Well, if I am not good enough for Capital One, so be it. I pay all credit balances in full every month, owe nothing on anything, and have never been refused a loan.

It is a Catch 22. If I close a card, then I have NO limit and no guarantee that that Capital One will come up with an increase.

As long as my AAA card issuer (MBNA now owned by BOA) does not charge me extra for using it overseas, it will get more use because the limit is much higher and I have no concerns about overdrawing.

Bob Brown: It's possible that Capital One will not increase your limit due to your total overall credit limits, whether you use them or not. And, they probably see no point in raising your limit if you pay the balance every month, as you are not "profitable".

A couple of years ago, I had two Capital One accounts, but a new one was being offered with a very low introductory rate. My application was declined because of my other two accounts (or so the notice declared). They refused to budge on the rates of my two accounts, so I closed both. At the time, MBNA was not assessing the 3%. After the notice about the 3% from MBNA, I re-applied with Capital One, was approved, but the letter with the card set my credit limit at $500. I did not bother to activate the card for a couple of months. Then, I phoned inquiring about the low limit and was informed that my limit was actually $7500...and it's gone up considerably (with no requests from me) since then.

Possibly something is affecting your credit score. You should request a free copy of your credit report from Experian/Trans Union/Equifax.

Total credit available will be considered even if you pay all your bills on time.

To get your credit limit raised do two things...

1. Lower your limits on the other cards...just make a call and get them lowered...AM EX (my household card) raised mine to over $30,000 when I never spend more than $5000 a month (and that's a rarity!)...so I had them lower it down to 10k.

Wait about 2 weeks (month is better) to reflect the changes on your credit.. after you've had your limits lowered to where you're comfortable then call Captitol One and tell them you want to speak with a representative. IF that rep says she will put in a "request" then ask to speak to her manager...tell them that you need this increase for travel and if she will not increase it right then please transfer you to the department where you close the accounts. The account specialist handling closing accounts will ask why you are cancelling and tell them...9 x out of 10 they will raise it right then and there.

I have become very savvy with credit cards...we had two residences for over a year and had to juggle credit until our house sold (WHEW!) I was able to get the money I needed at 0% and never paid a finance balance transfer fee...I was diligent but believe me, they don't want to lose you as a customer. I've never paid a penny in interest rates but the cards saved us when we needed them.

Tara

This morning we opened a savings account with Marathon Bank. While there I asked about overseas fees using a checking account debit card. Marathon's only fee is $1.50 per transaction when not using their ATM.

Thanks for the explanations, everyone. I haven't been to Europe in a few years, and I wondered why my hotel deposit had a foreign transaction fee on my VISA.

Note that some MBNAs do not add an additional charge to the 1% Visa/MC charge; for example, the AAA and NEA MBNA cards only charge the 1%. It all depends on what organization you got the card through.

A side note, I happened to charge French train tickets to both MBNA and CapitalOne at the same time (actually one was only an authorization), and the amount in US dollars was exactly the same. The rate was 1.2821, less than Oanda's average rate for the day of 1.2832

The authorization amount uses the interbank rate...it is only after it clears the bank and is actually put onto your account that the additional fee is added on.

Both authorization and settlement use the interbank rate, which will probably be different at the time of the transaction and when the funds are transferred. The networks use one of a range of rates for settlement, and there's no hard-and-fast rule that can be applied to predict how much your £ sterling purchase will cost in $.

The 1% International Service Assessment may or may not be passed through to the consumer, at the card issuer's discretion.

If you run a transaction through xe.com/ccc, you can see how much it cost you.

I don't know what Bob's problem may be with Capital One as I have huge limits on my Cap One card and never requested them, as I said, but I know it is not because he pays the bill off each month. I have paid my credit card bills off every month ever since I've had them (I suppose 30 years by now, on all cards), and I still get large limits. I always pay my Capital One card bill in full and they still give me large limits. They make money on people having cards just from the merchant fee. It might be because he has too much credit (I only have two credit cards, don't want a whole lot) or just that he needs to wait to get more of a history with them. Maybe he didn't say he had a lot of credit cards, not sure. I'm sure their credit scoring system has a reason.

It is true cards don't like you if you never use them, though. The only card I've had that threatened to cancel me was AAA Visa and the only reason was because I wasn't using it very much. I think they don't consider it worth their administrative fees if you never use it, but that should be a separate issue from a credit limit.

Hi, Christina (and Bob)! It's great to see all your posts. I have avoided Fodors because it will eat up great portions of my day, but I love being back. (If you can't tell, I have a trip coming up.)