Why I dislike Capital One

About five years ago, Capital One offered me an amazing deal: $10,000 at 6.99% and $6,000 at 8.99% locked in and would never go up as long as I did not become more than 30 late in a payment. What a deal! I consolidated some of my foolish credit card balances and finished paying a loan that was at 9.99%. Once I had the amounts on my card (and still had a balance before), I stopped making purchases because new purchases would be at 19.99%. I steadily paid down the amount on the card and did not use the card at all for over a year when they changed my purchase rate to 29.99%. Well, no worries, I cut up the card to make sure I would never use it even by accident.  I got the balance down by $4,000, I got a call from Capital One saying that they had reviewed my account and decided to drop my credit limit to within $400 of what I had paid the card down to. So, knowing the debt to credit ratio issue and my credit score, I was mad, but also knowing that if I closed the card, it also impacted my credit score, I decided to pay even more on the card to get the balance down. With last week's payment, the card balance came down to under $10,000. I was very happy because it gave me $7,000 available credit and it looks much better for my credit score. Three days after my payment, I got a call from Capital One and they told me that they were reducing my available credit to $10,200! In one fell swoop, they took away my wonderful debt to income ratio and made it look like I had maxed out my card! Oh, and two months ago I got a notice that they were going to give me an annual fee of $39!

Now, I am not an angel and I have forgotten to pay the card and been up to a week late a few times, but have never gotten even close to 30 days late. I have started to pay online so that I did not have to rely on the mail because if it got to them a day late, I got to pay a $39 late charge. However, whenever I get any head-way on the balance, they do this to me. I have not used the card in five years and this is my punishment.

So, if you have Capital One and you pay off your balance each month, expect to get an annual fee. If you have Capital One card and you do not use it anymore because you are paying off the balance, expect them to take away your available credit each time you reach a reasonable available credit amount. I am beginning to think I will focus as much attention as possible on getting rid of my balance with Capital One and only use my credit union credit card. My credit union has never been underhanded in anyway. Once I get my finances under control (Andy just got a full time job, yeah!), I am thinking cash only from now on.



Now, to compound things, insurance companies look at your credit score to determine your premium. Due to my husband's two accidents in three years, my 23 year association with Erie Insurance came to an abrupt end. I had to shop for car insurance with a husband who had two accidents within three years and now my credit score just took a hit! Needless to say I am very unhappy. I have decided to go with Allstate, but am getting nailed with a premium that is twice as much as I paid before. I decided not to go with Progressive because they hold any accident (even ones you were not responsible for) against you. My husband was stopped in his tanker truck and a car lost control of his car and went under the tanker; Progressive is holding that accident against Andy even though he did not do anything and did not get charged.

I know the economy is slow, but come on!