Need some help. Credit one..

[Anonymous]

Recently got pre approved offer from credit one, I have responsibly used a capital one secured card for 6 months, and successfully disputed the only bad marks on my transunion report.

" Credit Karma " puts my score around 660 - 670 " used to be 400 - 500s...

My dellemia is I assumed all cards had some form of grace period, and I take full responsibility for making such an assumption. So I'm not here to complain, I'm here for help.

I just received my card, I have not made any payments or used the card, the fine print says " You may still reject this plan provided you have not yet used the account or paid the fee. "

I have set up online banking, had a authorized user card provided for my wife, only to read again between all the fine prints ( which I did originally too ) only to discover to my horror there is NO grace period on this platinum visa.

Before I was approved for my capital one secured I had " foolishly " made many hard inquiries. This credit one will put me at 5 total hard inquires.

I was willing To work with the 75 dollar annual fee, then 99 annual after that, and 19 dollar authorized user fee, etc, but I had no clue CCs could have no grace periods at all.

Can someone explain to me what this means? I've never paid interest with my capital one secured card. Does this mean on every purchase I'll pay a 24.15%? Or am I misunderstanding how the APR works?

For example if I want to purchase a 100 dollar item with this card, how much interest will be charged? Should I back out now even with the hard inquiry? Should I continue on for a year to build my credit even more?

I am disappointed that I missed this, as I thought I had it figured out.. only to set everything up and get slapped down to reality.

[Anonymous]

I apologize for the double post, but I could not figure out how to edit.

APR first word being Annual I should have figured to divide it by 365 or by 12. So it's not as horrible as I thought but still slightly confusing, especially considering they have a 35 dollar late fee and 75 and 99 dollar membership fee, foreign transaction fee of 3%, authorized user fee of 19, and even a possible fee up to 49 dollars when requesting a credit limit increase? Topped off with no grace period whatsoever? What a bargain I've worked my way towards here.

So it's safe to assume I'm instantly being charged interest everyday until I put my balance to zero? 24.15 divided by 365?

[fltireguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I apologize for the double post, but I could not figure out how to edit.

APR first word being Annual I should have figured to divide it by 365 or by 12. So it's not as horrible as I thought but still slightly confusing, especially considering they have a 35 dollar late fee and 75 and 99 dollar membership fee, foreign transaction fee of 3%, authorized user fee of 19, and even a possible fee up to 49 dollars when requesting a credit limit increase? Topped off with no grace period whatsoever? What a bargain I've worked my way towards here.

So it's safe to assume I'm instantly being charged interest everyday until I put my balance to zero? 24.15 divided by 365?

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It's horrible. Yes, you do get charged interest from the day you make the purchase until the day it is paid in full. 

You should get your REAL FICO scores either from either here or creditchecktotal dot com - they have a nice 7 day trial for $1-just remember to cancel before the 7th day though

There are MANY other cards that are better than CreditOne that you might be able to get

What baddies are holding our scored down? There is somethiing thats hurting ou

[creditgambler2018]

Credit One is a legal scam. It is a rip off. They are a predatory lender. CLOSE THE ACCOUNT ASAP. NEVER EVER GET NEAR A CREDIT ONE ACCOUNT. 

CLOSE THE ACCOUNT NOW. THEY ARE OUT THERE TO GET YOU AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.

IF YOU HAVE BAD CREDIT GET A SECURED CAP ONE ACCOUNT.

NEVER EVER GET CREDIT ONE. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR STINKY UNDERWEAR IF THEY COULD.

[Anonymous]

Crunched some numbers ( Meaning I googled a good APR calculator) figured out 100 dollars comes to 6 cents in interest everyday. My credit limit is 500.

My secured Capital One is 200.

The only question now is do I back out before paying a fee or going with the card for a year and terminating it once I have a better preapproved option?

I understand credit one isn't a big hit here, and I should move on from CK to a paid fico if I'm serious.

I'm in my md - early 20s, no job, only school. So I may benefit from keeping it for a year. Anymore opinions are appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I've been reading online and all I can find is mainly negative reviews about the company, followed by a few people saying they give good credit increases and it helped them build their credit... and I've found others saying they reported the wrong thing to the credit companies and they had to fight to fix it.

Even some having to verbally wrestle the customer service agents to close down their accounts, or credit one agents calling at odd hours to request some to pay their balance immediately, threatening to send it to collections? Terrifying.


Can I please get some more people in here to help me decide a path? A hive of opinions is always better than one or few.

I am hoping the people complaining online of " false credit reports " just didn't factor in the 7 day waiting period for payments or be as methodical as I am trying to be.

Also since it was a preapproved offer does this mean my account won't be hard inquired or it still will? CK hasn't updated either way.

ANY info is appreciated, it's 1:38 AM and I'm not having the best of days. What is the answer I want to hear? That I could continue on the account for a year and ( which would be beneficial) and then close my account.

But I don't want to hear what I want to hear unless it's truthful from anyone here, I know they have horrible business PR apparently, and practices. However my credit report is very thin, and this is a card I have in hand.

It also is very generic in fine print and I quote " You may still reject this plan, provided you have not yet USED the account or paid a fee after receiving your billing statement. If you do reject the plan, you are not responsible for any fees or charges. "

I would think I would qualify for this loophole because I just got the card in the mail today, but what their definition of " USED " I do not know.

Does activating, setting up the online banking, requesting a PIN and connecting my bank count as " using " the card.. then yes I have. If it means USED as in purchasing, paying off any fees, this I have not.

However I just want to do what is best for my credit score, I don't mind the fees or even the no grace period at this point. I just want more people to share their opinions on if it would help my credit to keep it for a year, then cancel my account.

[Chris679]

Close the account, it is not worth it.  You were correct about the APR/365 being the rate at which the interest will be calculated.  The HP is done but 5 HP is nothing to worry about, they drop off after two years and only count against FICO for one year.  Credit One will nickel and dime you for everything.  Those fees you talked about?  They will hit the account right away eating up a third of your limit from the get go.  The 7 day waiting period for payments you talked about?  Designed to trip you up and oh also your credit line will be tied up while you wait for the payment to clear.  The CLI that people talked about that they are so generous with?  They charge your for that.  You will get a letter offering you a bump from $300 to $500 for the low low price of $40 or whatever it is.  

Cut your loses and walk away.  Keep using the secured Cap One card and wait until you have a bit more history and apply for Quicksilver or something decent. 

Also, there is a lot of talk about FAKO scores here.  To be fair this is after all the myFICO forum and FICO is the big dog when it comes to credit scoring no doubt.  Credit Karma however now uses a Vantage Score which is a legitimite credit score that is used by lenders and is gaining popularity.  No it is not perfect and no it is not going to be 100% comparable to FICO.  What it is though is free and what it does is update every week.  I like to pay for updated FICOs every once in a while but there is no reason IMO to shell out big bucks to monitor your credit scores when Credit Karma does a pretty good job of it already.  

Best of luck and to reiterate you should be closing Credit One first thing tomorrow. 

[Gidgetmom]

I've had a credit one card for over a year now and will be closing it soon.

i went into it knowing full well that I would be charged the annual fee, $19.00 fee for adding an AU, and I think it was a $19.00 fee for a credit line increase.  At the time, my credit score was 580's.  It was the first card that approved me (and I had not done a lot of research before I applied).  I have not had any problems with them.  No horror stories here.  They are very clear about the length of time it takes for your payment to post.  While the payment "posts" on the day you choose, it isn't reflected in your available credit for 5 days or so.  As I continued to make timely payments, my payments were reflected in my available credit sooner than the time they state when you make the payment.  I think its only taking a couple days to show in my available credit now.

I will be closing the card in a few months, when my score rebounds from high utilization due to paying for my daughter's wedding.  After the first year, the annual fee is divided into a monthly fee, rather than a one time charge.

 I also applied for, and was approved, for a cap1 QS1, with a $300 unsecured limit, the same month I got the Credit One.

in 4 months time from getting this card, I was able to add a cap1 V1 and a Chase SWRR card, my first two "prime" cards.

It did help me get my score up at the time.  So long as you go into it with the attitude of.."teach me the rules, and I'll play the game", it works for it's intended purpose, but it's not a card you want to hold onto.  

Just my thoughts, for what they are worth.

[rmduhon]

I'd keep it for about 10 months but never use it since you've already taken a HP for it. We had one also and closed it at 10 months, we'll before the monthly annual fee hit.

[Anonymous]

I want to thank everyone for their responses. The only thing I haven't mentioned here because it is a bit personal is that my wife is a permenant resident on a green card (soon to naturalize) and the fact she could possibly build credit with this card and it's " bona fides " are another reason why I am hesitant to abandon ship. 

The funny part is I was angry at capital one because they would not increase my limit after 6 months of paying on time. So I went with credit one out of spite instead of applying for the capital one quicksilver card that credit karma recommended me a " fair " chance at qualifying for. So I just took the preapproved offer.

I already see that they have a charge for the authorized user, but won't release the 75 dollar annual charge past " pending " status. I can only assume they do this to gather more interest, so my balance is 500 but I received the card with 399 (as I knew I would) but what bothers me is that they put the smaller startup charges through but left the annual charge pending. Very tricky.

Would I be able to add an authorized user on a capital one quicksilver card? ( I am not preapproved but credit karma keeps suggesting it to me, along with their other capital one platinum unsecured starter. ) The authorized user for my wife is extremely important to me.

I have read and appreciate every response, but while I don't work, I am a student, and I do have a decent savings already, I am not struggling by any means. I can put up with the no grace period and this initial deceptive charging tactics because it's really helped me learn a lot. (Won't be using the card much.)

my Credit report is so thin all I had on there were old medical bills ( which were all successfully disputed and shot up my score by 100 points. ) I saw that my mother had a credit one account, so I figured they were trustworthy. I will never make the same mistake again, and again I appreciate all of your help and opinions.