topic Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness! in Credit Cards

Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

DoppelgangerD — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 18:21:17 GMT

Ok, so I've been inquiring about certain things with my Kohls charge account lately...

This isn't a card I use a lot, but every once in a while, and since it's one of my older accounts, I'm keeping it for now.

So, I had never heard of the co-branded Visa card Kohls/Cap1 gave to a limited number of account holders a couple of years ago until recently.

When I contacted Kohls to ask to be upgraded, I got so much misinformation that it would have been better not to even ask.

Kohls rep told me to contact Capital One, then Capital One told me I could apply for it online, which turned out not to be true, and I didn't want to apply for a new card anyway.

Later I contacted Kohls again via chat and was told the upgrade wasn't possible, and that in September 2024, they would be upgrading several million people to the Visa card again.

So I don't know if that is all remaining account holders or not.

It just seems quite odd that they've taken literally YEARS to do the migration to the co-branded card.

https://kohls.capitalone.com/

On another topic...

My S.O. used to have a Kohls card, but it was closed due to inactivity, and since adding her as an AU to my account should help her AAoA, I thought why not go ahead and do that.

(Should be quick and easy... Lol, yeah right!)

However when I went into my Kohls account to do it, the option wasn't there, and so I asked the robo-chat how to add an AU, and it said I had to call in to do that.

I've had dozens of cards and I've never seen this before, but whatever, I'll just call.

So... I call and get through all the prompts and verification, and the very nice CSR then tells me, that they can't ask for anything more over the phone other than the AU's name, and now they have to snail-mail me a form to fill out to add the AU.

WiTAF?!?!?

This is beyond ridiculous IMHO!

I'm just sitting here shaking my head and wondering why this is happening.

So odd... so unnecessary...

I just had to share it. 🙂

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

K-in-Boston — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 18:46:14 GMT

@DoppelgangerD wrote:
...So, I had never heard of the co-branded Visa card Kohls/Cap1 gave to a limited number of account holders a couple of years ago until recently...

...When I contacted Kohls to ask to be upgraded....
Later I contacted Kohls again via chat and was told the upgrade wasn't possible, and that in September 2024, they would be upgrading several million people to the Visa card again.
So I don't know if that is all remaining account holders or not.
It just seems quite odd that they've taken literally YEARS to do the migration to the co-branded card.

...

I've had dozens of cards and I've never seen this before, but whatever, I'll just call.
So... I call and get through all the prompts and verification, and the very nice CSR then tells me, that they can't ask for anything more over the phone other than the AU's name, and now they have to snail-mail me a form to fill out to add the AU.

Since you used "literally," it would be 0.773 years to be precise. No Visa cards were available prior to June 26, 2023. The Visa card is by invite only to select cardholders. No one outside of CapOne knows what criteria were used to decide this. My credit limit is $1000 higher than the official maximum line for the retail card, scores in 800s, etc., and no change from the store card. Player 2's account has even been opened for 30 years with regular use, no invite. It's doubtful that all cardholders will be converted to Visa cards.

As for the latter part about adding AUs, this is extremely common with credit unions and smaller banks. Capital One doesn't have a lot of retail cards that aren't fully integrated into their regular credit card servicing; if the servicing websites for those accounts looks like it was written in the 90s, it's not surprising that some other functions we're accustomed to aren't available there.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

DoppelgangerD — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 22:11:35 GMT

I was going off what I read online about those posting about the visa card, and I recall mentions of dates much earlier than that. If you think you have better info on, but it literally will be years by the time the migration/program is done, which is what I was saying anyway.

EDIT: Here's a link to a thread where account holders were notified as early as April '23, so that's about a year I guess.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Kohl-s-Visa-Upgrade/td-p/6666321

Like I said, I've had many cards over the years and have never seen this type of Jurassic level of ridiculousness.

At least not in the last decade or so, and last time I checked, Capital One is neither a small bank or credit union.

Although I share the same doubtfulness about all accounts being converted, it is possible.

I know there are other retail store co-branded cards that are the only version of card that store has, and since C1 is known for being a bank that qualifies consumers who may not qualify for a credit card with other banks (IE: Quicksilver), maybe they could have a plan to cater to those with average credit or higher.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

GreatLife — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:08:33 GMT

I'm just chiming in to rant that Kohl's is easily my biggest regret card. I don't like anything about the store setup, product inventory, or rewards program. Only grudgingly go in there to drop off an occasional Amazon return. Clearly wasn't thinking straight 3 years ago when I got the card to save 30% on a few random clearance items. Almost immediately regretted the hard pull & AAOA impacts. Past year I've noticed that whenever I rarely buy something Kohl's soft pulls my Experian within a week or two. 🙁

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

K-in-Boston — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:19:27 GMT

@DoppelgangerD wrote:

..I recall mentions of dates much earlier than that. If you think you have better info, whatever...

June 26th, 2023, is the date the product was launched.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

DoppelgangerD — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:21:41 GMT

@GreatLife wrote:
I'm just chiming in to rant that Kohl's is easily my biggest regret card. I don't like anything about the store setup, product inventory, or rewards program. Only grudgingly go in there to drop off an occasional Amazon return. Clearly wasn't thinking straight 3 years ago when I got the card to save 30% on a few random clearance items. Almost immediately regretted the hard pull & AAOA impacts. Past year I've noticed that whenever I rarely buy something Kohl's soft pulls my Experian within a week or two. 🙁

I hear you!

Of all the cards I currently have, it's definitely my least favorite, but it does come in handy from time to time, like when they have some killer deals on clearance items, then get Kohls Cash on top of it.

I give the KC to my SO to spend and she loves it, lol.

I've never noticed a soft pull like that from Kohls, but I don't pay very close attention to those, so I'll keep an eye out for it.

Perhaps it's to see if you qualify for a credit line increase (?), and maybe they don't do that for mine since I've been maxed at the $3k cap for years.

Who knows...

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

Scottisthename — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 19:11:57 GMT

I really have no comment in the ridiculousness but this point reminded me that it's been awhile since I asked for an increase which I did today approved $1,500 to $2,500 which is a little odd as the normal has always been

300-750-1500-3000

i will take a Visa please

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

DoppelgangerD — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:25:53 GMT

@Scottisthename wrote:
I really have no comment in the ridiculousness but this point reminded me that it's been awhile since I asked for an increase which I did today approved $1,500 to $2,500 which is a little odd as the normal has always been

300-750-1500-3000

i will take a Visa please

Hey, not too bad considering it's a 66.666% increase in CL, lol.

Congrats! 😁

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

CorpCrMgr1 — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 21:05:22 GMT

In my belief when a company makes you jump over barrels they don't want you. Sorry, just my opinion.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

K-in-Boston — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 16:29:35 GMT

@Scottisthename wrote:
I really have no comment in the ridiculousness but this point reminded me that it's been awhile since I asked for an increase which I did today approved $1,500 to $2,500 which is a little odd as the normal has always been

300-750-1500-3000

i will take a Visa please

Actually, far and away the most common Kohl's credit line progression is 300-700-1500-2500-3000 (and that one brief period where 4000 was possible). It's not very common that there are deviations from that pattern, but it does happen.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

Scottisthename — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 18:31:17 GMT

Had to laugh today because I was in Kohls with their and Amazon returns. While there I picked up a couple of small things for a birthday gift and added a restaurant gift card (they sell many). At check out while using my Kohls charge I was told you have to use cash or a bank card for gift cards, they cannot be charged to Kohls card. Clearly that's ridiculous and a product of fraud and their customer base.

Re: Kohl's charge card ridiculousness!

DoppelgangerD — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 01:19:52 GMT

@Scottisthename wrote:
Had to laugh today because I was in Kohls with their and Amazon returns. While there I picked up a couple of small things for a birthday gift and added a restaurant gift card (they sell many). At check out while using my Kohls charge I was told you have to use cash or a bank card for gift cards, they cannot be charged to Kohls card. Clearly that's ridiculous and a product of fraud and their customer base.

Wow, I didn't know that.

I've never purchased a gift card at Kohl's .

I remember long ago that this type of exclusion was pretty common.

Things changed over the years though, and the contracts for selling gift cards improved for retail stores to the point that they don't care if you get tons of perks from buying gift cards, because the profit margin is high enough to absorb it.

There are still some cases, like at my local grocery store, they won't give extra perks or discounts on Amazon gift cards, but do for most others.

I could understand if they said you don't earn Kohls Cash on gift cards, but to not even allow you to charge them is a bit much, especially since they could make more money if you didn't pay it off right away.

It's little things like this that keeps Kohls from being a top competitor in the market.