Thomsons Holiday Card (Capital One)

Member Name: sue.51

Product:	Capital One
Date:	24/03/01 (311 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small discounts on Thomson Holidays, based on spending power

Disadvantages: Low credit limit, not allowing you to take advantage of holiday points.

As you will probably discover from my ramblings on this site, I am addicted to travel, and go away as much as finances permit, both home and abroad.

Upon discovering the Thomsons Holiday Card (backed by Capital One), I naturally thought, yes, more holidays for less, and duly completed my application form on-line. An instant decision was not provided, and I had to wait a couple of weeks for the decision and another couple of weeks after that for the card. Upon opening the account, I transferred a balance from another card, interest rate 9.9%APR for a six month period, not particularly competitive in the current climate, but so what, money towards my holidays. How naive I was. In comparison to my other account, my credit limit is very low (6 times lower in fact), and the balance transfer just about filled the credit limit. In order to gain any discounts you need to accumulate a minimum of 200 points, expenditure of £2000. After this, points can be redeemed in quantities of 100. 200 points will give you the generous sum of £10 off your holiday. After a year, I have just managed to accumulate 200 points. I pay my statements on time every month, with the exception of one, where by transaction with the bank failed and thus the payment was one 1 day late arriving. Capital One charged me £18 for being 1 day late with a minimum £40 payment. I did contact them, explained the situation and in fairness after reviewing my account, they refunded the charge without quibble.

My expectations of this card have not materialised, and in reality, it is just like any other, with an average rate of 15.9% APR after the introductory rate. I have had little to do with the customer service department, because I rarely use my card due to the low credit limit, which has still not been raised, and I am certainly not going to ask, there is too many other good products on the market.

In summary, the card is OK, but there is nothing exceptional about it which ma
kes is stand out from the crowd.

Summary: