beware using Capital One's online Card Lab

[Anonymous]

I'm not saying don't use it, but I'm saying that beware of the information that Capital One is collecting on you during the time that you're using Capital One's Card Lab service.

[The whole article is excellent, but this is the part of the article that concerns Capital One's and their Card Lab]

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"What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?"
By CHARLES DUHIGG; May 17, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17credit-t.html

Meanwhile, as they prepare for an uncertain future, the card companies are scurrying to find the next breakthroughs in credit-card psychology. Take, for instance, Capital One’s Card Lab, a festive Internet site that lets customers design their own cards. I ordered one with my son’s photo on it.

The site is interactive. If I indicate I don’t want to pay an annual fee, for instance, the Web site tells me I must pay a higher interest rate. If I want a low rate, the site tells me I can’t get any rewards points. In essence, the Web site offers a series of choices that determine the relative values I place on different options. Capital One can watch as I navigate the site, learning more and more about me. The industry doesn’t have to drop rats in a maze anymore. We’ve started going there on our own.

“Card Lab is at some level an enormous real-time, ongoing experiment,” says Jack Forestell, senior vice president of marketing and analytics at Capital One. By observing people’s choices and then tracking how they use their cards, the company has learned who is more willing to pay annual fees and who wants airline miles badly enough to pay higher interest rates. “We’ve learned interesting things, like people are more loyal to cards that have their kids’ photos on them,” Forestell says.

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[Anonymous]

REFERING TO THE REFERENCE ABOVE:
"What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?"
By CHARLES DUHIGG; May 17, 2009

I dont think May 17, 2009 has arrived yet!

[cobaltnv]

As you mentioned the whole article is very interesting. What I took from the article is that all credit cards al looking at this type of information CapOne is not unique. 

Personally I do not have a problem with it. The ccc are making large unsecured loans available to people. It makes good economic sense to attempt to determine which people are most likely to pay it back, which are going to default (and which are going to payback the debt late with fees/high interest etc). Basically this information when looked at along with a Fico score gives the ccc some idea of what is going on. 

That all being said, it is certainly a slippery slope they are going down looking at individual purchases and stores that customers are shopping at.

[cobaltnv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

REFERING TO THE REFERENCE ABOVE:
"What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?"
By CHARLES DUHIGG; May 17, 2009

I dont think May 17, 2009 has arrived yet!

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No May 17th has not arrived yet, but this article is available online early and will be published officially in the NY TImes Magazine this sunday (May 17th) 

[marty56]

I would never apply for a Capitol 1 card but if I had one I would upload a picture of Dave Ramsey cutting up a Capitol 1 card just to see what they would do.

[Itsmeagain]

ROFLMAO!! . . . now THAT's funny . . . .

[2wheel]

they would probably use it... My brother uploaded a picture of his wife in a bikini and they used it...... LOL

I dont think they really care as long as you use the card...