I get an overload of Credit Card offers in the mail and over the phone. I have been told it has something to do with your postal code address. Could also have to do with owning a business. Anyway, here’s my Capital One adventure.

I got a Capital One offer that said “hey Larry, your approved”...just go online and register. Sounded good and this was Capital One, you know, the “prime plus 0.9 offer on TV”. It also had a ‘paypass’ feature which would work well for me at Tim Horton’s for coffee. So, blindly I go online, a few quick questions..Presto! I’m approved. Cool. Oh, it wasn’t quite as cool as I thought.

I get a Capital One notice in the mail that lets me know my shiny new Gold Card is on the way and read the terms and conditions. Ok. Don’t normally read the fine print stuff but why not. Wanted to see my 0.9 rate. Yes, you are correct, the interest rate is 19 % plus and there is an annual fee over over 50 bucks. You have to be kidding! What happened to those commercials saying stay away from high interest rates. I guess that doesn’t include them. No problem, I will cancel when the card comes.

The cards come and I try and get into the customer service. No lie, 4 times I was in the system and was kicked out completely. This is after they asked me no less than 3 times per call for the card number and date of birth. I was persistent because I didn’t want to get stuck with this stupid card and finally got through. Guess what…they were questioning why I would be canceling such a great card. Duh…do you think the interest rate might have been too high and you gave a embarrassing credit limit of 1000 dollars and you have an annual fee? The guy said it would be a great way for me to re-establish my credit. Hey, didn’t you check my credit rating before you gave me the card? I have an excellent credit rating and work hard to keep it that way.

The lesson here is don’t be naive like me and have a weak “CC” moment. Read everything before they do a credit check (yes these count toward your credit scores and go on your bureau) and stay with one or two cards. I have a few business ones for obvious reasons and two personal ones…one for travel points and one for our floating line at the Bank. Would I recommend Capital one…maybe if they didn’t use 3rd party sales machines to market their cards (thus the high rate to pay these dudes) and if they GUARANTEED a .09 interest rate. P.S…if you go to their site it actually works out to be more like 5.5% or more.

To your financial future,

Larry