# Anyone else experiencing headaches with Costco's new Capital One Credit Card?



## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

As Costco shoppers know, Costco has recently changed from American Express to Capital One. The trouble is that they dropped our credit limit from $20,000 to $6000. Now we put everything on the credit card - even a coffee from Tim Horton's. 6K might usually be enough but we've had some big expenses combined with Christmas shopping. So we went over the limit and they froze our card. We always pay our credit balance in full every month so this is annoying. Several calls with Capital One didn't convince them to budge on our credit limit. So we used another card and at the end of the month paid our bill in full as always - we even advanced a thousand early to get the balance back within limits. So this month we get a charge for going over the limit even though we paid the bill in full. It wasn't until threatening to drop the card altogether that they waived the charge. We have stellar credit, no mortgage or consumer debt and they still haven't decided if they can raise our credit limit. 

Introducing a new card right before Christmas and pumping it's use while at the same time dropping the credit limit by 70% -I wonder how many other people are getting dinged with this charge?


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

I have the same card but with a higher limit, odd that they won't raise it for you given your good credit. I rarely push the limit on any card, only twice in my life (car purchases) have I done so. I guess spliting the charges over two cards works for now and hopefully they'll raise it later. I would watch in the future for going over your limit, pay the card down weekly if needed based on your purchases.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Spidey said:


> It wasn't until threatening to drop the card altogether that they waived the charge. We have stellar credit, no mortgage or consumer debt and they still haven't decided if they can raise our credit limit.
> 
> Introducing a new card right before Christmas and pumping it's use while at the same time dropping the credit limit by 70% -I wonder how many other people are getting dinged with this charge?


Any Mastercard works at Costco now. That means MBNA Smart Cash works, and according to my last statement Costco is considered a grocery store like Walmart (2% cash back with no annual fee)

Otherwise Capital One Aspire is 1.5% cash back at Costco instead of just 0.5% for the first $3000/year and then just 1%... The only thing special about the Costco Capital One is 3% cash back at restaurants.


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## livewell (Dec 1, 2013)

Another (Anecdotal) data point. I got the Costco card with $20k limit - I thought I might get a lower limit as this is the first card I have applied for since I had to list 'retired' to the employment question. Is there anything that could have messed up your credit rating before you applied?


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

That's an excellent point m3s. I got the Costco Mastercard but really considered whether it was the way to go. I have a TD Visa with 1% cash back which used to be a good deal until they dropped the travel insurance. I'm thinking that my best choice may be a MasterCard with travel insurance. I think one of the Aspire cards had it. 

They only gave me a 4,500 limit went I got the Costco Amex so when I did the Costco MC application I gave myself a modest raise on the family income line and they gave me 12,000. I'm like cainvest and don't push the limits, and in fact until I finally broke down and got the Amex card, we only had the one TD Visa card between us. When I called Amex to get them to bump the 4,500 limit they wouldn't do it. Said they could review it after 6 months with the card. They said, for what it is worth, that it boiled down to stated income and total limits on other cards. The paying off of everything, every month and no debt didn't figure into it. Interestingly, when I applied for the Amazon Visa after the discussion with Amex, they put a 10,000 limit on it.


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## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

livewell said:


> Another (Anecdotal) data point. I got the Costco card with $20k limit - I thought I might get a lower limit as this is the first card I have applied for since I had to list 'retired' to the employment question. Is there anything that could have messed up your credit rating before you applied?


Not that I'm aware of. We've kept our credit cards current throughout our lives - I don't think we've paid credit card interest for over 20 years. No mortgage, no car loans, 2 incomes. It was also lousy timing because the chip on my other credit card became defective at the same time. I could still use it but they had to punch the numbers in by hand.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

m3s said:


> The only thing special about the Costco Capital One is 3% cash back at restaurants.


You also get 2% back on fuel.


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## 6811 (Jan 1, 2013)

livewell said:


> Another (Anecdotal) data point. I got the Costco card with $20k limit - I thought I might get a lower limit as this is the first card I have applied for since I had to list 'retired' to the employment question. Is there anything that could have messed up your credit rating before you applied?


I too retired since I last applied for the Costco AMEX card a few years ago. 

I applied for my new Cap1 card at the Costco counter in the store and had the rep fill in my info on-line right there. I was surprised at the end of the "interview" when the rep issued me a printed letter (that was essentially a temporary card good for use only at Costco) and told me my credit limit was only $4K. 

I think that $4K may be a default amount because when I received the actual card in the mail a few weeks later the credit limit was 20K, with a $4k cash advance limit.


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## axelis (Jan 13, 2015)

We shop a lot at Costco but instead of getting the Costo Cap1 card we looked at other alternatives (back in the summer when they started explaining the AMEX partnership was ending) - and ended up with the Capital One Aspire Travel card (2% back in the form of travel miles to offset travel costs - but has a fee). We used to have (Still have actually) the Cap1 Aspire Cash (1.5% cash back and free - but you cannot apply for it anymore) but the Aspire Travel card made more sense now that we could put Costco expenses on it (a large part of our budget). AMEX automatically converted the old Costco True Earning into another card, which we will be using for the first few months (because of the cash back on gas) and then probably just keep as "backup".


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I have an grandfathered Aspire cash (1.5% cash back) and they will not raise the credit limit. 
Also I would say you still responsible for going over your credit limit, even if it doesn't meet you needs.


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## Jorob199r (Sep 4, 2014)

Did the Amex card stop working at costco as of Dec 31?


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

Jorob199r said:


> Did the Amex card stop working at costco as of Dec 31?


Yes.


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## Guban (Jul 5, 2011)

^ one oddity of this was that returns could not be processed on the AMEX. Instead I got cash in our bank. I think I got cash back on returned merchandise!


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## axelis (Jan 13, 2015)

Jungle said:


> I have an grandfathered Aspire cash (1.5% cash back) and they will not raise the credit limit.
> Also I would say you still responsible for going over your credit limit, even if it doesn't meet you needs.


Same experience - I called a few times about this over the last 2 years or so and (from what they told me) it's capped at $10k and will "never be increased" (especially now that it's not available anymore). But you can always apply for a another card (in our case the Aspire Travel which has a fee; we're keeping the Aspire Cash as a backup)


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

I got the new CapitalOne card as well, but it hasn't been entirely smooth.

Activation took a couple of tries, and had to phone in.
Secondly, the card did not work on first few tries.
Both the tap as well as swipe got rejected, had to call again.
Next, online purchases did not work, called for the 3rd time.

It's been about 2 weeks now. Haven't tried online again yet.
Swipe is working, but not tap.
Some machines are requiring PIN, but others are not.

As for credit limit, sneaky buggers gave me exactly $100 less limit than the AmEx card.
They would have pulled the credit report, noted the AmEx limit, and gave me exactly $100 less.
But it's adequate for our purposes.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

cainvest said:


> Jorob199r said:
> 
> 
> > Did the Amex card stop working at costco as of Dec 31?
> ...


For those near the border, I seem to recall that Amex stops in Canadian Costco and still works in US Costco.


Cheers


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## CalgaryPotato (Mar 7, 2015)

I got this card too with the plan to make it our main credit card for almost all purchases, but we ran into the same issue. My wife got declined at McDonalds because we had booked a flight on it the day before, and pushed it right to the limit, all in our first month of usage.

Most months we don't go over $6K, but it's still frustrating to have such a low limit, I haven't had a card start this low in a long time.


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