capitalone merge lines and reopen?

[Anonymous]

my first capital one platnium card has been open almost two years now, it started at $900 and has only gone up to $1600.  i have used it and paid it off quite a bit but the increases have been twice and marginal... the other attempts have been denied?  about four months ago i signed up for a venture card online, boom.  approved for a $15,000 credit line.  i go back to the $1600 card and ask for an increase, denied.  i went to do a credit limit increase on either of them[i normally try every 90 days...] and both denied.  i went and signed up for a capital one spark card, boom approved for a $5,000 limit.

my thought is to see about combing card#1 and card#2 into one line of credit.  whatever card they close out, wait three months and signup for the card again and see what happens?  what do you think?  i dont understand how they will give me new lines but not increase existing ones even though i am using, paying, and have a decent credit score [karma says 700-720]  

[pipeguy]

Welcome to the forum - Cap-1 tends to "bucket" certain cards into sub-prime or starter cards and prime cards, they also tend not to mix the two usually forever. I know it seems strange, but Cap- would rather issue you a prime card rather than upgrade an existing sub-prime. Perhaps this has to do with how they group their "receivables" into various priced bonds although other lenders don't seem to follow this lending model. 

Cap-1 along with almost all lenders will not "reopen" a closed account and many won't open a new "same version" card for at least several years. Since Venture is a consumer card and Spark is a business card, I'm fairly sure they won't combine those two products.

You can always call and ask but fair warning Cap-1 credit representatives basically read off a script and have virtually no leverage to go off script (ask for a supervisor which may or may not help).  

[Anonymous]

what about merging the platinum and the venture to the venture, then opening a venture one card or a capital one savor or another?

[pipeguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

what about merging the platinum and the venture to the venture, then opening a venture one card or a capital one savor or another?

Call and ask if you have options, any answer I offer is speculation - Cap-1 is a bit "strange" at times, so best of luck. 

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[xaximus]

I would also check online. Sometimes the people on chat are able to do the PC as well.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I would see if I could merge the Platinum into the Venture, since the latter is your "prime" card. Last month, I merged a Platinum MC card that I'd gotten in February 2017 and PC'ed to Quicksilver, then CLI'ed to $6,000 from $3,500 (SL was $3,000 and I hadn't gotten any CLI's aside from Credit Steps until March of this year) into a Quicksilver Visa Signature with a $10,000 SL, thus creating a QS Visa with $16,000 on it. Make sure you check for any available CLI on the Venture before doing the combo so you don't, as they say, leave money on the table, because once you complete the merge, you can't do a CLI request for another six months.

[Anonymous]

yep!  i did the cli and got the denial response.  the only downside to merging is the venture is a new card, isnt duration of credit also a deciding factor on building credit?

[HeavenOhio]

Welcome, @Anonymous.

A closed account should remain on your report and continue to contribute to your account age stats for years to come. Occasionally, they drop early, but that'a very unusual.

Is the Platinum your oldest card? If so, how old is your second oldest card? The important stat here is AoOA (age of oldest account). If AoOA doesn't change by much by the time the account drops, it's no biggie to lose the tradline.

You should be able to combine the Platinum card into the Venture right now, provided that the Platinum's balance is at zero. You won't be able to combine the Venture into the Platinum, however, until the card is six months old. Also, Capital One only allows one new card to be issued in a six month period.

[Anonymous]

if i recall the difference of age to the two cards is about 4-5 months.. i just merged the credit lines.  now the new credit line is $16,600.  balance on there is about $3,000.  my new capitalone spark card will be landing in a week too.  i went to the mailbox today and had a preapproval for a citi double cash card and applied online.  i was approved but was a lame limit of $500?  last night i applied for an amazon.com credit card and it did not instantly approve me online and said i will be in review.  i am guessing i will likely be denied.  so now ill hold out another 6 months.  i used to have great credit about 10 years ago but my life went to hell in a hand basket and i had to wait for everything to fall off.  i never claimed bankruptcy.  everything has but my score is still only 680-710 depending on the agency..... which sucks because back then i had an 820 and about $70k in lines.