I agree with you on Citibank Forward. I posted on another forum about my experiences with Citibank and the card shopping I was doing.

I was considering Citibank Forward as well. My concern is that it is issued by Citibank and I do not have a good relationship with them as a card issuer.

I tried to ask if it had any inactivity fees and got an inconclusive answer plus they wouldn't convert my existing account over, I had to reapply for it, and that is what Im in the stage right now of, deciding if I should pull the trigger for this card or not.

Considering my relationship with Citibank is not favorable right now Im leaning against getting this card.

I look for all the best non fee cards and I have them.

I was missing 1 I needed from my portfolio and I added it. Citibank Forward is the only other one I could use but I fear it would be more in my detriment than benefit for getting this card in the first place.

1) Chase Preferred United Mileage Plus Debit Card- 1:1 on general purchases, 2:1 on UA purchases. DL is my primary airline, but I use this card to rack up *A miles. At $65 a year, I consider it a bargain.

2) Chase Freedom Visa Card: Started when I got bonus cashback in my top 5 spending categories, and 1% back on everything else. They have since watered down the benefits, but I am keeping it as it's free.

3) Delta Gold American Express: Primarily a DL flyer here, so makes sense to have despite DL SkyMiles reduced value. Double miles on DL purchases.

4) CapitalOne Platinum MC: Just applied for this card a few months ago. Figured it was about time I get a card that does not charge foreign transaction fees. 1% Cashback.

5) I keep a basic Chase Rewards Debit card in case I have problems with my other debit card when accessing ATMs abroad.

+1 This is my preferred combo.^

Actually in wallet
American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass
Signed up when I saw the huge discussion so almost a year. Main card and its been very useful for my vacations where my stay could have cost ~$1000 but I paid nothing. I got way more than $75 worth of benefits and looks like I got Gold for this year too (1.5 years) so keeping this year. Next year I may switch to the no fee version when I drop to silver.

Amazon Chase
Had this for 3 years or so. Signed up for it to get $30 off my amazon purchase. Currently about done using it to get a bonus 2500 points. I should be able to cash out some money/miles with that then back to sock drawer except for Amazon purchases.

Citi Gold AAdvantage World MasterCard
Signed up for 25000 miles bonus late last year. Missed out on the churn train I'll probably dump this when the fee comes due later this year since I have the BA card and Bank Direct. Using this with AA dining to get more AA miles per $.

Coming back to wallet
BA Chase
Signed up again because of the huge FT thread. This will come back into use after I'm done with the Amazon card and will probably not renew next year as I have plenty of Visa cards.

Use online so don't carry unless abroad
Schwab 2%
Got this last year for my trip to the UK. Mainly for any foreign purchases (and purchases that could be construed as foreign by the other cards)

Sockdrawered
Chase ultimate rewards
Was my Chase Freedom card which I signed up for a $250 signup bonus when it first came out now converted. I still have a monthly St. Jude donation (from Hilton promo - too lazy to cancel and its a good cause) running through it otherwise it's in the sock drawer, though I just got a debit card from Chase replacing my Wamu one, it'll top off the rewards account with the bonus for using it once as a credit card.

Debit
Reward checking debit card: Use 10 times a month mainly on small purchases - get 4% on my money

I have a couple.

I have a Costco Am Ex that I use only for electronic purchases at costco. Costco doubles the warranty on things like computers and TV and other electronics so taking the decline in value over points makes it worth using this card for these purchases (for other costco purchases I find my Hilton card is worth more from the points). Advantages are no fee, 2% back on restaraunts and travel purchases and 3% on gas and 1% on anything else (You would think costco would do 2% on Costco purchases instead of 1). This is a great card if you can't justify paying the fee on a travel card. Also nice you don't have tiers to get up to the 1% like discover. Minuses: Not all places take AM EX and you only get one cash back check a year.

My main card for my first $40K in spending is my Hilton Surpass card. I signed up for it for it for the nice bonus and the first 8 hilton stays you get 2,500 bonus points per stay. I can't get diamond status the conventional way at hilton, but stay at Hilton enough the diamond perks are worth it and if you spend $40K in a year you get upgraded to Diamond. So I use this as my primary card for my first $40K of spending a year and once I reach Diamond I do continue to use it for hilton purchases (9 points a dollar) and place they give 6 points a dollar like gas stations, grocery stores and my wireless bill.

Advantages: You get Diamond status after spending $40K a year and gold for $20K a year (you can get the gold upgrade on the no fee card as well). 9 points per dollar charges at hilton, 6 points at gas stations, drug stores and wireless and 3 points elsewhere and you get gold status at hilton the first year if you are silver or lower already. Your first 8 or 9 hilton stays you get a 2,500 point bonus as well per stay. Minuses: Again not all places take Am Ex like Visa and MC and there is what I consider a hefty annual fee for a hotel rewards card.

After I reach $40K in spending on the surpass card and for all places that don't take Am Ex my Southwest Visa is my primary card. Pluses: Visa is readilly acceptable, you get 2 bonus credits on each renewal, sometimes you can get promos for a first time sign up for 16 credits which is enough for a free ticket, double points on southwest and all southwest hotel and car partner purchases, lots of various promos during the year from chase. Disatvanges-annual fee (which you do at least get 2 bonus credits a year for renewing), a few years ago they raised it from $1,000 in purchases for a credit to $1,200 in purchases for a credit.

One other card I have is a credit union visa I only use for foreign travel since the other cards I like charge some hefty surchases on foreign transactions. Pluses-No fee and no foreign transaction surcharges and the foreign exchange currency rate is fair. Minus-No rewards or points (which is more than offset with no foreign currency fees).

My favorite card used to be Diners Club. I loved their rewards with it and the perks were great. You used to get 20% off at any Idine member establishment which more than paid for the fee, the best rental car insurance out there and a few Airport lounges would give you free access with it. About 5 or 6 years ago after Citi took over they got realy stingy with the benefits so I cashed my points out and cancelled the card.

American Express doubles the warranty on most purchases, and this is a feature of all USA-issued cards, including Hilton Surpass. Click the Shopping link on this page:

http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...HHonors#tabTop


Something may have changed a half dozen years ago, but it wasn't the ownership. Citi owned Diners Club from 1981 - 2009.

You are right it was citi owned before the changes. The changes was when they went for having DC as it's own club to branding it as a master card. The one nice thing was that it was good at a lot more places since even fewer merchants took DC than Am Ex in the US, but the benefits declined dramatically. You used to get 1 WN credit for even $1,000 spent and they increased it to $1,500. They also stopped allowing points to be used for Northwest miles and a few other changes that didn't justify to keep the card for it's annual fee.

Just a heads up:

Capital One Venture One has 1.25 miles instead of 1% cashback and also no FOREX in a Visa Signature tier and no annual fee combined with a 1.30% APY Online Savings account for $2500 min if you have local branches nearby plus you can transfer rewards checking points along with the Venture Card which is a no fee checking account. Plus transfers are next day through their online system now for interest crediting, but there is a 3 day hold time and funds come in the 4th day. The total Capital One package is the route I decided to go with banking and CC. The new changes along with the Venture One card outbeat Citibank's offering for me because of my lack of trust for Citibank right now plus not trusting them due to their financial condition and other inherent issues. Plus I got a 12 month 0% purchase rate to boot and I received the card really quickly to boot. Totally satisfied with Capital One.

My credit card portfolio consists of lots of CC's. I was using Chase Freedom which was active because of its promotions and now am shifting all business over to Capital One Venture One due to the 0% for 12 months.

Capital One for whatever reason did not market this card to me but I found out I was preapproved through the website and added the one key card I was missing.

Lots of cards I do not use which I keep open because they are old accounts or accounts I paid in full which I no longer need but keeping more credit available seems to be better for the credit score I presume since my FICO is top notch.

So I really have 3 CC's I will be working on unless its a specialized merchant/promotion offering:

Amex Blue because I have lots of accumulated points I never used which does not expire.
Chase Freedom Visa due to being close to the next reward offering.
Capital One Venture One 0% for 12 months with 1.25 miles and miles being accumulated with combination of checking and Credit Card accounts. This card will be my primary active account now. Looks like a premium card with a nice Gold look. I like it.

No I am not a shill for Capital One, and I know they have the Commercials with the topic in it. Just happens Capital One is the most competitive offering in town combined with their Credit Card for me and it all works out.

Will also disclose I know others who had opposite experiences with Capital One. But for me, all is extremely good right now.

Capital One is YMMV... I would not recommend them over a credit union or major bank... Even though I have my concerns with Chase, Citi, & BofA... I would rather apply for all of them... then gamble with Capital One...

They are going to be in my next thread... What I don't want in my wallet...

Don't get me wrong, they like all other "douche" issuers, have great offers...

But not enough to justify the pain and suffering...

At least from the credit side that is...

What issues have you had with Capital One on the credit side? If anything I expect Customer service to improve even more due to the Chevy Chase integration in September. They seem to have retained key personnel from Chevy Chase. No problems with them at all. Bill payments should also be quicker cause its now the same bank.

I did hear about issues from people and I know this but they seem to be related to "user error" compounded by banks inability to understand how to deal with the issue on a timely basis.

HSBC when I activated my card called me a Orchard Bank customer (A subprime card, which was a major turnoff) and another bank I think it may have been Wachovia had a clueless representative which at the end thanked me for being a customer of another firm I gather she was working for with 2 jobs possibly or was a previous employer. I had to set up online banking and it didn't work so I had to recall in because of bad information given.

Capital One in fact was the easiest activation Ive experienced and it was Automated with no pressing me for enrolling in a credit service I don't need.

Linking the accounts had to be done manually which was also easy to accomplish.

Capital One did have one hiccup for me during my whole experience with them due to faulty integration issues. Calling in to add a new savings account is useless and its better to just pop in the branch to add it since it just wasted time since you call into Texas.

With the Chevy Chase integration in September, hopefully they improve the transparency between the branches.

Worst bank Ive dealt with: Commerce Bancorp

Why? They lost an electronic billpayment in their computer system which was totally inexcusable and they lost me as a customer forever.

Worst CC Issuer: HSBC for calling me an Orchard Bank Customer and long delay in the receiving of the card claiming they had the plastic on order.

2nd Worst: Wachovia for thanking me for being a customer of another firm I think it was, and also for not giving me the right information to get online banking access.

Amex has been excellent overall. No qualms with them but rewards are minimal with no promotions or rewards offerings as of late.

Chase has been below average but had super nice rewards which I kept records of for them to honor it.

Capital One has been quite good, not perfect with excellent rewards as well for my banking. Full accountability and transparency to date. Brand new with Usage of their CC since I never made a charge to them before. Debit card transactions went smoothly due to a promotional offering. Credit transactions with them: Not tested yet. I don't see how they can mess them up and they are legally bound to Visa Signature terms and conditions.

Bank Of America: below average but excellent billpay feature online so I kept the card for paying off other CC's and payees.

CC's aren't an exciting topic however and Im quite bored so I keep going on and on in a cycle rather than getting well off enough financially or meeting the right people in my life who are all out there.

Now that you mention it... HSBC, Credit One, First Premier, Orchard, Aspire, Cross Country, etc... along with Capital One... are all on the No No list...

Bad everything... Customer Service... Credit lines... At least credit cards wise... Which is surprising since all this is monitored for "Quality Assurance" and fails constantly... In the last couple of years they have tried to be a more consumer friendly issuer... Unfortunately it is going to be a long process... Maybe a name change like all other craptastic companies who have failed their customers can wipe the slate clean.. and Reboot...

Bad customer service and credit lines? When I used bank mail to ask questions, they were all responded to fairly and accurately and they have the best APY and transfer rate policies of all the banks as of now.

As for the credit card side, my lines were given already. I thought I saw a higher line by 3500 on the website when I got approved, but got approved with a 15000 Credit line when I got the actual card which is fine for my usage considering it has no preset spending limit and I can just pay off anything over 15000 in full for Visa Signature. Getting higher credit lines with an issuer isn't a problem if you actually use the line you are given and pay in full. Sorta weird you mentioned lines when I had this happen but I never expected the line to be known till I got the final card at any rate and the online system shows it with a $15000 limit.

As far as customer service, what specific bad experience did you have or know that others have had? Credit card policies are pretty clear and explicit and all of them handle transactions the same way since it goes through the network of Mastercard, Visa or Amex or Discover, and the like and policies by the issuers are pretty firm and standard and straightforward and premium card issuers (with excellent credit customers) want to encourage loyalty and don't want to mess up to boost profit margins.

HSBC wasn't a high tier card and service was abysmal so I never used it.

Capital One got me the card extremely quickly, sooner than expected, fully activated and ready to go without any issues. All positive so far. I could have misread the credit line or they changed it to lower after final review but I can always try for a credit line increase should I need it later on. I have higher lines on other cards right now should the need actually arise, but I do wish later on after I establish a track record with Capital One, they will increase my line. If I wind up hitting over the limit and paying the rest in full, it should be a no brainer for them to increase my credit line.

Capital One approved me for my 1st card at 15000 and the 2nd at 15000. I never used the 1st one yet (Orbitz) which I had for awhile. So its a total of 30000 without a track record established on both visa signature tiers.

And my spending is very low and utilization is very low. 18500 which I thought it said till final review happened would have been nicer but alas the final came in at 15000. Not a problem though. I won't even get close to the 15000 limit. If I do, I pay the rest in full but the charge goes through on Visa Signature.

Can't forsee any problems on this card if I pay in full and Capital One honors its committments as it has to date in fact even better than expected.

I used 2 Capital One cards a long time ago, and never had a problem with them as far as I recall. I was looking at my credit report and saw them on my bureau. They had very small credit lines and I closed the accounts out many many years ago. I honestly do not recall which cards they were at the time nor what I used them for.

For a long span, Capital One Credit cards were not good and I will agree with this. I only took premium cards I got rewards or benefits on and Capital One never was a highly rated rebate card till now. Then one day I was thinking about the 0% Forex and got the card again just in case, then wound up seeing the Venture One as a good deal cause of the offering which didn't exist till recently. Capital One started a makeover and turned to profitability and got really competitive with their offerings all of a sudden.

It had the 0% Purchase rate and 0% BT cards have since dried up. There 0% BT card had a 3% fee now which Citibank is matching with one of my existing cards which I am not using.

Thats the story of Credit Cards and my usage errr addiction to them and trying to make them work for me as best as possible pitting all the firms in one competitive brawl for my business.

Ahh the invention of the credit card. Some have used them to become billionaires in their own lives. Others have used them to go bankrupt. And lots of folks inbetween.

I really don't expect any problems with Capital One but if I do I will report back with what they are. The responsibilities for them were met and aren't many:

Make sure card gets to consumer on time. Honor legal and contractual obligations. Process transactions successfully and make sure it works both domestically and abroad. Apply payments correctly and on time. (Never had issues with any electronic payments nor any CC vendor in making sure payments applied correctly), and apply rewards points appropriately or promotional offerings. Also, act as a fiduciary between me the customer and merchants and appropriately resolve issues which resolve. On the latter firms have mistreated me and one needs to keep appropriate documentation to prevail in courts of law if necessary. Capital One has not mistreated in this regard TO DATE.

Chase did. Charged me $450 for a 0% $75 maximum offering which I got reversed. As a fiduciary, once had a problem with a merchant who didn't apply cash I paid them and instead charged for it on my CC. Chase sent me a form which would take a long time to process but did cancel out one fee since it was low. I called up the Merchant I dealt with and they appropriately reversed the charge.

Only time will tell how Capital One backs me up when issues come up but with the extensive relationship that will continue further, I don't forsee any issues with them.

Why? Because I always receive letters from them for conditions which are more favorable for me as a consumer, not less so.

I haven't had a Capital One credit card since they sent one to me without actually applying for it back in 2000. I immediately called, had it canceled and have stayed away from them ever since. No interest in getting one either.

Many people complain about their card issuers. Capital One is on the top of that list. Let's just say a company I was once affiliated with used to process a lot of calls and servicing for them. They were not very kind to their consumers and were told not to be. Unwritten law I guess you could say.

But as I stated in the previous reply...

In the last couple of years they have tried to be a more consumer friendly issuer... Unfortunately it is going to be a long process... Maybe a name change like all other craptastic companies who have failed their customers can wipe the slate clean.. and Reboot...

Spoke with Customer Support about the interest rate. Was on hold for a few minutes. Got an english speaking american based representative and I asked him to confirm the interest rate and the reward mileage and he did both. He confirmed the 0% till May 2011 and confirmed the 1.25 mile per dollar.

I called to test out the customer service. The experience was perfectly acceptable. I will note that Chase Sapphire Customer service is immediate with no hold times but lower rewards and I already took advantage of the promotion with them.

Two things I have to say about Capital One. 1) They offered me a pitiful credit limit, FAR lower than every other issuing company I have dealt with. 2) You have to stay on top of them. I have only had this card a few months, and they have already auto-enrolled me in an absolutely useless program. I had to call them and argue with the rep to have it taken off my account.

I have this card only to avoid FOREX fees. I only use it when I'm abroad. If Chase offered a similar service, I would drop the Cap1 card in a second.