Time to say goodbye to David Spade and say hello to the crazy credit card guy. Capital One has recently begun an advertising campaign for its Capital One Card Lab, an online tool that lets consumers build their own credit card…kind of. Consumers with excellent credit card will be able to get a credit card as designed. However, people who are unsure of their credit or have lessor credit than they percieved may get something slightly different than what they created in the card lab.
For this review of the Capital One Credit Card Lab, we’ll assume we have excellent credit, which gets us through the first step of this 4 stop process. Step two is where things get a little complicated. On this page, you are able to choose your interest rate, your introductory interest rate and your rewards.
In an attempt to build the best rewards credit card available, I selected to get 1% cashback on purchases with a special 2% intro rate for 12 months. After selecting this, a number of options were removed, including every possible APR below 15.9% and a 0% on balance transfers. I then chose to get a 0% APR on purchases for 1 year. The result: the only available interest rate was 19.9%.
Ultimately, the card I created was not nearly as good as a number of cashback credit cards already on the market.
Disappointed, I tried the Capital One Card Lab again. This time, I designed a card for someone with good credit. The results were equally unsatisfying. I opted to get a 0% APR for 9 months on purchases (the longest available duration), a standard 1% cashback reward option and was ultimately offered a card with a 18.9% APR. Compared with other offers on the market for individuals with good credit, this lab creation was a complete dud. There are probably 30 other credit cards available with better terms.
The Capital One Card Lab is graphically impressive and fun to play with. But choosing a credit card is not about having fun. While some people with excellent credit may be able to create a card that offers good rewards, individuals who don’t meet Capital One’s harsh criteria for excellent credit will find much better deals elsewhere.
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