Pending Venture Card CLD. :(

[Gmood1]

Sorry for you guys CLDs @Hex and @simplynoir .

Guess I need to use the Sonoma CC.😂

I think me and folks like @CreditCuriosity  with these William-Sonoma CCs. Caused them to trim elsewhere, in order to absorb all of those new lines of open Williams Sonoma credit. 

I'm surprised they haven't sliced me yet. The Walmart CC gets monthly spend. The QS gets a whopping $3 a month. And the Sonoma hasn't gotten any lately.

Total Cap One lines sit at $90,500.

I'll await my execution.

[Shooting-For-800]

Thanks for the warning.

I had my grandfathered Savor cut from $27k to $10k a year or two ago.

Now I have to worry about my grandfathered Venture at 30k and QS at $25k.

Uuuuggg.

[Hex]

So on Friday afternoon I did call the phone number that Capital One gave me and I'm back to report what happened. Unfortunately I don't think what I learned was very helpful. 

When I called it was a robo-system that asked if I wanted to opt out of an account review and I answered yes. The reply from the computer was: "Okay you're opted out of the account review. Goodbye". 

I was thinking it would probably be a human who took my call and I had a few questions to ask so I called the number on the back of the card and spoke to a CSR.  My main question (that I wasn't really expecting an answer to) was how much I needed to spend to keep my credit limit intact in the future. I also wanted to know how long I had to start to show increased spend on the card. I also wanted to know if this was something that could happen again and if so in how long it might be before they might start considering it agsin. I also wanted to know if I would get a warning (I actually thanked her for the warning I did just get) before they decided they were thinking about possibly CLDing me again in the future. 

I didn't really get any useful information and I don't think she really knew what I was asking. She was unable to say how much spend I needed to protect my current CL. She was very nice and told me not to worry several times and just to use the card more. Then she said to use it to pay all my bills and to buy all my groceries. Finally she said I should just use the card for everything I buy. But even as she said that she said not to worry about it because it would be fine. Oh well, at least I tried. 

I'm still trying to decide if I'm gonna use it more or close it on my own so I don't get a 2nd CLD on my reports. If I could get away with between $300 and $600 a month I would most likely leave it open. I've never averaged more than $650 a month on the card in the 4 yrs I've had it. I know the $100 a month I have been doing the last year or so was too low.

It's tough- I'm torn because I have a lot of other cards that are financially more rewarding to me. I've been trying to spread out my spend more but it's hard to resist using my AOD and other cards more. I try to use my Propel card more because they've been giving me SP CLI's pretty regularly and since I'm not applying for any new credit nowadays at least that gives me something to work on. My Venture is one of my oldest cards (It's the Big 04) and it was the first time I had gotten what I consider a really high credit limit (Hex standards not MyFICO standards). Plus the $59 AF is really nice too.

Anyway, pretty good problem to have in the scheme of things so I'm not complaining. Just conflicted.  

I have spent $350 on the card since I called them so I'm probably going to try to have my cake and eat it too. 

I will update if anything interesting happens with this card. 

[NYC_Fella]

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@Hex wrote:It’s my Venture card and it was approved in October of 2017 with $30K CL about 15 months after my BK7 was discharged. I was absolutely thrilled when I got approved for this card ... I have about $280K in total credit limits but I don’t want a second CLD on my reports. 

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I'm genuinely curious. How in the world did you get such high limits so soon after your BK discharge?

Also, how does a CLD affect your credit report (apart from increasing your utilization)?

[pinkandgrey]

How interesting. I've never seen an email like this. If you like this card, I guess just start using it heavily! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@Hex wrote:

). Plus the $59 AF is really nice too.

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While that is better than the normal fee, are you getting value for money vs a free 2% card?  Or do you transfer points to travel partners.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Hex wrote:

So on Friday afternoon I did call the phone number that Capital One gave me and I'm back to report what happened. Unfortunately I don't think what I learned was very helpful. 

When I called it was a robo-system that asked if I wanted to opt out of an account review and I answered yes. The reply from the computer was: "Okay you're opted out of the account review. Goodbye". 

I was thinking it would probably be a human who took my call and I had a few questions to ask so I called the number on the back of the card and spoke to a CSR.  My main question (that I wasn't really expecting an answer to) was how much I needed to spend to keep my credit limit intact in the future. I also wanted to know how long I had to start to show increased spend on the card. I also wanted to know if this was something that could happen again and if so in how long it might be before they might start considering it agsin. I also wanted to know if I would get a warning (I actually thanked her for the warning I did just get) before they decided they were thinking about possibly CLDing me again in the future. 

I didn't really get any useful information and I don't think she really knew what I was asking. She was unable to say how much spend I needed to protect my current CL. She was very nice and told me not to worry several times and just to use the card more. Then she said to use it to pay all my bills and to buy all my groceries. Finally she said I should just use the card for everything I buy. But even as she said that she said not to worry about it because it would be fine. Oh well, at least I tried. 

I'm still trying to decide if I'm gonna use it more or close it on my own so I don't get a 2nd CLD on my reports. If I could get away with between $300 and $600 a month I would most likely leave it open. I've never averaged more than $650 a month on the card in the 4 yrs I've had it. I know the $100 a month I have been doing the last year or so was too low.

It's tough- I'm torn because I have a lot of other cards that are financially more rewarding to me. I've been trying to spread out my spend more but it's hard to resist using my AOD and other cards more. I try to use my Propel card more because they've been giving me SP CLI's pretty regularly and since I'm not applying for any new credit nowadays at least that gives me something to work on. My Venture is one of my oldest cards (It's the Big 04) and it was the first time I had gotten what I consider a really high credit limit (Hex standards not MyFICO standards). Plus the $59 AF is really nice too.

Anyway, pretty good problem to have in the scheme of things so I'm not complaining. Just conflicted.  

I have spent $350 on the card since I called them so I'm probably going to try to have my cake and eat it too. 

I will update if anything interesting happens with this card. 

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Hate to break it to you, but spending 1-2% of $30k isn't going to change their minds. You're going to need to spend closer to 50%. Currently you're not even spending enough to to offset the annual fee. You'd have to more than double the amount.

[Hex]

@NYC_Fella 

I'm not sure how I got such good limits that soon after my BK discharge but I have a few theories about things that probably helped. 

I only had one credit card (a 5 month old cap1 QS1) when I filed and I paid it to zero before I filed. My lawyer told me she had to include it in my BK and I thought she had until I rechecked my paperwork about a year ago and I guess she didn't. The card had a $300 limit until a few days before I filed and then they gave me an automatic CLI to $2500. They closed it within days of my filing. They did not list it as included in BK they just listed it as closed by credit grantor. They gave me a new $300 card about a month later and it currently has a $2750 CL. Then I got a Kohl's card about 8 months later and 6 months after that they gave me a $15K QS (since PC'd to a grandfathered Savor card). Then about 8 months after that they gave me a new car loan with a great interest rate and finally about 10 months after that they gave me the the Venture card with the 30K limit. I was surprised about the $15K card but I was truly shocked about the $30K card. I think the high limits that Cap1 gave me helped me with getting all my other cards. When I got the Venture card the only non-Cap1 cards I had were a small securred local credit union card, a small Navy card, an Overstock store card and a small PenFed card. I think my not burning Cap1 in my BK (despite having had the opportunity) helped me with them later. I also have a Cap1 savings and checking account. The checking used to get a $125.00 a week direct deposit (that I used to pay my Cap1 cards) but I stopped the DD when they CLD'd my Savor card. 

I'm think my steady employment history and having decent and steadily increasing income helped a lot too. 

I have practiced AZEO religiously since I filed because I've always figured it can only help and each new and hopefully better card helps me to qualify for a new and better card. 

I have made sure to keep my debt to income ratio as low as possible and not counting rent the highest it has been is about 5% when I've had an active car loan. Right now it's <1% I think.

When I filled for BK I had been in the wilderness for so long that the BK 7 became the only derog on my report. I had to file because I had defaulted on a government loan and they had garnished my wages at one point (until I moved to a new job) and they kept intercepting my tax refunds. Naturally this was totally freaking me out so I had to file for BK. 

The only other thing I do that may or may not have helped me is to pay all my charges as soon as they post. I think Cap1 likes this and since I do this I think I pose about as small of a risk to them as is possible. I don't generate them any interest income but they always have their money back in few days and they get to keep all the swipe fees. The only bank I don't pay as it posts is Wells Fargo because I heard they might not like that and so I pay them in full once a month. 

I always do research before I apply for anything so I can try to avoid wasting hard pulls and being disappointed. 

I don't think a CLD affects your reports much or at all except for utilization like you said unless an underwriter actually looks at it and decides it's a warning flag of some sort. I do know that if you have a CLD your other creditors have access to that information.  

Sorry for the long reply but I think it's all pretty complicated and mostly a mystery. 

[Hex]

@Anonymous 

No historically I've just cashed in the points using the purchase eraser feature. I'm sure I'm losing money on this card but not very much and I did get a pretty nice SUB when I got it so there's that. I guess it's a matter of how much a $30K CL, 4 year old metal card with sentimental value is worth to me. I only have two other AF cards (both Navy Flagships) which are actually better cards in almost every way. I have have four 2% cards and the AOD 3% card so if I based things solely on current finances the Venture card isn't worth keeping. 

[NYC_Fella]

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@Hex wrote:

@NYC_Fella 

I'm not sure how I got such good limits that soon after my BK discharge but I have a few theories about things that probably helped. 

...

Sorry for the long reply but I think it's all pretty complicated and mostly a mystery. 

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Not at all. I appreciate your taking the time.

I think the difference is that I applied for and got a lot of crap cards like Credit One, Aspire, Indigo and the like before I applied to Capital One. They must have put me in a crappy bucket. I even had (and still have) a car loan with them but never got any love on CLIs. They said I didn't have enough usage but how much usage could I get out of a $300 SL? Anyway, I'm certainly happy that you have done so well with them.