# Capital One. You suck. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 30, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580 "2005-06-30T19:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/1 "2005-06-30T19:31:49Z")
I’ll admit, I was lured in by you. My mailbox received lots of mail from you and your pre-approvals. Many, many, pre-approvals. Six months of 0% APR? Why yes, that does sound delightful! A $39 annual fee? Well, my other cards don’t have any fees, but $39 ain’t that much. A high credit limit? OK, I give, I don’t even use a credit card that often, but I’m going on a couple trips ahead and it’s good to have another card for emergency’s sake. So, I apply online, get immediate approval and love showered on me and a couple days later, I get the card with Van Gogh on it. (It was that or kittens or flags or kittens waving flags). I stick it in my wallet and don’t give it a second thought for a while. Fast forward a couple weeks to today. I get my monthly credit bureau report and my scores have dropped. Quite significantly too. Experian, for one has dropped almost 40 points. Whaaaat? According to the report, I’ve got 99.8% of credit available on my cards. The reason, it turns out, is that on one of my cards the balance to limit ratio is too high. That card? Capital One. It’s showing its annual fee of $39 on my report and that’s it. It’s also not showing a limit. This is a nice little ding that knocked the score down. [And it’s not just me:](http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/morningnews/wgntv-news-123004glink,0,4822425.story?coll=wgntv-morning-news-1) > [@](#): > > If you use more than 30 percent of your available credit limit, it will drop your credit score. But watch out for credit cards like Capital One. It doesn’t report your available credit limit, just the balance you carry. > > To anyone who pulls a copy of your credit report, it’ll look like you’ve maxed out your Capital One card, even if you balance is just a few hundred dollars. That can drop your credit score by as much as 50 points and cause creditors to raise your interest rate on other debt you carry. > > “If you have good credit, you always have the ability to go to your creditor and ask them for a lower rate,” Mark says. > > According to Cardweb and other industry experts, Capital One is the only credit card company that does not report the maximum available credit limit that card holders have. Why do they do it? > > Capital One says the information is proprietary but if their good customers have artificially lower scores, it may keep them from being cherry-picked by other credit card companies. So fuck you, Capital One, for not letting me know this. I guess I should have done more investigation on this before, but grrr… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/2 "2005-06-30T19:34:05Z")
This kind of manoeuvre is why I do not do business with Capital One. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/3 "2005-06-30T19:35:17Z")
I had a Capital One card, used it, paid it off, told them to fuck off, and cut the card to ribbons. \ ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/4 "2005-06-30T19:50:33Z")
Capital One. I’ve seen the commercials on TV, but all I remember is ‘No’. I guess that’s all that anyone needs to know about them. [hijack (Can I hijack a thread so early?)] Capital One looks to have some competition coming up with the news that Bank of America bought MBNA. That’s a major consolidation of suck. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/5 "2005-06-30T20:00:54Z")
Holy shit, that’s totally fucked. Now I’m glad we didn’t get one! Lot of help that would be for two people trying to raise their credit . . . ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/6 "2005-06-30T20:54:34Z")
Are they reporting the high limit in lieu of the maximum credit limit? That is, the most you’ve ever had charged up on that card at one time? I’ve heard that in these situations you can charge up a whole lot one month, then pay it all off immediately. The “high limit” number is what the credit bureaus will calculate on in the absence of a reported “credit limit”. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/7 "2005-06-30T21:15:50Z")
They must be as my high limit on it is $39.00. Here’s what it looks like: > [@](#): > > Account Name: CAP ONE BK > Account Number: 4XXXXXXXXXXXXX > Acct Type: Credit Card - Revolving Terms > Acct Status: Open > Monthly Payment: $15.00 > Date Open: 6/1/2005 > Balance: $39.00 > Terms: Revolving > High Balance: $39.00 > Limit: > Past Due: > Payment Status: Current > Comments: Whereas all of the other cards have the high balance, they also have the limit which is what the report is figuring the fico score off of. My other two cards (One with a $6.00 balance and the other with $150.00) are well below their limits. But since the score is based on individual instead of collective available credit limits, I’m getting dinged by Crapital One’s scheme. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/8 "2005-06-30T22:58:58Z")
I applied for and recieved a Capital One card a couple of years ago. The intention was to have a separate card for my business expenses to make tax time a bit easier. I put my office as my billing address. Now this is an office that I share with about twenty other people and the mail comes to the front desk and is distributed from there. The amount of junk mail I started to recieve was absolutely astonishing. I would get at least one piece of junk mail a day trying to get me to sign up for all sorts of dubious credit arrangements. I figured it would slow down, but for a year I recieved something every day. It became an embarassment as most of it was offers to repair people’s credit. My credit is good, but I am sure I looked like a chronic deadbeat. I was thrilled to close that acccount and be rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/9 "2005-06-30T23:17:23Z")
I love my CitiBank card. No annual fee. Low percentage rate. Cashback bonus rewards. CapitolOne is a great big [del]poo[/del] shit flinging monkey in my book. Their many times weekly “offers” don’t even make it from the mailbox to inside the house. A trash can beside the garage is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/10 "2005-06-30T23:20:05Z")
Not that I like the Capital One maneuver, but shouldn’t some ire be reserved for a credit scoring model that lowers your score more than one full point for each dollar of this reported balance? ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/11 "2005-07-01T02:26:49Z")
😕 :mad: Fuckers! That’s why I’m getting declined for other cards! Oh, we are so broken up Capital One! ---
**Author:** ![ScoobyTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@ScoobyTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScoobyTX)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/12 "2005-07-01T03:16:21Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > Their many times weekly “offers” don’t even make it from the mailbox to inside the house. A trash can beside the garage is a good thing. Just a friendly suggestion- those offer mailings should be shredded, not just tossed into an outside trashcan. They are identity theft waiting to happen. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/13 "2005-07-01T04:37:37Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > I. I get my monthly credit bureau report and my scores have dropped. Quite significantly too. Experian, for one has dropped almost 40 points. Whaaaat? According to the report, I’ve got 99.8% of credit available on my cards. The reason, it turns out, is that on one of my cards the balance to limit ratio is too high. That card? Capital One. It’s showing its annual fee of $39 on my report and that’s it. It’s also not showing a limit. This is a nice little ding that knocked the score down. > . But- just because FICO or whoever the hell it is has no common sense and sues a silly-assed and meaningless system to assign you a “score”- why is this Capital One’s fault? The fault really lies in the FICO point system, which seems to have no\* direct\* basis is reality. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/14 "2005-07-01T04:42:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But- just because FICO or whoever the hell it is has no common sense and sues a silly-assed and meaningless system to assign you a “score”- why is this Capital One’s fault? > > The fault really lies in the FICO point system, which seems to have no\* direct\* basis is reality. It’s Capital One’s fault because they know this and **purposefully** take advantage of it as opposed to the other credit cards I have which don’t. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/15 "2005-07-01T06:22:39Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Not that I like the Capital One maneuver, but shouldn’t some ire be reserved for a credit scoring model that lowers your score more than one full point for each dollar of this reported balance? This was my thought as well. We have 3 corporations that pretty much control the quality of your life when it comes to the big things. Housing, car, employment. And if they get something wrong? Now you’re fucked. You have to figure out which hoops to jump through to see what they have on you. (Free once a year, _IF_ you know where to go) If something is wrong and really drags you down through no fault of your own? Fuck you. Spend the next year trying to fix it. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to trash your financial standing until we get around to fixing it. Recompense for our screw-up? Fuck you. Make enough noise and we’ll, ahem, make a few more mistakes. I don’t know what the book’s plot device was, but based on the end goal protrayed in the movie, I’d blow Tyler Durden. I’d even swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/16 "2005-07-01T13:58:24Z")
I’ve had nothing but problems with Capital One. They ain’t in my wallet any more… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/17 "2005-07-01T17:09:31Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > It’s Capital One’s fault because they know this and **purposefully** take advantage of it as opposed to the other credit cards I have which don’t. How do you know they do this _on purpose_ to hurt your credit score? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/18 "2005-07-01T17:13:40Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > (Free once a year, _IF_ you know where to go) [www.annualcreditreport.com](http://www.annualcreditreport.com) I’m going to set it up to get the reports every four months, so I’m never more than four months behind on my information. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/19 "2005-07-01T17:23:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > How do you know they do this _on purpose_ to hurt your credit score? 😕 Read the link in my OP: \*Capital One says the information is proprietary but if their good customers have artificially lower scores, it may keep them from being cherry-picked by other credit card companies. \* ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580/20 "2005-07-01T17:42:24Z")
Oh fuck. I just got one of these with a $3K limit. I did this because I wanted to have an alternative to my MBNA card which has a $2.5K limit. I am currently carrying no balance on either of the cards (well, I did charge up $900+ on the CapOne card, but after reading all this crap I paid it off from my checking account.) I just checked my FICO score and, sure enough, in the last two months since getting my CapOne card, it’s gone down from 685 to 666. The whole point for me getting the CapOne card was to increase my available credit and hopefully inch my credit score back up to the 700s, where it belongs. What’s my best option now? I suppose there’s no way I, as a consumer, can directly report my credit limit to the credit agencies, I suppose? And with a 666 score and recent ping for the CapOne credit check, I don’t think CitiBank or BankOne will be lining up to do business with me, will they? Is it wise for me to close this account immediately? I’d like to have an extra $3K in case of emergencies, but not if my FICO is being completely screwed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capital-one-you-suck/310580.md?page=2)