Capital One Secured Visa

Pros: Fair and Reputable company with reasonable fees
Cons: Annual Membership fee, will not automatically convert into regular credit card

Capital One is emerging as one of the top ten major credit card issuers (by outstandings) in the US. They have traditionally catered to those with less than stellar credit ratings and have really capitalized on this niche. They handle over 25 million...

Pros: This card could be cut up into little bits suitable for throwing into trash.
Cons: Greed on an unimaginable scale, attempted theft

So, What Is in your wallet?

About a year and a half ago I began receiving bills for my Capital One Visa card. The first bill I received stated that my account was several months past due, my limit had been exceeded, a variety of fees...

Pros: Top-notch customer service is there for the asking...
Cons: Watch the fees!

NOTE TO EPINIONS READERS... IN RESPONSE TO MY PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED OPINION TITLED "CENTS AND SENSIBILITY", CAPITAL ONE TOOK IMMEDIATE, DECISIVE CORRECTIVE ACTION. I HAVE DELETED THAT OPINION AS IT NO LONGER ACCURATELY REFLECTS MY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS...

Pros: low deposit, easy to get a card, rewarded me for properly maintaining my account
Cons: sales pitches

Getting a secured card from Capital One was my absolute best credit decision to date. Like most people who get a secured credit card, my credit history is not the best. However, proper maintenance of my Capital One account has turned it around.
...

Pros: A fairly inexpensive way to repair your credit
Cons: Late fees for everything

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...

Pros: Good Opportunity To Establish Credit, No Outrageous Fees
Cons: $300 Overall Credit Limit

I shopped around for a credit card for my uncle who has no credit. At first glance, the companies offering secured credit cards seemed to also "offer" high fees to get started. Capital One Secured Visa is the only card I found that offered a reasonable...

Pros: Helps you re-establish when you've had credit problems.
Cons: Fees and interest rates tend to be on the high side.

If you have had past credit problems, even bankruptcy, and you need to re-establish your credit Capital One is worth a try. They offer a couple of different options for getting a secured card and depending on what kind of credit problems you have had...

Pros: Bottom feeding for bad credit report victims they help perpetuate
Cons: Predatory lender; No Grace Period; Quick to damage your credit; treat customers like dirt

My personal experience points up that Capital One is a predatory lender. I am amending my review with the following, from the book, "Credit Card Nation", by Robert D. Manning (Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group; published in 2000): ...

Pros: NONE
Cons: VERY RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS!

In Dec 2004 I paid off my first Capital One card and call and canceled it and asked if I could cancel my other one but because it had a balance I was unable to cancel it at that time. In January 2005 I paid the balance in full on second ...

Pros: Any life form with a hundred bucks can get one.
Cons: Capital One epitomizes institutionalized greed and stupidity, and manifests it in many forms...

If you become a Capital One customer, you can be assured of several things:
--Every time you contact them, no matter the medium, you will be bombarded with sales pitches for insurance and the like. If you call, you will ALWAYS have to sit through...

Pros: Absolutely none compared to a cashback card.
Cons: This is the worst "no hassle" scam ever.

So there I was, trying to get the 15,000 miles credited towards the airplane ticket I had bought, and what do you know, Capital One doesn't want to give me credit. I bought my girlfriend a plane ticket home. I read and closely listened to the "No ...

Pros: none
Cons: Do not make good on statements and/or offers made by their employees

I recently activated a new card with Capital One. When I activated the card, the customer service representative offered me the opportunity to make an additional transfer at the very low interest-bearing promotional rate (which is less than 3%). Of ...

Pros: Low spending limit helps to keep you from over spending away your budget.
Cons: You have to pay a annual membership fee and your interest goes up.

Several years ago I applied for my secured card. My application was approved, and a few weeks later my card had arrived. Every year I am charged an annual membership fee. The amount I pay them every month has stayed the same. The interest is much higher. ...

Pros: Give you credit when you can't get it anywhere else
Cons: Marketers call and harass you to join some club that CapitalOne gave your name for

Being young, naive, and a few other things, I was thrilled to get an envelope from Capital one saying they wanted to give me a credit card. Now wasn't that nice? Especially since everywhere else turned me down!

Why? I had no credit. That...

Pros: It was easy to get.
Cons: High annual fees, and the card doesn't even work have the time!

Capital One Bank sent me a standard credit card last year, and all I had to do was call their 800 number to activate it. This is my first credit card, and this was before I'd opened up my own personal checking account.

For the first few...