see section further down about reporting credit limits -
Saturday, August 04, 2007 Capital One raising interest rate to 15.9% for all accounts?
Is Capital One increasing rates to 15.9% for everyone?
I was visiting friends in Santa Fe last week and I’ve spent several HOURS on the phone with Capital One. So my friend showed me the notice with changes in terms, including the rate increase to 15.9%.
It did not contain any mention of credit and when my friend called, she was told that although she had the “fixed” rate of 9.9% for life, their terms allow them to increase the rates for economic reasons.
HUH?
My friend’s only option was to CLOSE the account if she did not agree to the rate. Of course that would dramatically lower her FICO scores since it’s her only credit card and she had it for many years.
My advice:
Get other cards with better terms (you should have 3 - 5 open credit card accounts anyway) and unless Cap One is one of your newer accounts, use it only every few months and especially don’t carry a balance. As long as you pay your statement balance in full by the due date, the interest rate is not an issue.
If you currently have a substantial balance that you can NOT pay off and you have other accounts and Cap One is not substantially older than your other credit card accounts, you might want to notify them of your option not to agree to the rate increase and let them close the account.
If your credit scores are important, be sure to analyze all 3 credit reports before closing the account or opening new accounts—you can seriously lower your FICO scores.
Please post if you have a Cap One account with a rate lower than 15.9% that’s NOT increasing.
Interestingly, I just had a credit bureau employee write that Cap One has to report the credit limits as of 8/1 and I already saw the limits on TU for two Cap One charge-offs.
How is the rate increase related to the reporting of credit limits?
Is Cap One expecting financial problems due to many customers accepting competitors’ offers after the Cap One limits are reported and credit scores increase to qualify for competitors’ cards with better terms?
On another note, dealing with Capital One has been horrible.
As I posted, one of my Cap One accounts was fraudulently used. Friday a week ago I received an “important” VM from Capital One. It contained a call back # and a “code.”
I went through the hassle of calling the number, had to enter the code, only to get a message telling me that it’s so incredibly important to complete the fraud docs they mailed to me regarding the unauthorized charges.
Capital One had no duty to assist me with tracking down the person who fraudulently used my account a few years ago. I already wasted considerable time on the phone reporting the fraudulent charges, see my previous postings. So why is this important?
More problems using Capital One credit cards
We left for Santa Fe last week. After the 3rd gasoline charge for a total of about $130, Capital One declined a $25 dinner charge at a truck stop.
I spent 1.5 hours on the phone with Capital One to get the card reactivated.
This is not a typo. I was transferred so many times, I lost count. One time I gave all my info to someone in the fraud department, only to have that idiot transfer me to an automated system to enter my account info. After I entered my account # and whatever, I got to another person who knew nothing about the issues, AGAIN demanded all my info and then told me she could do nothing for me, I had to be transferred to the fraud department.
Eventually they wanted to know how long I’d be on vacation, which states I’ll be in, etc.
How about this for a new policy:
BEFORE you use your Capital One credit card, CALL them!
Make your daily call to Capital One and tell them where and how you’re going to use the card to avoid declines.
Message Edited by dooodooo on
08-07-2007 11:39 AM
I just read the statement that came today and it talks about different codes (that they can raise the APR either monthly or quarterly) but I don't have any code. 