i am about to be 18 and have good credit. i need to know if 16.97% interest is high.?

Question

and does anyone have trouble with capital one?

okay so iam 18, so 6% insrest isnt going to happen. please dont write about your self.

this isnt because i dont have $$ its for credit building. i do not plan on putting much on it.
and its not loans,

Answer 1

Capital One is a good company to go with for your first credit card. They have a good buyer protection plan and are very strong in fraud protection. 16.97% may seem high, but for you would be fine. Good luck, and don't spend too much - remember that you will have to pay interest on any part of the bill that you cannot pay off. Don't just pay the minimum.

Answer 2

Hate Capital One!! That is very high. Especially if you have good credit. Have you already applied for the card and got it? If you have don't cancel the card. Use it but only for an amount you can pay off every month so the card doesn't go dormant and you get a good credit rating and you do not have to pay the interest! Do not mess up!! Find yourself a better interest. And don't apply for the card and accept before you know what the interest is. If you are not clear about the credit game you should go pick up a book on it at the book store.

Don't co-sign with anyone. This will not help you establish your credit. A car loan is the best way to establish your credit. ANYTHING can ruin your credit! Owing too much money can ruin your credit. Paying your bills before their due date looks good. You can get a credit card with a lower interest rate by guaranteeing the amount of the credit card limit. By actually purchasing a limit. Paying $500 or $1,000 for a card. that would be your limit. You would still be required to pay on time!! This possibly would give you leverage on the interest rate.

Answer 3

I hope you have already pulled your credit report. Most 18 year olds don't have good credit. But if you do, you are paying a high interest rate now...
When did you get the card? If you got it to establish credit, then you probably got a high interest rate then... if you have already established good credit, I would say drop it ASAP and get another one.

When I say drop it, I mean don't use it for a while, DON"T CANCEL... If you close it you're score goes down. Use it once in a while and send the payment right away... that keeps the line open... (The longer the accounts are open and having no late payments makes your score go up).

Also, I don't know if you are having problems with capital one or if you're looking to apply there. But a couple weeks ago I went to a seminar about credit reports and one of the credit couselors mentioned that the credit card company that makes scores go down the most is Capital One. I don't know what are the requirements to apply and to be approved, but apperantly many people get approved regardless of their credit history. One of the factors to calculating credit is LIMITS. EX: When you are given a credit card the bank sets a limit of money you are able to spend. Lets say you're limit is $500. If you go above 50% of your limit your score starts to drop at some point. So lets say you spent $200.
You have now spent 40%. This is good. However Capital One will report your highest balance as your limit. So on the credit report it will say High Limit $200 High Balance $200, which is 100% and that is bad., your score drops immediatly.

Answer 4

It all depends upon who the lender is and what the funds are for. This rate is below average for credit card balances and very high for a secured (auto, home) loan through a bank. It sounds like you are asking about a rate from Capital One (What's in your wallet, right?). This is a credit card so the rate is a little below average for credit cards. You can shop for a better card, though.

Since you are young I'll give you some sound advice: Use a credit card to charge things if you like but pay the balance off each month to avoid finance charges. If for some reason you have to carry a balance for several months always make the largest payment possible each month until paid. Ignore the "minimum due" number. There is nothing companies like Capital One love more than people with sound credit who make minimum payments. This is how they get the heaps and gobs of money they need to run those cute commercials!

Oh, and each month take 10% of your take home pay and put it into a savings account and don't touch it except maybe later to invest in stocks, a business, home, etc. If you do this starting at your age you will end up at 65 as a multi-millionaire. If you don't do it and end up paying the "minimum due" you will end up at 65 essentially being flat-*** broke.

Answer 5

I have a Capital One credit card, and I have not had trouble with the company. If the card has no annual fee and no service charges, then you will probably be fine, since you say it is for credit building and you are not going to put much on it.

I am going to echo some of the previous comments and say: Pay off the balance every month. If you pay the bill within the grace period, there is NO interest. If you wait, you are going to be paying a lot more.

Since this is your first credit card, treat it like cash or debit: If you do not have the money, do not spend it. Charging more than you can afford is going to get you into trouble.

Answer 6

16.97% is fairly average for a standard rate on a credit card if you are working with "normal" credit. The thing is, a lot of the time you can get a card that has 0% for a short time, or other little initial benefits like that.

The important thing though is not so much the % rate, but any other fees. If there are NO annual fees, no monthly fees, no "extra" fees for certain types of usage, etc... then the % rate doesn't matter.

You only are going to be paying interest if you don't pay off the credit card each month, and let me tell you... if you do that on purpose at 18, you WILL get yourself into credit problems later on. Things build up very fast, and it is very dangerous to start doing that early on.

Answer 7

I have the Capital One No Hassles Miles card that I recently opened and my rate is over 18%. I have excellent credit and only got the card for the airline miles. I pay it off every month so the interest rate is not relevant to me. If you plan to pay off your balance in full each month, you should look into getting any kind of "benefits" card that best suites you, however if you plan on carrying a balance you can definately do a lot better than that 16.97%

Answer 8

Get the card and go charge about 100 dollars on it then cut the card up and throw away,then pay 10 dollars a month for a year until it is paid off and this will establish a credit payment history which i believe you are trying to do for the future.In about a year right before you pay this card off apply for a new one,the rate will probably be lower at that time because of your good payment history.Clearly you will pay a little interest but it will not kill you,as long as you follow the plan i laid out here for you.

Answer 9

That's really high. How do you know you have good credit? Have you pulled your own report? Your best bet is to be a co-signer on someone else's card (like your parents) to help you establish credit without having to actually purchase anything. They can add you to the account but not even give you a card. That way you can get better rates and don't have the temptation to spend money that you don't have.

Avoid the credit trap and find other ways to go about it. I started with a Capital One card with a high interest rate and never had problems with it but I also managed it responsibly.

Answer 10

Sounds high to me! I am assuming this is for a credit card or personal loan. You are probably getting a higher interest rate because you dont have much credit established yet. If you dont really need the money, I wouldnt take out the loan. I would not get the credit card either. They just get you into trouble.