Experience with Capital One or Schwab CC?

[Wade Lippman]

I am looking for a new credit card.
Capital One has a 1% rebate on everything, but 2% on groceries and gas.
Schwab has 2% on everything, but requires an investment account.

Anyone here have experience with either?

I have had Chase for about 15 years.
Last week a store put through a charge for $95 more than the sales receipt. Seems like an easy dispute? Chase says they checked with the store and the store says it is right, so there is nothing then can do for me. Time for a new bank. Well it was anyhow; they used to have 1% on everything with 3% on gas and groceries; but have just changed to 1% on everything, so I should change even without the crappy CS.

[Tim Morton]

Capital One =The Devil...i just transferd my balance when they raised the rates to 24% and i never missed a payment.

Fixed: All CC=The Devil...pay as you go...you will be happier.

[David G Baker]

I have one credit card and have had it for around 20 years. It is a Union Plus MasterCard. I have paid interest one time in the 20 years and have paid one fee. If the credit card company wants to charge me a fee that I didn't agree with it will be gone as soon as possible after I get the bill for the charge. I also would not do business with the company that charged you the $95 more than the receipt. The only place I get stuck with fees is when I sell things on FleaBay and since they started nailing me the extra fees, my sales on the Bay have been cut drastically.
I agree with Tim on the All CC= The Devil. I can not believe the evilness of the credit card companies that are now showing up in the news. They are nailing people around 35% interest in penalties. Loan sharks don't charge much more than that. The government should cap the charges and fees that credit card companies can charge like they did back in the 60s. As long as people are willing to pay the fees the CC companies will keep up the criminal activities. Now, do you want to know how I really feel. :D
Capital One is probably the Number One company I would never consider, have you ever read the fine print on their applications that you get in the mail 6 times a week?
I don't like Schwab either, I have never received an application from them so I haven't read the fine print, I don't like them for another reason. Hidden fees on a stock account that I had with them years ago.
Take a look at a local Credit Union to see if they provide a CC if you feel that you really need one or sometimes your insurance company will provide a CC. Above all, make darn sure that you read and understand the fine print.

[Frank Hagan]

There is pending legislation to regulate the card issuers more, so almost all of them are raising rates prior to the legislation.

We were with Capital One, and they were very good in two disputes. One they found before we did through suspicious activity on the card (the number was stolen when we paid for our meal in a local restaurant). The other took some work, as the vendor declared bankruptcy before delivering to us, and we wanted the credit card protections rather than waiting in line for the bankruptcy court. But they implemented a change from 11.5% to "up to 29%" ... and we had never been late (or even carried a balance from month to month ... which may be why they didn't like us).

Our search ended up at the local credit union. Better rates, and someone local we can call for help. That might be a avenue you want to investigate. Also, if you are near a military base, some of the military credit unions accept retired or former military personnel, and have good rates.

The 1% to 2% back thing is a crock if you're paying 29% interest. If you are using the card to make large purchases and paying it off each month (such as for a business), then they make sense. Otherwise I go for the card with 1) no annual fee and 2) the lowest interest rate.

[Pat Germain]

Capitol One and Chase both just jacked up my interest rate for any new purchases. Again, never missed a payment, always pay far more than the miminum. I know I shouldn't maintain a balance at all, but Mrs. Pat thinks otherwise. :rolleyes:

I've been a member of Navy Federal Credit Union for over 25 years. They offer a CC with a very good rate, no annual fee and 2% cash back. I'm going to sign up for that. NFCU membership used to be pretty restricted. That may no longer be the case. You can apply online at NFCU.org.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union offers a smokin' CC deal. An Air Force LtCol I work with was telling me about it. Apparently, anyone can join. If you don't have a local branch, just go online. Coincidentally, last month's Consumer Reports recommended the Pentagon Federal Union CC.

The legislation about a credit card users' bill of rights doesn't go into effect for another one or two years. In the meantime, the CC companies are making loan sharks seem like credit unions.

[Jerry Bruette]

Just dumped one Capital One card and in the proccess of dumping the other. They cranked up the interest rates because of the difficult economic times...hey I didn't cause any banks to fail.

Went with Simmons Bank with a much better interest rate

Jerry

[Art Mulder]

Last week a store put through a charge for $95 more than the sales receipt. Seems like an easy dispute?

As I live in Canada, my recommendations on credit cards would mean nothing.

But I don't understand at all why this is at the "dispute" level. If the receipt says X, and the Credit Card Statement say Y, then why didn't you go back to the store? You've got the receipt, that's proof right there in your hands!?

...art
(Very happy to deal with Canadian banks...)

[Ed Hazel]

I have a Chase and a Capitol One card both for business if I do not have the money to pay for something I do not buy it so I could car less about the interest rates I also will not have a card that charges annual fees. For my purposes both work fine.

Carrying a balance on your credit card should be avoided at all costs.

[jerry nazard]

I cannot imagine a sane individual willingly doing business with Capital One. They are based here in Richmond and buy up other banks cards as fast as they can. Then they add fees, change due dates to generate late charges, etc. Scum of the earth! Get an Amex card.

[Jon Grider]

Doubled my rate after being an on time bill payer for nearly 10 years. I don't carry a large balance, but it's the principle. They make crummy decisions to give credit to deadbeats and they expect their good customers to pick their sorry butts up.

[Bill Petersen]

I have a Capital One Prime Lock, so with the prime rate so low right now it looks really good. I don't think they're still offering this card. I trust any card company as far as I could throw them and the moment my good interest rate gets changed the card will be canceled. I have a Chase Amazon Visa with a pretty good reward program but I don't carry a balance over past the due date so I haven't even looked at what the interest is. One is as good as the other if you don't carry a balance or don't carry one beyond a month or two.
Bill

[Matt Meiser]

I've had a credit card with the same credit union pretty much since I graduated from college. They've been great. We also have a savings account, our RV loan and a car loan there. We had our card number stolen at a resturant and they were great about it, including Fedexing me a new card because we were going out of town that weekend even though that wasn't normal policy. We've had two disputes over the years and they were also great about them. One was an out of business service where we'd payed for a year of service when they disappeard. We got an almost immediate credit for the portion of the service we didn't receive. They were also very friendly when they increased our credit limit and we asked them to put it back where it was and not increase it without our permission first.

Since my company doesn't have company cards and I can run up some prety massive expenses in a month for work if I travel a bunch we also got a Costco Amex. For travel expenses its great and we get a rebate from Costco. The way I've been travelling lately, I'll probably get a big enough rebate to completely pay for a stock-up trip to Costco late this year. But many local non-resturant merchants don't take it--and neither does Menards.

[Tom Veatch]

...I also will not have a card that charges annual fees. ... Carrying a balance on your credit card should be avoided at all costs.

AMEN, Brother!!!

I have 2 credit cards, one is a Discover and the other, a VISA issued through the bank that has my checking account.

Every purchace I make that costs more than pocket change goes on one or the other of those cards; Discover primarily, and VISA where Discover isn't honored. Transactions that were posted the previous night are downloaded into Quicken every morning so I know almost immediately when a charge is posted, the vendor, the amount of the charge, and the current balance. When the statement is issued at the end of the billing cycle, a payment for that balance is automatically scheduled to be made prior to the due date. No balance forward, and no late charges.

So, my non-negotiable requirements for a credit card are online access from a personal financial manager like Quicken, no interest on current charges, and no annual fees. Purchase rebates are a plus, but not a requirement.

If, at any time, the cardholder agreement is modified to eliminate any one of those features, that card immediately becomes history. So far, that hasn't happened. They can monkey with the interest rates and fee structures all they want. Since I don't allow the current balance to exceed what I'm able to pay at the end of the billing period, and there's no interest on charges during the current billing cycle, I pay no interest regardless of what the rate might be. And I NEVER, NEVER, take a cash advance on a credit card - that's absolutely the most expensive money you can borrow, with the possible exception of those places that offer Payday Loans, Title Loans, or other loan sharks.

Works well for me.

[Rich Konopka]

Wow, I have a brand name card for 4 years and it has been at 3.99%. They informed me it was going uo 9.99% but so far it has not. My other 2 cards which I have had for 20 years and do not use went up 14%.

I would caution folks on advertising what cards you have. It is easy to do a lookup on you and get your personal info. There are trolls out there lurking.

[Neal Clayton]

capital one bought out the local bank i use in new orleans, i have some rental property down there so unfortunately have to have a local bank account there or would have dropped them long ago.

they're the most pitiful excuse for a financial institution i've ever dealt with.

i only use one credit card, have a discover. pay in full every month so don't know what their interest rate policies are. i would assume they're as shady as the rest.

from a merchant's standpoint, the least shady credit card company i dealt with was american express, but that was about 10 years ago so who knows might be different now.