Read the large print
I recently applied for a Capital One credit card to use with my business. It had everything I was looking for: no currency conversion fees, no annual fee, a decent grace period, and rewards. I didn’t much care about the interest rate, because I intend to never carry a balance, but that was pretty good too if you’re curious.
The only thing was, I thought I was applying for a Mastercard, which I specifically wanted because I was under the impression that Mastercard is more widely accepted in Europe. I do regular business with a company in Italy, and will be going there soon as well. So I applied on the phone after poring throught the fine print on the Capital One literature. But I guess I missed the large print: I was actually applying for a VISA. Oops.
At this point I’d have to cancel my just-approved card, wait a couple of weeks, reapply, and wind up with 2 dings on my credit in a very short time in order to switch to a Mastercard. Guess I’ll stick with the VISA, since the company I work with regularly does accept it. But it just goes to show the importance of not missing the forest for the trees.
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