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The Capital One Platinum Credit Card offers simple and straightforward benefits designed for those with less-than-perfect credit. While it doesn’t have a signup bonus or ongoing spending rewards, the card’s perks can come in handy in certain situations.
Here’s a detailed guide to the various benefits of a Capital One Platinum credit card, including credit-related perks and basic travel and card protection, so you know what to take advantage of as a cardholder.
Benefits of credit construction
A few of the benefits of Capital One Platinum that may be of most benefit to you are aimed at helping you build credit, especially since this credit card is for people whose credit is in the pipeline.
Capital One sells this card to people with good credit, which usually means a FICO score between 580 and 669. People whose credit score is in this range usually have some weaknesses in their overall credit report and are working to improve their creditworthiness.
Luckily, this map offers some useful tools.
Regular credit line checks
Probably the most beneficial of these credit benefits are regular credit line reviews. Starting from six months, Capital One automatically renegotiates your line of credit and potentially increases it. So, even if you can start with a fairly low credit limit, if you follow good financial practices — like paying your bill in full each month — your line of credit can increase. And since the total amount of credit available is one factor that affects your FICO credit score, having a higher credit limit can help boost your score.
Access to CreditWise
Capital One also offers access to CreditWise, which can provide you with additional tools to help you understand, track, and improve your credit score. With this service, you can receive email alerts whenever your credit report changes, notifying you of potentially fraudulent or unexpected payments. Capital One will also track your social security number and identification information on the dark web. Another nice perk of CreditWise is the credit simulator, which allows you to analyze the potential impact of certain financial decisions before you actually make them.
Travel and map protection
Fraud Liability $0
Like most reward credit cards, Capital One Platinum offers $0 for fraud. This means that if your card is lost or stolen, you will not be responsible for any payments made by unauthorized users.
Card blocking and emergency card replacement
If your card is lost or stolen, you can block it immediately through your online account, the Capital One mobile app, or by calling 1-800-227-4825. In addition, you can get a free replacement card, which will be delivered within a few business days.
Security Warnings
You can rest easy knowing that Capital One is always monitoring your account information. If the issuer detects any suspicious transactions in your account, it will notify you by phone, text, or email. So you can either confirm the transaction or take drastic action to block your card if it is being used fraudulently.
Virtual card numbers
If you’re worried about giving out your credit card information, another nice feature is the ability to get a virtual or one-time card number through Eno. This allows you to keep your real credit card number when using virtual card numbers for online purchases.
Low fees
While Capital One Platinum does not offer rewards on your purchases or a first year welcome bonus, this credit card has low fees. As a cardholder, you do not have to pay an annual or foreign transaction fee for purchases made outside the United States.
By using this card responsibly with no annual fees, you can work on building your overall credit profile, improve your credit score, and ultimately qualify for a better rewarding credit card as your score increases.
Ease of use
Capital One makes it easy to use the Platinum Card, especially through the mobile app. Capital One Mobile allows you to access account information such as your balance, spending history and more, wherever you are.
And if you have other Capital One accounts, such as checking or savings accounts, all of your account information will be displayed together, making it easy to pay your credit card bill directly from your Capital One checking or savings account.
Making the Most of Capital One Platinum Card Benefits
Since the Capital One Platinum card is designed to help people improve their overall credit profile, the main benefits of the Capital One Platinum card that you’ll want to make the most of are the ones that will help you do just that. The regular line of credit increase starts six months after receiving the card and is automatic, so there is no need to register or do anything to get this benefit. However, this is something you need to keep an eye on so that you can know your total credit line and how it can affect your credit score.
If you’re working on building your credit score, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of Capital One CreditWise. CreditWise has tons of articles and information about loans and what specifically affects your credit score. You can see which items on your credit report have the biggest impact on your actual score, and the simulator feature will even let you predict how certain decisions will affect your score. Finally, as noted, CreditWise also allows you to track your credit score and credit report, so you’ll be the first to know if your credit score changes.
bottom line
Capital One Platinum is a basic credit card designed for those with a fair credit history. While it doesn’t have any sort of signup bonus or spending rewards program, it can be a decent option for those who need access to credit and a way to improve it.
Whether or not to buy Capital One Platinum is up to you, but before you apply, check out our list of credit cards for fair and average credit.
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