- Capital One is readying an acquisition of Discover Financial Services, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- The deal would merge two of the largest credit-card issuers in the US.
- Discover is coming off a difficult year after compliance lapses led to a CEO resignation.
Many years ago, when I was first becoming an adult, I applied for a discover card as my first card. They rejected me for bad credit history, which was nonsense. I had no credit history and was applying for an entry level card that did not require any. I figured I must have made a mistake and applied again. Same response. Called, and they refused to be of any service, just called me a credit risk and ended the call.
So fine, I did some research, and applied for a card from capital one. I was approved, no questions asked, and even got a rate limit increase a year later.
I’ve held a grudge against Discover ever since, so while I recognize the danger, I cannot help but gloat to see the company that would not give me the time of day gobbled up by the one I had to turn to for that first card.
Another Discover hater here.
Many many years ago they bought some of my student loan debt and they’ve been impossible to try to work with. Even something as simple as shifting a due date by 3 days to better coincide with a pay schedule, or literally just to make it easier to pay them, they have been awful in every instance.
Of course since those early days I’ve changed jobs many times, tripled my pay, paid off 2 vehicles (the far more expensive of which was financed, ironically enough, by Capital One) and now have excellent credit, good income, etc. So now Discover floods me with mail to open a credit card with them…while still being fucking horrendous to deal with on the student loans!
The last time I actually had to talk to someone at discover they even tried to get me to sign up for a credit card on the call. The woman finally gave up when I told her that I’d rather lose everything and live on the street and survive on a diet of small bits of rocks and sticks than have any more business dealings with Discover.
It’s not just you. I’m well into adulthood when I applied for a discover card. Got approved for a $800 credit limit. Yes, not a typo, $800. Today, that limit is $1200. but my capital one card which I acquired around the same time, $12000 to start and now it’s over 32k.
I never use my discover card and don’t care that this merger is happening.