your 5 other cards.

If it were me, i would ditch them. No point keeping such a low limit card with little to no prospective IMO. Take your business elsewhere.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

driftless — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 12:59:14 GMT

Cap One seems to treat some of their customers very well and others not so much. I would not hesitate to close your Cap One account. Closing cards is a natural part of the rebuilding process. You might want to keep an eye on Cap One's prequalified page in the future.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

NRB525 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:08:52 GMT

There would not be a significant effect on your score by closing.

Capital One has a tendency to put a ceiling on how high each card can go, specific to the cardholder. One step to consider is a new application for the no-AF QS. It will be HP on each of the three bureaus, but you may get a much better limit, and the better card features.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:19:35 GMT

I agree there. Even though it is one of my favorite cards due to the cash back and no foreign transaction fee. They pretty much remained the same including their APR @ 23.99% so I pay it off in full every month. Even though I've read that a further review is normally a denial with Capital One I will wait on them. Fingers cross!

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:15:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
With 5 other cards since then (only 1.5 years ago) and significantly higher SL, your credit score would only take a small, and temporary, hit. It'll be temporary since your average credit age goes down, so depends when you got your 5 other cards.

If it were me, i would ditch them. No point keeping such a low limit card with little to no prospective IMO. Take your business elsewhere.

That's not correct. When you close a card it continues to report and age on your credit reports generally for 10 years so there is no effect on your AAoA. Where it can change your score is if it affects your overall utilization. However because the OP's limit is small, that won't be the case here.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Appleman — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:16:07 GMT

Have you checked the Cap1 pre-qualification site?

I was stuck with a Cap1 card that would not budge beyond $3,900 despite 800 credit at the time.

Applied for a Venture card was given $20,000 opening line. Something with their algorithms for credit increases seems a bit screwy to me.

If you are paying an annual fee, I would say it is time to move on and close the card.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:29:01 GMT

I had not had any offers with them pop up. Even spoke with a representative about the upgrading to the QS with no annual fee, but the option was not available. But now that you mentioned the annual fee it might be better not to be impulsive and wait another three months since the AF won't be due til around March.

@Appleman wrote:
Have you checked the Cap1 pre-qualification site?

I was stuck with a Cap1 card that would not budge beyond $3,900 despite 800 credit at the time.
Applied for a Venture card was given $20,000 opening line. Something with their algorithms for credit increases seems a bit screwy to me.

If you are paying an annual fee, I would say it is time to move on and close the card.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

K-in-Boston — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:45:17 GMT

Don't feel like you're the only one, lynskey! My Venture One card is a Frankenstein creation of 6 credit cards opened and combined at random points from the late '90s to 2004, half of which weren't even CapOne cards when they were originally opened (CapOne has bought out a lot of other lenders over the years). I have never once in my life received a CapOne credit line increase and they won't budge on the 25.99% APR.

I think your plan to hold off is a good strategy. Try the link that MyLoFICO posted here to see if you can upgrade to a no-fee card in a few months if you decide to keep it. Otherwise, unless your cards are all maxed out and that's making a big difference with your overall utilization (which is very doubtful with that limit) it's not really going to make any difference whatsoever in your scores.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Tazman81 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:49:08 GMT

You should check out some of the other threads on captial one. Usually if you have a "starter" card, it will not grow too much. You typically end up having to get one of their cards for better credit to see the higher limits.

See if you can Product Change your QS1 for the regular QS card using the below link.

https://verified.capitalone.com/sic-ui/#/esignin?Product=Card&Action=ProductUpgrade

If they let you product change, then you typically keep your same account number, and you should likely be able to get the type of credit line increase you are looking for. One thing to be careful of. Read the site VERY carefully. Sometimes the offer you to product change from your current QS1 to another QS1... You do not want that. You want the regular QS card which should have no annual fee.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Tazman81 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:50:45 GMT

@Boston typed faster than I did. OP, definitely try to see if you can upgrade your card.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:23:49 GMT

I still appreciate the link since it gave me an odd response.

lol!

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:37:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I received my first actual credit card with Cap1 QS1 in March of 2016. As I was just starting out I received a SL of $300. Since then my FICO has increased to 748...

What was your FICO score at the time of approval? Based on the $300 limit you referenced, I'm going to guess it was low, around 600?

There's a 99% chance that this account is doomed forever based on the unfavorable starting terms (low credit score) under which it was opened. Many people, myself included, don't understand why when in a year or two later if you are able to strengthen your profile considerably Capital One won't treat your account differently. It's just the way they are. I went from a 619 approval score to 800+ scores 1.5 years later and Capital One wouldn't grow with me. I could apply for a different CO product though and get a $20k SL no problem. There are very few exceptions to this "rule" regarding starter accounts with Capital One. I'd take the advice of several others here and move on from the card. Whether you close it or SD it is your choice. A low limit card can be fun to play with in the future because it's easy to test virtually any utilization data points on it, as it doesn't involve a big spend to do so. I'd probably SD it and play around with it in a year or so after you grab a couple of higher limit cards that you're happy with.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:00:55 GMT

I agree with what others have said. 1) What score you started with seems to be with that card forever. 2) Cap 1 tends to treat some cards and some clients better than others. DW and I have similar scores 740 to 760 but her capt 1 except for our employee Spark run between 5.5K and $20K. My cap 1 QS is in $2K land with tiny increases. Our employee's Spark card has a $1,750 limit granted we don't want to give the hired help a big card but come on alteast $2K Our income and credit scores support $20K limits with no problem we have very low % util and pif. We use Amex BCP and Citi DC before we use Capt 1

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

gdale6 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 17:50:48 GMT

QS1 is a rebuilders card and it will never grow with you. I still have one converted from an old Orchard Bank card and its limit is the lowest that I have by miles. I wont close it as its one of my oldest but it dosnt see much use either as the rewards are now subprime at 1.5% If you want something from them to grow, close it and open a new account thats not a rebuilder.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

sdsoccerdad — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:53:29 GMT

I've posted this many times but I feel the same way about them not growing. I think I've acquired enough cards in the past year that this does not justify the $39 fee coming up in November.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 19:32:15 GMT

I'm having the same problem. I've had capital one since 2008 and they just now gave me a $250 increase from $750 to $1000. I have other cards with higher spending limits including amex. I want to close it but I am scared it would affect my score because of the age of the account but I'm reading here it wont?

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 19:38:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm having the same problem. I've had capital one since 2008 and they just now gave me a $250 increase from $750 to $1000. I have other cards with higher spending limits including amex. I want to close it but I am scared it would affect my score because of the age of the account but I'm reading here it wont?

In nearly all cases, it should continue to be factored into your AAoA for 10 years.

I've heard some very rare reports of a closed tradeline disappearing from one's CR altogether, but it's never happened to me. I just closed the CreditOne and Merrick accounts that I started my rebuild with and my AAoA didn't change.

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

K-in-Boston — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 21:18:33 GMT

@Anonymous What SteelerNYC said. Whether it matters really depends on whether it's your oldest account (in which case, use judgment with how old your 2nd oldest card is), how much older it is than your average age of accounts (in which case, judgment again to see how that impacts you down the road) and how it affects your overall revolving account utilization (with a $1000 limit, I'm imagining not much).

Re: Capital One refuses to grow with me

sdsoccerdad — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 01:02:51 GMT

For me. My oldest card in my profile goes back to last October followed by the cap one card. You can see from my profile the line is sitting at $750. Would it not really matter if I closed this one?