My 1 year is up

**Money card** · Jul 24, 11, 8:25 pm

Time flew by fast it just seems like a year ago I had a chase platinum with a 1995 membership on the card because I came over from a different bank( I never filled out a chase application) however I actually applied for the capitol 1 gold card, for a year under purchases there was no apr. I obviously got it for free like a lot of other banks are doing.

I always paid my capitol 1 bill in full , my original visa in full the 3 different banks related to chase First card and Bank 1 in full and My Discover in full.

so why under purchases does it say 17.90 apr? my Discover says 11.99 apr. why isn't capitol1 closer to Discover say about 14.99 this is the APR on purchases.

I know it doesn't matter since I pay my bill in full but I'm just wondering why is there such a huge difference between my capitol 1 and my Discover? capitol doesn't have memberships on there card, I know I had my Discover since Caldors was around in 1998, I expect my capitol 1 to have a higher apr on purchases but not the difference of 6 maybe 3.

had I carried a balance paying half my bills for the whole year, what would have been my apr on purchases on my july bill? would it still have been 17.90 or would it be a lot higher?

**LTomBerry** · Jul 24, 11, 9:41 pm

I dunno if carrying a balance would have an effect on your APR. Probably the only thing you could do personally to raise it would be pay late which would trigger the default rate. It probably has more to do with the economy, federal regulations, marketplace competition, etc. Personally I think there is a little green man inside their computer that decides the rates. But like you said who cares because you pay in full anyway. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. If it really bugs you then you can call them and see if they'll lower it.

**Calculon** · Jul 27, 11, 1:06 pm

From my experience Capital One usually has a higher APR than most other credit cards if you do a side-by-side comparison with gold and platinum.

**Money card** · Jul 27, 11, 7:27 pm

Calculon from 1987 to 2011 I've had a visa and never payed interest. from 1994 I've had a Exxon Mobil charge card and always paid in full (I know you can't use the card anywhere else but I still paid in full). the very short periods I had a Kohl's and Lord & Taylor, paid those bills in full. I have a Discover since 1998 I always pay in full, for the first year I payed my capitol 1 in full.

so even looking at this, Capitol 1 still likes to have a 17.90 APR? it doesn't matter I pay my bill in full. I just thought it went by your payment history which has no interest. I would have thought it would be at 14.99% APR?

**naomibatac** · Nov 18, 11, 11:16 pm

LTomBerry might be right, there must be other factors that determines the rates for Capitol 1. Anyway, have you asked Capitol about it? Most credit card issuers are providing the best credit card deals because of competition, so there must be a reason for them to have that rate?

**JNK** · Nov 19, 11, 5:23 am

Hey there Money card!

I was pondering over this exact same question, too, and I have some reason to think that carrying a balance CAN affect the lowering of your credit card's APR.

Consider this series of scenarios (sorry about the long list; it was the only way I could think of to make it easier to read):

- I own an AMEX Blue and a CITI Dividends
- My sibling owns an AMEX Blue and a CITI Dividends

- I have the regular Dividend card
- My sibling has the World version of the Dividend card

- I have been unemployed before and employed without earning very much
- My sibling has never been unemployed and has historically earned more than I have

- During my unemployment owing to illness, I ended up doing a payment plan with CITI
- My sibling has never done a payment plan

- I have carried balances on both cards over the cards' lifetime
- My sibling has seldom if ever carried any sort of a balance on either card

- I do not have a history of late payments or paying only the minimum
- My sibling does not have a history of late payments or paying only the minimum

and

- I have a single digit APR on my AMEX and a very low double digit APR on my CITI
- My sibling still has mid to medium-high double digit APRs on both cards

Given all that I said above, I honestly sometimes feel that credit utilization - how a person uses their credit and what their patterns are - can and do influence the decisions of a creditor when it comes time to consider things like... CLIs and APR reductions.

I can very honestly say that I am not the person who pays in full always and forever and is late never ever.

My credit usage involves bouts of paying in full and bouts of carrying a balance from time to time depending on what exactly I'm doing and what phase I'm in in regards to my personal life and business life. Regardless of how 'bad' my phase might be/have been, I watch/watched how much credit I use (I stick below the 30% and 25% is my cut-off even when I'm in a position where I might need to use more credit) and make sure my payments are on time.

Bearing this in mind, I really appreciate the fact that I DO have such low APRs for someone of my age and of my level of credit establishment because for me, I actually DO use my credit cards to carry a balance from time to time and a lower APR helps me to stretch my money (with a fee of some sort, of course) when I really need to.

And with THAT said... I wonder if maybe that's what my credit report shows or if maybe that's how credit companies see my credit report.

Like:

"Here is an example of a credit user who has a history of not only responsibly using credit (paying off credit cards, no late payments, minimal amount of credit inquiries, not a ton of credit lines opened, low debt to credit ratio) but also responsibly carrying balances (paying a card off in 2, 3 months etc), too, when needed. Therefore, since this responsible person utilizes our card to carry balances from time to time, they could make use of a lower APR and utilize it responsibly. We will earn money/interest from them because we know they will eventually pay it all back in full within a few months of carrying the balance."

Basically:

A person paying in full all the time = not carrying balances/not utilizing APR/APR doesn't matter

A person who carries a balance from time to time = carrying balances/utilizing APR/APR does matter

But who the heck knows, really, and the only reason I share the thoughts that I do is because of my own personal experience.

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