Ugh

I really like Discover for the reasons you stated. It was my first CS experience where you called a number and a person just answered...imagine that. Similarly, I detest Capital One for a whole host of reasons. Just last month I was looking to switch banks, read great things about Discover, only to realize they'd be absorbed soon. Hard pass. I wish this deal were never approved. I can't see Discover going away, nor Capital One growing, as good things.

Opposite experience. I love Capital Ones interface, and their customer support is good. Usually I'll get a customer support agent state-side. > the rep who sometimes gets mad at me for it That's an ...unusual customer support experience. > my Discover card kept me up to date with it's upgrade status My capital one card does the same, it periodically requests updates to my income after which my credit line increases. The only friction I experience with Capital One is the lack of physical presences. There are none in my entire region. That being said it is a great bank that never - and I mean never - has played games with auto-pay suddenly and silently failing at the due date (and incurring a late fee of course oopsies), or other annoyances I've had with Discover.

Agreed – Discover has great customer support. Their tech stack, however, seems terrible. They had a very messy migration of their Zelle integration and in the process seem to have broken things for many of their checking customers. Personally, I could neither use it, nor enroll my email address or phone number previously enrolled at Discover with any another bank for several months! Capital One seems to have a much more modern tech stack: Their app is much more usable than most other banks' I've tried, and they're the only US credit card issuer I know of that actually supports 3DS without any ugly hacks that usually mean trouble when shopping at a foreign merchant that requires it. They also support a very neat authentication feature – tapping my credit or debit card on my phone – which I haven't seen with any other bank yet. Let's see which tech stack and which customer support organiza…

A few years ago I decided to build some credit with a Discover secured card. And when I researched Discover, I learned about why their acceptance was lower (higher merchant transaction fees) and their overseas acceptance was comparatively lower, and that they didn't have a single brick-and-mortar branch, and so with masochistic glee, I signed up! Discover's credit card was a great idea, I feel. The cashback rewards I can earn at restaurants are great. The acceptance hasn't really been a barrier to spending, but unfortunately I cling to my Visa-based debit, "just in case" there are merchants who can't accept Discover -- what else would I do? The lack of branches? No big deal, considering anything important can be done through their app or website. Which are very polished, attractive and functional. They don't even 2FA me from my Chromebook. Their customer service is amazing. I mean, call …

My experience with Capital One is very positive. Their support is always solid and wait times are reasonable. The app and the website work well, though they have introduced some dark patterns in recent years. They periodically increase my credit line without prompting.

One note on raising credit limits- Capital One will raise your limit just like every other lender — they want you to have as much debt as they think you can make interest payments on. Probably once you had the increased available credit from Disco their models said giving you more was too much risk.