i applied for a C1 card last week to take advantage of 0% apr for a year. after pulling all 3 of my credit reports (!), seeing FICO(FAKO?) 700+ on each of them, they gave me a credit limit of a whopping $1,000. what's up with that? they have all of my reports. the can see that i spend about $6000 per month using credit cards, and that i pay the balance in full each month.
are they just trying to get me to not use the card or something? this card also happens to give miles away - did they look at my spending and say "hey, this guy will get free flights pretty quick, let's try to get rid of him" ?
or is there some sort of red flag on me that i'm not seeing? (about 100k total in open lines, no negatives, 700+ FICO, 6 figure income (yay!), 6 figure educational debt(boo!), but 30 years to pay it off at 1 point something % (yay!).)
i called to cancel before even activating the card, and it took at least 10 minutes to navigate to where i could get a real person on the line. now i see why everyone says that C1 sucks.
crappy one(capital one) credit card is really suck, don't expect they will give you high CL, and they never raise your CL on request. Worst credit provider ever.
dynein
Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 6:52p
hs said: do a search
thanks for the response, hs. however, i dont think that either of those threads is on point. both are about people trying to repair or build their credit, getting low limits from c1, and never getting the limits raised. that is not my situation. i have good credit, and am not just starting out.
in those threads, a guy chimes in and says "i just got a cap1 card, $5000 limit, 0% apr for 6 months." so it seems that c1 does in fact give out higher limits. what made them decide to NOT give me a higher limit? that's what i'm trying to figure out.
didYOUsearch
Cranky Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 7:17p
i have extensive credit history, never any derogatory info, and lines of 50k+ per issuer, cap one gave me $3000CL.
Its very rare they give out a large CL, or even a CL comparable to your other cards. Large Cap 1 CLs have only been reported a few times in this forum. Most others get $300-1000.
If you arent able to game them (ie by requesting huge BT in connection with app) our chances of a decent CL seem to be reduced further, and if you get one of these pathetic CLs, you might as well forget about them
slimcustomer
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 7:28p
I responded to a preapproved offer from Capital One recently and recieved a $23,000 CL. It would be interesting to see what their actual critera are for handing out credit lines.
slimcustomer said: I responded to a preapproved offer from Capital One recently and recieved a $23,000 CL. It would be interesting to see what their actual critera are for handing out credit lines.
Have you also had a triple hard pull from Capital None ?
slimcustomer
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 9:06p
g10ny said: Have you also had a triple hard pull from Capital None ?
Yes, I got the standard triple whammy.
clifford
Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 9:46p
My friend in the college got his first credit card from Capital one. His credit limit is $200.
vamos
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 10:07p
i've had a C1 card for about 7yrs now and until last week the limit was $1000. called up to see if there was anything they could do about upgrading the card, giving me a better limit(useless coz cap-1 doesnt report the limit anyway!) and the csr managed to give me $700 for a $1.7k CL. whee!. no BT offers, no rewards, no nothing.
the card is totally, utterly useless and i'd cancel it except that its now 7yrs old and i dont want to erase that history. although i'm rather ashamed to have it on my report next to my phat BofA, Citi and AMEX lines .
I had a similar problem with Best Buy who's credit card was handled by Household Bank at the time.
I have a FICO score of over 750 with all three credit reporting firms, high income, little debt, NEVER a late payment and we applied for a card two years ago at Best Buy to purchase a large screen TV and get the special no interest financing.
I was STUNNED when they offered us only a $1000 limit! Several cards in my wallet with no balance and $5,000 and 10,000 limits and Best Buy will only give me $1000???
We ended up splitting the charge on the Best Buy card and a MasterCard to at least get some benefit from the finanacing deal, but couldn't believe it.
My Mom just got a $2000 CL from CapOne about two weeks ago.. and her credit reports are atrocious (bankruptcy 2 years ago, 80% utilization, and a previous CapOne account was even IIB!)
When I applied a year ago (with 720ish FICO, 5% utilization) I was only given a $500 CL. Typical Cap1.
dynein
Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 10:48p
underthecovers said: My Mom just got a $2000 CL from CapOne about two weeks ago.. and her credit reports are atrocious (bankruptcy 2 years ago, 80% utilization, and a previous CapOne account was even IIB!)
When I applied a year ago (with 720ish FICO, 5% utilization) I was only given a $500 CL. Typical Cap1.
that's interesting. i've never really thought about it that much before, but it sounds like c1 is actively seeking a different segment that most other providers - namely, people with questionable credit, who are likely to carry a balance and spend a little too much, but not likely to default and file bankruptcy.
this is interesting because most credit card companies do the opposite - their strategy is to target people with good credit, who always pay on time and rarely carry a balance. the reason that they offer Cash Back and all of the other benefits that they do is that statistically, people who pay their bills in full on time every month are likely to go about $10k into credit card debt at least once in their lives. (new baby, midlife crisis, whatever.) when you finally do take the plunge, you're going to charge up whatever card happens to be in your wallet at the time. the benefits are all designed to keep the card in your wallet for as much time as possible. (eg CashBack, but only if you get to $50 minimum.)
from what i've read about cap1, they don't much like college students (most providers do, b/c most students get into cc debt trouble but their parents bail them out in the end, so it's low risk) and they don't much like people with great credit, like me and some posters here. who they do like are people who have had credit trouble in the past, are at high utilization, and are likely to carry a balance.
this could possibly help to explain why they do a triple pull - since the reports aren't all updated at the time, and since many creditors dont report your "last payment" amount, a triple pull lets them get a more accurate picture of whether or not you do carry a balance.
anyone think im right? anyone think im nuts?
didYOUsearch
Cranky Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 11:04p
actually cap1 is very agressive in targeting the college crowd and first timers with their $300 CL cards with annual fees
dynein
Member
posted: Dec. 10, 2005 @ 11:15p
didYOUsearch said: actually cap1 is very agressive in targeting the college crowd and first timers with their $300 CL cards with annual fees
300 seems so low though, and from what i've read, they never raise limits. my first card in college gave me $500, and a couple of years later i was 20 years old, had 4 cards, the highest limit being $5000. that $500 card that i initially received (citibank) had raised my limit to $2000. like many college students, i was min trouble and couldn't pay my bills, and my parents helped me out.
if cap 1 gives only $300 credit limits and never raises them, that doesnt sound very aggressive to me. of course, cap 1 cards have that annual fee, so maybe that's what they aim for.
but for the life of me, i can't figure out how anyone smart enough to get into college would pay an annual fee for a credit card. on college campuses, there are people on every street corner giving out freebies like tshirts and water bottles to get you to sign up for their no-fee card. when i was in college, i heard more than one person say "i dont wnat to do laundry, im gonna go try to find a citibank guy."
i have a Cap1 for a while. i get 1% back on all my purchases. if i remember right, i got a lower CL @ 1st. it is up to 7000 now i think. it is the lowerest compared to my DIS & AMEX
anon94305
Member
posted: Dec. 11, 2005 @ 12:29a
Early on, when I had little credit history, Cap1 issued me a $3000 CL card.
I recently applied for a reward card from Cap1 and was rejected. I have >700 credit score and other CC companies have given me cards without problem.
Hope that makes you feel better because it seems they are targeting people with less than stellar credit.
mbaker4096
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Dec. 11, 2005 @ 2:54a
didYOUsearch said: Its very rare they give out a large CL, or even a CL comparable to your other cards. Large Cap 1 CLs have only been reported a few times in this forum. Most others get $300-1000.I'm one of the lucky ones...I have a $17,100 CL with CapitalOne. Go figger.
underthecovers said: My Mom just got a $2000 CL from CapOne about two weeks ago.. and her credit reports are atrocious (bankruptcy 2 years ago, 80% utilization, and a previous CapOne account was even IIB!)
When I applied a year ago (with 720ish FICO, 5% utilization) I was only given a $500 CL. Typical Cap1.
Apparently, they have a proprietary score randomizer which will apply a .5-2x factor to all the scores. I can't see any other way they could do what is being reported and base it on anything other than a whim.
anon94305 said: Early on, when I had little credit history, Cap1 issued me a $3000 CL card.
I recently applied for a reward card from Cap1 and was rejected. I have >700 credit score and other CC companies have given me cards without problem.
Hope that makes you feel better because it seems they are targeting people with less than stellar credit.
Crapital One is and always will be a subprime lender...they make WAY more money in soaking their members with fees than they do on transactions (so why would you expect them to change?)
AugustFour
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Dec. 11, 2005 @ 1:36p
dynein said: i applied for a C1 card last week to take advantage of 0% apr for a year. after pulling all 3 of my credit reports (!), seeing FICO(FAKO?) 700+ on each of them, they gave me a credit limit of a whopping $1,000. what's up with that? they have all of my reports. the can see that i spend about $6000 per month using credit cards, and that i pay the balance in full each month.
This is why:
The whole business model of the credit card industry is built around outstanding debt. This is the only industry that calls people deadbeats when they pay all their bills every month.
I got a $500 or $600 limit when I responded to an offer in the mail recently. Promptly cancelled it (though I advise against doing that based on the opinions here about credit scoring).
dynein
Member
posted: Dec. 11, 2005 @ 2:01p
CSRbuddy said: I got a $500 or $600 limit when I responded to an offer in the mail recently. Promptly cancelled it (though I advise against doing that based on the opinions here about credit scoring).
why do you advise against it? from what i understand, closing a new $500 account should have almost no negative impact on your credit score.
closing an account will lower your amt of total revolving debt. so if you closed a card with a high credit limit that may cause your debt % to go, and that could have a negative impact. if you close an account that's been open for a very long time, that can have a negative impact as you wouldn't have as lengthy a history.
unless im missing something, i can't see any negative impact of immediately closing a $500 account for most people.
catonis
Happy Member
posted: Dec. 11, 2005 @ 2:20p
I recently had been receiving many offers for cap1. One had 15 months 0% with CL up to 30K. I applied (with 7K transfer request) and was given the full 30K. my next highest limit is 29K.
dynein said: CSRbuddy said: I got a $500 or $600 limit when I responded to an offer in the mail recently. Promptly cancelled it (though I advise against doing that based on the opinions here about credit scoring).
why do you advise against it? from what i understand, closing a new $500 account should have almost no negative impact on your credit score.
closing an account will lower your amt of total revolving debt. so if you closed a card with a high credit limit that may cause your debt % to go, and that could have a negative impact. if you close an account that's been open for a very long time, that can have a negative impact as you wouldn't have as lengthy a history.
unless im missing something, i can't see any negative impact of immediately closing a $500 account for most people.
You are right. Closing it probably had very little effect on my score at the present considering it is a new line (closing in effect increased the average age bringing me back to where I started) and has a small limit. The damage was already done when I applied for the card and the inquiry(s) were made. However it's important to keep an eye on the long-term. Most likely I may go back to Capital One someday (though I don't like to admit it ) and if instead I had just been patient and kept my card, I could build up a larger limit over time albeit slowly. This will ultimately lower my utilization all else being equal and possibly empower me for the BT game later on. I guess the main point is that most of the credit score damage was already done by applying, and closing would likely make little to no difference to my score in the short run, but keeping the card can improve it in the longer term through various ways (e.g. lower overall individual and total utilizations).
bafman
Thrifty Member
posted: Dec. 13, 2005 @ 6:14p
Cap One gave me a 15K line with a 0% offer recently. My FICO is low 700s and I already had about 20K outstanding on other 0% offers.
I did have a previous Cap One miles card for a fee years (6K limit) which I charged heavily on (many I bond purchases) ... they may have weighed that in the decision.
First, you need to understand what will be on your credit report.
1. C1 CANNOT see you spend $6,000 per month from your credit report. On your credit report, there only shows your CURRENT balance of each card. 2. C1 CANNOT tell you pay off your balance every month. Again, all they can see is your current balance of the accounts. This means if you spend $6,000 per month and pay off after you get billed, every month you'll repeatedly have $6,000 balance on your credit report.
Some creditors will limit the CL when they see on your credit report that you already have a large amount of credit. In addition, you are repaying a big education loan and a 30-year mortage, not to mention you may also have high credit utilization on the other accounts. Even though the impact of mortgage and student loan is minimal to your credit score, the amount of your credit line is really at the creditor's discretion.
dynein said: i applied for a C1 card last week to take advantage of 0% apr for a year. after pulling all 3 of my credit reports (!), seeing FICO(FAKO?) 700+ on each of them, they gave me a credit limit of a whopping $1,000. what's up with that? they have all of my reports. the can see that i spend about $6000 per month using credit cards, and that i pay the balance in full each month.
are they just trying to get me to not use the card or something? this card also happens to give miles away - did they look at my spending and say "hey, this guy will get free flights pretty quick, let's try to get rid of him" ?
or is there some sort of red flag on me that i'm not seeing? (about 100k total in open lines, no negatives, 700+ FICO, 6 figure income (yay!), 6 figure educational debt(boo!), but 30 years to pay it off at 1 point something % (yay!).)
i called to cancel before even activating the card, and it took at least 10 minutes to navigate to where i could get a real person on the line. now i see why everyone says that C1 sucks.
I started Cap One with 500.. Now I have 7500... whats wrong with building it over time?
dynein
Member
posted: Dec. 13, 2005 @ 8:21p
tazmania99 said: In addition, you are repaying a big education loan and a 30-year mortage,
what, i have a mortgage? and a 30 year at that? my god!!! when did this start? i hope i'm not in trouble, because i haven't been making payments or anything. if you don't mind telling me, where is this house that i have the alleged mortgage on?
the amount of your credit line is really at the creditor's discretion. no wai! are you sure about that? i thought that people got to pick their own credit lines.
jpsmoney
Ancient Member
posted: Dec. 13, 2005 @ 8:37p
they'll gradually raise it over time without you asking. I started with $1k limit, now I have %7k.
mdg1977
Tired Member
posted: Dec. 13, 2005 @ 8:39p
I just applied and got a $20,000 credit limit with Cap1 but only $6k with Discover Card. Seems pretty arbitrary to me.
CreditGuy
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 13, 2005 @ 9:07p
In October 2002 I applied for two CapitalOne cards on the same day. My CL was $5,000 on one and $20,000 on the other.
On November 29th I applied for a Cap1 Business Card (pre-approved mailed offer--"up to" $20,000). On the same day, I called and asked for credit limit increases on the other two cards. The CSR I spoke with informed me that several years ago Cap1 changed its policy and, essentially, did not grant consumer-requested CLIs. I received two letters within a week stating the same thing...and denying my two requests.
Today I received a response to my application for that Business Card. Granted--with $20,000 CL.
I think these banks are all nuts. I can't get a CLI on a $5,000 Cap1 card, but I can get $20,000 (0% for 12 months) in NEW credit?
It's interesting reading the comments in this thread and all the guesses about why Cap1 makes its decisions. None of the conclusions or guesses or limits presented show any sort of a consistent pattern. It all does look random.
i have $5000.00 never tried to get an increase from them....i am with them since 2002 and i dont use this card much
meditator
Member
posted: Dec. 17, 2005 @ 4:08p
when i was new to this country, capital one sent me preapproved letters every month. about two years ago when my FICO was about 740, capital one rejected me.
Edit: I never owned a Capital One card. One of friends responded to their preapproved offer and was given $50 limit. It was raised to $500 a year later.
JonBird
Member
posted: Dec. 18, 2005 @ 2:40a
My first CapOne card (received 9/2003) came with a 22,100 line, a FIXED interest rate for purchases and BT at 4.99%, no fees for BT, and no fee purchase checks attached to every statement. Pretty sweet deal. Whenever I call the reps always perk up when they see the great terms (funny actually). I rarely carry a balance on it, but I frequently use it to move money around. My score at the time was low-mid 700 and about 20,000 outstanding CC debt. Perfect 10 yr payment record on my report. Income about 100K. Seems like they wanted to grant me just enough credit to move all my other CC debt to it. It's still my highest personal CC limit.
Once my overall CC utilization temporarily shot way up and they called me wanting to lower my limit. They asked how much I could pay off right away and then lowered the limit to just above that amount shortly thereafter (about 12,000 if I recall). They said after I paid it down I could write or fax them back in a month or so and they would restore the limits again (I did, and they did). That's the worst thing I can say about them. Prime rate has gone up so much since 2003 that I thought for sure they would jack the fixed rate but they have not. They have been a good issuer and I'm surprised to hear about how crappy they are from other posters.
I recently did app-o-ramma and accepted a business CC from them for the 0% intro offer. The limit was only $7000, while BOA extended 25,000 to me the same day. Their's was the smallest line I received from the app-o-ramma.
Getting off topic a bit, the business card they gave me has a 60 day grace period, which means I could make a purchase and not have to pay for it for up to 90 days interest free. Can anyone think of any clever way to leverage that? The cash rewards aren't anything special so I don't think I will have any use for it after the 0% period. Right now I pay all my purchases in full every month on other various rewards cards.
didYOUsearch
Cranky Member
posted: Dec. 18, 2005 @ 2:46a
JonBird said: Getting off topic a bit, the business card they gave me has a 60 day grace period, which means I could make a purchase and not have to pay for it for up to 90 days interest free..are you certain about that?
The flex 60 and flex 90 cards (which have been discussed in this forum, you may have another new C1 version???) have ROLLING grace periods, which means each purchase gets exactly 60 days grace, and not one day more, regardless of when the charge hits on the statement cycle. So no purchase gets any extra days of grace depending on when it hits the card. Be sure to double check that
Skipping 11 Messages...
didYOUsearch
Cranky Member
posted: Jan. 13, 2006 @ 4:08p
cak144 said: I have several Capital One cards and get the no fee purchase checks attached to the statement all the time. I opened up a couple of business cards (from pre-approved offers). I have had these for several months but haven't yet received any purchase checks with the statements. Has anyone who has had a business card for any length of time received purchase checks with their statements?I often get no fee Cap 1 business checks for my biz card.
I cant confirm whether they print on statements bc I rarely use the card and dont get statements but once a year or so
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