You better watch when you mail that payment
Written: Dec 09 '02
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Pros: A fairly inexpensive way to repair your credit
Cons: Late fees for everything
The Bottom Line: Affordable way to re-build your credit. Read the fine print!
Customer Service is slow to respond. Make sure you request a return receipt for your payment.
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| germank106's Full Review: Capital One Secured Visa |
After a very messy divorce, I discovered that my credit rating was pretty much destroyed. I desperately needed to re-build my credit and asked my bank what the easiest way was to do so.
They told me that a secured credit card, or a credit card that asked for a small deposit was one of the easiest ways to re-build credit, provided you use it wisely.
I had received credit card offers from Capital One before, but had always thrown them away.
The next one I opened and, after reading the fine print, send in my $49.00 payment.
Several weeks later my card arrived.
The accompanying brochure stated very clearly that my credit line would be $300, with a possibility to increase that every 6-12 months. No extra fees would be charged to increase my credit limit.
The interest rate given was 23.4%. I had dealt with credit card companies before and knew that with a good payment history I could eventually reduce the interest rate instead of raising my credit limit.
The annual fee for the card was $29.00. Thanks to the fine print I knew that this would be an amount already on my first statement. My available credit line was thus reduced to $271.00.
I charged approximately $75.00 on the card before I received my statement. The statement was somewhat hard to read, but told me exactly when my payment was due (no later than the 10th day of the following month) and how much I owed (my charges plus the $29.00 annual fee).
I mailed my payment out on the first of the month, thinking that would be plenty of time to get it there.
The next month statement held a huge surprise. I was assessed a $25.00 late fee
I did call their customer service desk and was informed that they had received my payment on the 16th. I live in central Wisconsin, my payment should not take 16 days to get to Chicago (the payment center). I refused to pay the fee. The customer service representative was somewhat snooty but said they would adjust my statement.
Again I mailed my payment out on the first of the month, I also mailed a letter to a friend in Chicago on the same day.
My friend got her letter two days later, the credit card company again charged me a $25.00 late fee, and did not correct the previous month statement.
I put in another call to customer service, was again reassured that they would adjust the problem.
My available credit line was now reduced to $250.00 since I refused to pay the late fees.
Month #4 came around, again no adjustment and another late fee.
After that I always send my payment with one of those little green return cards you get at the post office. Lo and behold, the credit company all of a sudden received my payment on time and I had no more late fees.
I also wrote a letter to the company stating the problem with my previous payments and asked that the statement would be adjusted.
After six months, they finally did so. I then called and asked for either an increase in my credit line or a reduction of interest.
I was told that they had to refuse my request since I had made several payments late. When I tried to explain the problem to the customer service representative, she hung up on me.
For me this was the last straw. I cancelled the card. I cut it up, put it in an envelope with a letter explaining why I cancelled my account and mailed everything back to Capital One.
For several months after that I kept receiving new credit card offers in the mail. I threw all of them in the trash.
My credit is back to normal and I can take advantage of a low interest, fairly high balance credit card with no annual fee.
In conclusion let me say that this card is great for re-building credit. It has a low deposit, the interest rate is adjustable with regular payments and the credit line is easily increased. However it is a lot of work having to hand carry each payment to the post office, paying extra for return receipts and haggling with the customer service people.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
germank106
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: middle of nowhere, MO
Reviews written: 230
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
Always open to a challenge, or a good write-off.
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