@Anonymous wrote:
Looking for advice from the experts who have figured out what Capital One wants to see before granting credit limit increases.
I have had my Capital One account for almost two decades. Started up with them while I was in college, and have had 100% on time payments since it opened. Some years I paid only the minimums, and some years I PIF, but never a late payment. I don't remember when, but at some point I upgraded it to the Venture card, which is what I have now. The card was utilized pretty heavily last year, when my husband had an extended stay in the hospital and was out of work for a time. But again, never a late payment. Since the beginning of the year, I have paid down the balance significantly, and have asked for CLIs since February, only to get constantly declined.
Currently the card it at: $5491/$10,900
At it's highest, I believe the balance got to around $9k
I'm not denying I've utilized it heavily in the past. And honestly, I don't need a CLI. We are in the process of paying off both of our credit cards, as the husband got a nice promotion/raise at work and I'm ready to get rid of all debt. Personally I hate Cap1 these days, and I'm going to ditch them when the balance is paid off. Right now, I am just looking for more ways to boost our mortage scores a bit more. We are building a house, and our loan was already approved, but we are trying to raise our scores a bit more before they run credit again closer to the home's completion.
I guess I wouldn't be so surprised at the denials, except my only other major card, the CSP, is throwing CLIs at me left and right without me even asking for them. I haven't paid it down nearly as much as my Cap1, and I'm up to a CL of $16,800 with them. So what does Cap1 want to see before giving the CLI? I know what the CLI denial letter says, but it's very vague. Do they want multiple payments each month? No activity on the card at all? Do I have to pay the dang thing off completely before they'll give me a CLI?
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Welcome to the insane task of trying to figure out Cap-1's "logic" and I'm kind of giving them undeserved credit for saying its logical. The only "experts" that could help open the door to the how and why of Cap-1 are sitting in Cap-1's executive office playing this sadistic game. Now before you think I'm just dumping on Cap-1 let me say I understand your frustration and I've been there too.
I've posted in the past as how Cap-1 treated me as a "yawn" customer and we currrently still use them as one of our primary bank accounts with direct deposit - zero bounced checks, zero late payments, zero negitive issues of any kind on the various cards my wife and I have had through Cap-1. I was "stuck" at $4k CL and the DW was stuck at $8k. The final straw came when a few years ago I had $748k in saving account for over 6 months (I was settling an estate, it was not all my money but it was in my name only and NOT an escrow account) Cap-1 would not budge on a CLI for my $4k card. Note that I have over 2 dz quality cards with combined limits in excess of $400k with a history of over 40 years (oldest card is an Amex dated 1978)
The solution is/was not to do business with Cap-1 and it took us a long time to figure this out, but today we have ZERO Cap-1 credit card accounts - we are happy with that choice, Cap-1 could care less. I also would not put too much weight into the reasons listed on a decline from Cap-1, once their computer systems bucket you and decides "no" the reasons are pretty random.
As far as increasing your scores, obviously getting your Cap-1 card paid down to less than $2k will help, but I also think since you have 6 months to go before your new mortgage that you can afford to open another credit card from maybe BoA or AmEx (I'm careful to not depend on a single lender for my cards). I don't believe that 6 months out a single inquiry will hurt your scores or mortgage approval and it will diversify your credit profile both in lenders and account mix (common opinion is one should have 3 credit cards).
Congrats on the new home - we've built several and I know it's both exciting and frustrating, but it's always been worth it in the long run. As far as Cap-1 there is a line at the end of the movie "War Games" (1983 version) that says "the only way to win is to not play the game" which to me fits perfectly with Cap-1 credit cards.
