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In reply to the discussion: Capital One's new contract says it can show up at cardholders' homes, workplaces [View all]LAGC
(5,330 posts)Ten years ago I wrecked my credit -- long story short: an "emergency" came up which caused me to max out 4 credit cards ($10K limits each) which I never was able to pay back. The collectors hounded my family for years, until they realized they weren't going to be able to collect.
7 years later, the defaults dropped off my credit report and I was desperate to rebuild my credit, but still no one would give me a credit card because of "lack of credit history." Turned out, it was CapitalOne that finally gave me a second chance. They had an excellent "secured" credit card program where you deposit X amount of dollars with them and they give you a credit card with a limit of whatever you deposit plus $149. So with $500 down, I got a $649 credit limit card. Then, as you keep paying the balance off every month, they report that good behavior to the credit bureaus.
After just 9 months I was able get an UNSECURED Discover card (which is amazing, because they were one of creditors I defaulted on!) then later an UNSECURED Citibank card, although Chase (another one I defaulted on) and its affiliates still have me blacklisted for life, apparently. (Fuck Chase!)
Anyway, I know it's par for the course to criticize the big banks and lending corps (and yes, many of them are horrible), but I'm going to give CapitalOne the benefit of the doubt here. They helped me turn my credit around, with a FICO score below 500 clear up to 780 now and climbing. Once I reach 800 I'm thinking of getting their 1.5% cashback Quicksilver card.
Am I concerned about this new language in their contract agreement? Not really. In fact, if I ever did default and couldn't pay it back again, I'd prefer someone came to my door so we could have a face-to-face conversation, so I could explain myself and hopefully get the collection calls to stop. The biggest problem with dealing with them over the phone is that if you ignore them they just keep selling your debt to other collection agencies and the calls continue non-stop. But maybe a face-to-face could arrange some sort of freeze on your debt, so that you could pay them back directly once your financial situation improved. I'd have no problem paying back my original creditors I defaulted on 10 years ago, except for they all sold my debt and have washed their hands of it! I don't see any good reason to pay these loan-shark collection agencies that bought my debt for pennies on the dollar, but if the original creditors had worked with me and put a freeze on my debt, I'd have no objection paying them back. I'm just thinking a face-to-face meet by them directly wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if arrangements could be worked out. I'm assuming they'd never come back once you convinced them you were in no condition to settle yet. But I could be wrong.
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