9.06.2008

Stupid Bank Tricks, Part II

A couple weeks ago, I posted Stupid Bank Tricks. I marvelled at the stupidity of Capital One, whose marketing department was sending out offers that their credit department didn't have the cojones to fund:
A couple weeks ago, I got a credit card offer from Capital One for 0% APR for 16 months on balance transfers up to 30k. I accepted and gave them the account number of my car loan to pay off. Today, I received a new credit card with a 10k limit and a rejection of the balance transfer. I guess credit is tightening faster than the marketing department can keep up with, but at $50 - $100 customer acquisition costs, that's a bad way to run a business.

I called Capital One and told them where they could put their credit card.

I thought that would be the end of it. But this week, I received another copy of the same offer from them: another 0% balance transfer for up to $30,000 for 16 months. Well, who am I to turn that down? I sent it in again, with the same request to transfer my car loan. We'll see if they approve it.

I was amazed enough that these idiots would send me another credit card offer after I had just been issued a card with the exact same terms, especially after I had immediately cancelled the card. But the next day, guess what arrived in my mailbox? A third offer for the exact same deal.

In my previous post I mentioned mailing gravel back in the postage paid envelopes. Since then, I've seen an even better idea: attach the envelope to a brick and send it back.

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