Thread: Capital One geared toward poor/average credit?

Does anyone know if Capital One credit cards are still marketed most at people with bad credit or just average credit scores? I remember a few years ago they were but I didn't know if that's still true today.

Yes Capital One was aimed at people with average/below average credit, but so were many other companies at the time. Money was cheap for the creditors to borrow and their was no credit crisis like there is today. In turn, they, as well as most other creditors, could afford to loan to nearly everyone under the sun. However recently it seems like all credit card companies have tightened up their requirements due to the credit crunch.

But to answer your question, yes they still do. And I just looked up Capital One's stock and it doesn't seem to be hurting them... company is doing great.

well what happened to all the capital one 'what's in your wallet' commercials? they use to run so many of them i actually got annoyed with the company. but yea i dont see those on much anymore. maybe they're not as aggressive with signing new customers now, who know's. i've always heard capital one doesn't have the most stellar customer service so i've stayed away from them. probably is a good company to build your credit up with but if you can get a better credit card company you might as well.

The thing that scared me about Capital One in the past is they wouldn't report your credit limit on their cards to the bureaus. They claimed it was confidential but others said it was just a way to prevent other creditors from stealing their most credit worthy customers. Who knows. Either way, they got in a lot of hot water for this practice and the now DO report your credit limit.

I don't think people realize how bad it was when they didn't though. Basically say your Cap One card had a CL of $10,000 and your other two card both had $5,000. Well because the Capital One wouldn't report your CL, the credit bureaus would automatically assume the limit on it was the average of your other cards - they would say its $5,000 even though it's double that. Let's say you had $4,000 on the Capital One. Basically the credit bureau would calculate that as $4,000 out of $5,000 available credit on the card - a 80% credit utilization rate, even though it's really 40%. That's why reporting the credit limits was so important. Glad to see the company finally stepped up to the plate and is doing it.

I applied today for a Capital One secured Mastercard and could be approved. I will send them a $500 collateral deposit.

According to the posts above, Capital One was not reporting in the past the limit. Is this still the case today?

On their website, I could not get more details, only that they reported the standing of the account and whether the minimum monthly payment is done in the due terms. I could not read anywhere if the limit was reported as well, although they report to the 3 credit bureaus.

Well. Nobody to answer???

This company is geared towards low credit individuals and I believe stigmatizes you for future credit needs. Get with a bank IE: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase. With some actual support and somewhere that you can build a banking relationship. Even something that is secured through them, I think is better in the long run that some garbage cap 1 card. Especially with their screwy reporting. Simplicity is the name of the game, have we learned nothing with the mortgage crises. Charge what you can pay back, pay it back, get your rewards, build your credit, be happy. Wow sorry for the tangent.

Originally Posted by alsteig

This company is geared towards low credit individuals and I believe stigmatizes you for future credit needs. Get with a bank IE: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase. With some actual support and somewhere that you can build a banking relationship. Even something that is secured through them, I think is better in the long run that some garbage cap 1 card. Especially with their screwy reporting. Simplicity is the name of the game, have we learned nothing with the mortgage crises. Charge what you can pay back, pay it back, get your rewards, build your credit, be happy. Wow sorry for the tangent.

Thanks alsteig.

Are they reporting the credit limit at this time or not? This is because there was a press conference that they gave three years ago in which they said they promised to report the credit limit (it was in 2007).

To my knowledge they are reporting limits now. I still would stay away of possible.

Originally Posted by alsteig

To my knowledge they are reporting limits now. I still would stay away of possible.

Thanks alsteig for your answer. This is the confirmation that I needed.
I understand that Capital One has some unrecommendable business practices.
This will just help start building credit. Only after I can get an additional card from another bank (such as Bank of America), I will cancel this one.
I made my initial deposit two weeks ago and wait for the card in the mail.