Capital One Credit Card - Visa or Mastercard?

[Berk987]

advantages? no foreign transaction fees right? Visa or MC? Which is better? how/where do I apply? is there an annual fee? Thanks.

[Berk987]

just reading some reviews this morning and many people are saying that they mail in a check and Capital One holds it until after the due date and then charge you interest. true? anyone experience this? I don't want any issues and if there are problems, it is easier to stay with my current Mastercard and just pay the foreign transaction fees. We don't travel that much so to be hit with late fees is a problem. We always pay off the total amount and this would be a second emergency card just for travelling in foreign countries (about 3x year). thoughts? thanks.

[nonrev1]

We use a Capital One Mastercard. Never had any problems with holding checks/late fees etc. They are wonderful. There is no annual fee and no international transaction/currency conversion charges. We always use this card for international travel.

[spikecat]

We have the Capital One Visa which has no foreign transaction fee. Go to capitalone.com and you will see the different credit cards they have.

[jotabecu]

I also use Capital One VISA whenever I travel outside of US., no exchange fees and is accepted pretty much everywhere.

[Traveler353]

I have used Capital One VISA card when traveling in Europe for the past 3 years, I have never paid any fees or interest. I pay the card off the day I get back. One advantage of the Capital One card is that it works in most of the new ATM's and point of sale machines in Europe. Not all US based credit cards will. I put my flights and cruises on an American Express Blue card, much better cash pay back returns than the Capital One.

[Berk987]

I'm hoping those incidents about Capital One holding onto payment checks and then charging late fees is a fluke and won't happen to me. Since we will only use it when travelling out of USA, then we should be OK and yes, must remember to pay off as soon as we get back to avoid any problems. Get it done and over with. Will check online website for info and will get a VISA since we currently have a MC. Thanks all.

[Guest maddycat]

I've been using a Capital One Visa cash back card for years. I use it as my primary credit card. I've never had a problem with my payments. I always mail in my payment within a couple of days of receiving my statement.

[Keith1010]

I would call Capital One to verfiy if their Master Card has the same advantages as the Visa which includes no fees for international credit card purchases and ask them if there are any other differences.

 

Keith

[bogotababe]

I've lived outside of the U.S. for years. My CapitalOne Visa card is my main credit card and I've never had a problem with it. I got it when other companies started charging conversion fees (even in Panama, which is a dollar-based economy!), and I've been very happy with it. I pay the card online and never have to worry about lost/delayed checks. No complaints here!

[ActiveTraveler]

I don't understand why people say they use ATMs with their Capital One credit cards if, as someone told me earlier, debit cards must be used for that. :confused:

My first debit card was a MasterCard. That is just what the bank gave me; I did not ask for a specific card. I guess Capital One gave me a MasterCard because I already was a MasterCard user. For some reason, my mom always had Visa, even though she keeps some money in the same bank. Her credit card also is from Capital One.

[nonrev1]

Yes - the Capital One Mastercard has the same benefits as the Visa. We have the Mastercard. When we originally got the card we chose MC because we already had a Visa card and one of the companies we were using in Europe did not accept Visa...only Mastercard.

[Underwatr]

just reading some reviews this morning and many people are saying that they mail in a check and Capital One holds it until after the due date and then charge you interest. true? anyone experience this?

I pay my CapitalOne MC bill online via the CapitalOne website. I get to choose the day the money is transferred from my checking account (usually I have the money go across a couple of days before the due date). Never had a problem.

 

For years I had a feature with the card where every purchase was interest-free for at least 90 days. Coupled with zero foreign transaction fees it made it the ideal card for vacations in Europe. They've just now discontinued the zero-interest feature (probably a side -effect of the new credit card regulations) but they've moved my account to a free travel points feature. I still have no transaction fees outside the US, though.

[NanaHope]

Not only do they not charge a conversion fee or atm charges but they give 2% cash back on EVERYTHING. The cash back is credited to a linked money market acct as soon as you pay it each month. I recommend it highly. I have both Capital One as a back up and the Scwab as my primary now!!

[flcruzer03]

I've had the Capital One M. Card for just over a year now..it is the only card I use for foreign transactions..never had a problem with my payment being held..but I always pay online..usually at least a week or longer before the due date..

[Berk987]

Spoke to Capital One yesterday. Narrowed it down to 2 choices:

- Venture One Reward card which can redeem for flts (VISA)

- No Hassel Cash Reward which gives cash back (Mastercard).

 

Thoughts? We currently have a MC with American Airlines and have zillions of points to fly but can NEVER get a ticket. Should we keep those points hoping that one day we can finally get a ticket and also switch to Venture One and start accummulting points for flts? Apparently it is x100 of the fair on any airline, anytime. So if the flight is $200 then I need 20,000 points. Have anyone tried this before and is it easy to get flts once you get the points?

 

The No Hassel Cash Reward gives us 1% or 2% back. better than nothing.

 

Our goal is to use it for trips outside USA only to avoid the foreign transaction fees but we can start using it daily if we go with Plan A to start gathering points and ditch American Airlines. I hate that there are no seats for 25,000 points but there are seats if you give them extra points to 50,000. you're actually paying double points then. what a scam but people accept it. I saw a CNN show on this a few months ago. The guy at AA in charge said they do it and people accept it. He even said his friends object to it.

[rian90]

We used our Delta airline miles to pay for one ticket on our upcoming trip and were able to get seats for both of us. It saved us a lot of money since we are flying to Europe. We booked as far in advance as we could..the day after the information was available for our particular date.

 

If I had that many miles, I would keep them and try booking far in advance. See if that works. With the price of flights these days I would hate to give up my miles. But then I love to travel! :)

[Underwatr]

I mainly use a USAirways Mastercard (Juniper Bank) but unfortunately US does not allow for one-way award tickets. I'd be very motivated toward using half miles to get a one-way ticket to the UK and then return on a Transatlantic on a Cunard ship.

 

I think Northwest/Delta still have one-way awards, don't they?

[KirkNC]

We have the Capital One Visa which has no foreign transaction fee. Go to capitalone.com and you will see the different credit cards they have.

 

We do the same, it is great to avoid the fees ;)

 

Kirk