Love Capital One or not?

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
The problem lies within the transition between a subprime customer to a prime customer.

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This right here.

THIS is why many of us dislike them. Even I used them to start my journey. Many of us did. Credit steps is a fantastic program. The rewards program is slick, just works, and super low hassle.

But, when you start raking in the Amex ,citi,chase, Barclay cards and start landing serious limits, Capone does not keep up. You want to stay loyal to them, but they force you out.

I was gone as soon as I laned my first amex. I begged them to drop my annual fee at the end of the year, or upgrade me. No dice. I closed the card and have been giving my non category spend to everyone else at lower cash back. Now I have double Cash. I honestly loved the fact thset they gave me a chance with my first card, I was upset when they showed that they didn't want my money.

To them they treated me like I had no credit history at all and bad credit when to this day I have never been denied a card. I'd like to say I'm a prime customer, but Capone never decided to acknowledge that and upgrade me so that I stayed with them.

To this day I miss my no hassle cash back with no redemption threshold. The purchase eraser was a great idea.

I hope one day they figure out how to be  like a prime lender. They have great cards, mediocre CS, and poor customer market segment transitions. They spend lots of time training good credit customers with credit score tracking, credit steps to build good behavior, a first card, and then leave us rot. They spend money on making prime customers for other lenders.

Get a cap one with credit steps. Get your CLI in 6 months. Apply for another lenders card with your flawless 6 month history, close cap one because you are in prime world.

Its a shame.

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Glad to hear you had a good experience getting started with Cap One.

Did you ever outright app for another CapOne card like the Quicksilver or Venture or Venture One? If not, you were doing it wrong. CapOne doesn't seem to grow the starter cards from 3 digit to 5 digit limits, they need you to app like you would app with Chase, Citi, BofA, any other cards when you have an improved history.

If you go back and app for a real CapOne card now, you should see a better card and limit. I'm not saying it is right, but it is the way they seem to work.

[Anonymous]

Capital one was my first non-store card, so I have love/hate relationship with capital one. Hell it's relationship that lasted longer than my marriage 😆

[joeyoey]

I love Capital One.  When my credit was an utter MESS I got a Cap One secured card with them.  After about a year they took a chance on me (when NOBODY else would) and gave me a QS1 & enrolled me in the credit steps program with a $500 limit.  6 months later they bumped me up to $3500 & let me PC to Venture One.  Right after that I was able to get approved for Venture for $5000.  Since then I've been able to get (almost) every card I've applied for...Discover, AMEX (BCE & PRG), & Chase (Amazon & CSP).  

No matter where my credit goes (hopefully up), I'll always hang onto at least one Cap One card b/c I owe a lot of where I am now to them giving me a chance.  Oh, I know some have said the CS sucks.  I've never had that experience.  I haven't had to call them a lot, but the 4-5 times I've had to call have always been good expeiences.

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
The problem lies within the transition between a subprime customer to a prime customer.

---

This right here.

THIS is why many of us dislike them. Even I used them to start my journey. Many of us did. Credit steps is a fantastic program. The rewards program is slick, just works, and super low hassle.

But, when you start raking in the Amex ,citi,chase, Barclay cards and start landing serious limits, Capone does not keep up. You want to stay loyal to them, but they force you out.

I was gone as soon as I laned my first amex. I begged them to drop my annual fee at the end of the year, or upgrade me. No dice. I closed the card and have been giving my non category spend to everyone else at lower cash back. Now I have double Cash. I honestly loved the fact thset they gave me a chance with my first card, I was upset when they showed that they didn't want my money.

To them they treated me like I had no credit history at all and bad credit when to this day I have never been denied a card. I'd like to say I'm a prime customer, but Capone never decided to acknowledge that and upgrade me so that I stayed with them.

To this day I miss my no hassle cash back with no redemption threshold. The purchase eraser was a great idea.

I hope one day they figure out how to be  like a prime lender. They have great cards, mediocre CS, and poor customer market segment transitions. They spend lots of time training good credit customers with credit score tracking, credit steps to build good behavior, a first card, and then leave us rot. They spend money on making prime customers for other lenders.

Get a cap one with credit steps. Get your CLI in 6 months. Apply for another lenders card with your flawless 6 month history, close cap one because you are in prime world.

Its a shame.

---

Glad to hear you had a good experience getting started with Cap One.

Did you ever outright app for another CapOne card like the Quicksilver or Venture or Venture One? If not, you were doing it wrong. CapOne doesn't seem to grow the starter cards from 3 digit to 5 digit limits, they need you to app like you would app with Chase, Citi, BofA, any other cards when you have an improved history.

If you go back and app for a real CapOne card now, you should see a better card and limit. I'm not saying it is right, but it is the way they seem to work.

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Thanks! They were good to me, but its too late.

First, I had a 5 digit limit with them. I started with $300 and got bumped to about $1400.however, after that I got nothing.

I understand what you are getting at. I had a starter product and needed to apply for a better product. But really what are you applying for? I already had  1.5% cash back with a starter card.

Your options are

1. A card with 1.5% cash back and no AF

2. A travel card with 1.25 miles per dollar with no AF.

3. A travel card with AF at 2 points per mile

That's it.

Taking another triple pull to essentially upgrade to a card that I already have seems punitive.

A triple pull to upgrade to a no AF cash back card with the same perrks I already have is ,well, insane.

On top of only offering essentially 2 rewards products, upgrades seem to just remove fees. Hard pulls usually net you card benefits on approval. Capital one pulls just remove fees. 

Their system makes moving through the product line a bad idea. 

Let's say you took their secured card, improved your credit, got their AF card since you really needed to build up about 6 months history to get it, and then after you have better history you apply for the No AF rewards cards ( or venture) that require better scores. You just took  9 hard pulls to get a marginal rewards card.

Furthermore, their concepts on AF is inconsistent. 

The 1.5% cash back card with the AF is the same as the non AF card. The AF is a penalty for not having good enough credit

The 1.25 miles per dollar card with no AF is different as the AF version offers you more miles per dollar.

Capital one is a great starter lender, but If you get caught up trying to upgrade your experience with them since they keep feeding you cards, you won't end up in a good spot. With the possibility of racking up 9 hard pulls in  1-2 years, you end up stuck with them until the HPs fall off so other lenders will even touch you.

Their system, if you stay in it, really damages your report with all the hard pulls.  If you start down the capital one road, its a long one. When you reach the end of the card progression in a year, you have 3 HPs on every report. And a history of high utilization until you reach the end and finally get a passable limit.

[Anonymous]

I thought I would never have a cap 1 until I got 10k lol

[lolabelle]

Likes:  Whopper of a credit limit; no foreign transaction fees with my no-fee card.

Dislikes:  They won't let me product change my Venture to a Quicksilver.  I don't know if they have some weird policy against it or it's because I don't currently use my Venture very much.  It aggravates me to no end, though.  I'd use their card loads more if they would let me product change.

[baller4life]

NOT!

[sultan33g]

To me they are great for rebuilding. I am thankful for the chance they gave me when I needed it the most. However once I was able to get better credit lines they stood back and sat on their hands. I had to go through hoops to get any sort of respectable CL increase and the best they could do was 2 %. 

That just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I am not wasting a 3X HP for a credit card with a respectable limit when I can just app and get one for 1.

Thanks Capital one for everything you have done but see ya.

[yfan]

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@sultan33g wrote:

To me they are great for rebuilding. I am thankful for the chance they gave me when I needed it the most. However once I was able to get better credit lines they stood back and sat on their hands. I had to go through hoops to get any sort of respectable CL increase and the best they could do was 2 %. 

That just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I am not wasting a 3X HP for a credit card with a respectable limit when I can just app and get one for 1.

Thanks Capital one for everything you have done but see ya.

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Just out of curiosity, do you currently have a Capital One card? If so, which one and with what limit? Also, what are the better lines you speak of? Examples?

[kjel]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
The problem lies within the transition between a subprime customer to a prime customer.

---

This right here.

THIS is why many of us dislike them. Even I used them to start my journey. Many of us did. Credit steps is a fantastic program. The rewards program is slick, just works, and super low hassle.

But, when you start raking in the Amex ,citi,chase, Barclay cards and start landing serious limits, Capone does not keep up. You want to stay loyal to them, but they force you out.

I was gone as soon as I laned my first amex. I begged them to drop my annual fee at the end of the year, or upgrade me. No dice. I closed the card and have been giving my non category spend to everyone else at lower cash back. Now I have double Cash. I honestly loved the fact thset they gave me a chance with my first card, I was upset when they showed that they didn't want my money.

To them they treated me like I had no credit history at all and bad credit when to this day I have never been denied a card. I'd like to say I'm a prime customer, but Capone never decided to acknowledge that and upgrade me so that I stayed with them.

To this day I miss my no hassle cash back with no redemption threshold. The purchase eraser was a great idea.

I hope one day they figure out how to be  like a prime lender. They have great cards, mediocre CS, and poor customer market segment transitions. They spend lots of time training good credit customers with credit score tracking, credit steps to build good behavior, a first card, and then leave us rot. They spend money on making prime customers for other lenders.

Get a cap one with credit steps. Get your CLI in 6 months. Apply for another lenders card with your flawless 6 month history, close cap one because you are in prime world.

Its a shame.

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This is exactly where I am with them. I have two cards that were Orchard Bank/HSBC that were purchased by them and they only way to get any love on these accounts is to run it through the EO which is a hassle. I have a third card that they issued, not sure if it was credit steps, but it started at $500, went to $750, sat there for a long while. After EO nudge it went to $1500 and $3K. Couple weeks ago I hit the luv button and was shocked to double to $6K. Not that I am complaining, BUT I have no perks or rewards and a $39 AF. I am thankful that they issued me credit when I was rebuilding. Now that I have prime cards with Navy Fed, Chase, and Amex it's kind of like what's the point? The only reason I keep the first two cards is that they are my oldest open accounts and the other helps my overall utility.

I have a Capital One mortgage on my home that I purchased in January and it was a great experience.