topic Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me? in Credit Cards

Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 14:40:41 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I got discharged from my BK7 in Oct 2017 and instantly got approved for a Cap 1 Plat with a $3000 cl now it's at $4000 and then last week I got approved for a QS1 for $3000. All I owe on my Plat is $800 that I am paying off this week. My question is should I combine them now or wait a couple of months to get an icrease on the Plat and QS and then combine? I'll probrably ask for a increase on my Plat in June. Will it affect my credit to combine cards?

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

FinStar — Tue, 01 May 2018 15:21:28 GMT

You could potentially wait to see if your account qualifies for the CLI and then combine both if you wish.

The only effects will be the donor card being closed and losing a 2nd active tradeline, but it will still factor into your overall AAoA.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 15:47:42 GMT

I'd check to see if there's a CLI available on either card, and if so get it, before making the combination - that's what I'm planning to do when it's time to combine my own two.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:08:35 GMT

And just to add the recent warning: Cap One has CLDd a few of us with large CLs that weren't used enough. I think all the reported cases had a CL above $20K, but at least be aware that this is something Cap One is looking at (at least in those few cases)

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

FinStar — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:15:06 GMT

Good point @Anonymous. I'm not sure what C1 is looking for when doing ARs to determine the specifics on the CLDs other than to minimize exposure and tighten the risk aspects of their overall portfolio.

My combined CL is still way north of $100K on the Venture card and used quite regularly. But, I recall seeing some past threads about the CLDs for folks who had either combined accounts or with stand-alone CLs >$20K.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:21:25 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
Good point @Anonymous. I'm not sure what C1 is looking for when doing ARs to determine the specifics on the CLDs other than to minimize exposure and tighten the risk aspects of their overall portfolio.

My combined CL is still way north of $100K on the Venture card and used quite regularly. But, I recall seeing some past threads about the CLDs for folks who had either combined accounts or with stand-alone CLs >$20K.

Interesting. What % of the $100K+ CL do you use? I was using less than 1% of my $35K (and maybe 0.1% on average) when it got hit!

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

HeavenOhio — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:29:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
And just to add the recent warning: Cap One has CLDd a few of us with large CLs that weren't used enough. I think all the reported cases had a CL above $20K, but at least be aware that this is something Cap One is looking at (at least in those few cases)

I recall one 16K limit being reduced to 10K.

I think it was determined that the common factor is averaging less than approximately $100 per month in spending over a period of 12 months or more.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

FinStar — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:40:34 GMT

@Anonymous I've been using roughly around 3% (on average) of the total line. This was a combo of the QS and Venture (each $50K), plus another C1 Venture from eons ago.

Interestingly though, C1 doesn't let you combine accounts these days that would be in excess of $50K.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 18:52:23 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
And just to add the recent warning: Cap One has CLDd a few of us with large CLs that weren't used enough. I think all the reported cases had a CL above $20K, but at least be aware that this is something Cap One is looking at (at least in those few cases)
I recall one 16K limit being reduced to 10K.

I think it was determined that the common factor is averaging less than approximately $100 per month in spending over a period of 12 months or more.

I didn't think we had enough postive datapoints! And I'm sure there are lots of people with say QSs who don't use them above that level once 2% cards became common

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Gmood1 — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:10:54 GMT

Haven't used mine to purchase anything over $100 since 2016. Yet I continue to see post that state if you don't use it for large purchases regularly, you may be CLD'd. Definitely more to it than that. The other reason given by Cap One is "not enough usage on other lenders accounts". In other words, reports don't show revolving credit activity else where. Best guess, either from the use of CCs that don't report or from people trying to manipulate what reports such as AZEO.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

simplynoir — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:13:50 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Haven't used mine to purchase anything over $100 since 2016. Yet I continue to see post that state if you don't use it for large purchases regularly, you may be CLD'd. Definitely more to it than that. The other reason given by Cap One is "not enough usage on other lenders accounts". In other words, reports don't show revolving credit activity else where. Best guess, either from the use of CCs that don't report or from people trying to manipulate what reports such as AZEO.

Interesting. You think that counts more with Capital One? My guess is they want the customer to at least have the option of using the CL if they're showing major usage on other cards with that kind of reasoning.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Gmood1 — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:28:17 GMT

Exactly Noir, folks continue to ignore this factor.
For the last year, my spend has averaged $3 to $6 a month on the Capitol one QS($49.5k). But on other accounts, my reported revolving balances have been as high as $8000 a month. Normal average $4k to $5k a month.
If you're reporting $2 across all accounts month after month..what do you expect them to do?😂

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

simplynoir — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:32:13 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Exactly Noir, folks continue to ignore this factor.
For the last year, my spend has averaged $3 to $6 a month on the Capitol one QS($49.5k). But on other accounts, my reported revolving balances have been as high as $8000 a month. Normal average $4k to $5k a month.
If you're reporting $2 across all accounts month after month..what do you expect them to do?😂

I can see the logic in that.

Re: Combining my Cap One cards, will it affect me?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 20:20:32 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Exactly Noir, folks continue to ignore this factor.
For the last year, my spend has averaged $3 to $6 a month on the Capitol one QS($49.5k). But on other accounts, my reported revolving balances have been as high as $8000 a month. Normal average $4k to $5k a month.
If you're reporting $2 across all accounts month after month..what do you expect them to do?😂

Yes, it's reasonable to assume that the issuers algorithms are tuned to "normal" behavior. I would guess that a very small fraction of the issuer's base does things like AZEO, so a good assumption would be that that person hardly uses credit and isn't worth pursuing. (And similarly here we have a few who pay after each transaction: that might be slightly more common in the wider world than AZEO but still very unusual.)

So it's probably not worth it for the issuers to look (if they could) at special cases, and it's also not clear that they would want to. AZEO users are trying to game the scoring system, what else might they be up to!