Capitol One: "What's in your wallet?!"
I wrote the below letter to Capitol One, after obtaining a "no fee credit card" that I had never used or activated, but the card still resulted in numerous fees, frustration and wasted money, time, effort, etc. This letter actually resulted in my receiving most of my money back in the form of a check for $128.00, but without any enclosed letter. The account has since been cancelled. Read on, it's good and catharctic.
January 20, 2005
Capital One Bank
P.O. Box: 60024
City Industry CA 91716-0024
RE: Unfair Billing Practices
Platinum Master Card Account #: xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
This letter is a complaint of unfair billing practices by your company. Narrative of Capitol One Billing follows:
I am a typical young working consumer trying to maintain good credit standing. I live on about $42K per year and without a mortgage or a car payment and I can actually afford to pay hard cash for most of the goods and services that I purchase. On a weekly basis I receive armloads of offers of credit from all manner of credit agencies. I have received dozens of offers from Capitol One, but refrained from signing up for any with an Annual Fee. Sure enough, Capitol One sent me an offer for a card with “zero annual fee,” for which I applied, just to have in case of emergency. I got the “to activate card” and put it away and basically forgot about it for a couple of months. I saw a couple of statements come in with zero balances. A couple of more statements came in, which I basically ignored, since I still had not had the opportunity to use or activate the card. At some point I opened a statement, I believe it was a late December Billing and puzzled and annoyed to find a $59 annual fee applied plus two 29.00 “past due fees” plus finance charges applied. Of course I did not have a copy of the original agreement on hand, and so I postponed dealing with it for a couple of weeks, due to being undecided about what to do. My statement postmarked January 13th then stated that I owed $118.22 for a “no annual fee” card I have never even activated or used. I did receive a letter stating this also on January 19th 2005, while helpful, I thought it was a bit late in terms of notification to avert negative financial consequences from the non-use of an account.
When I called the Customer Relations number at 1-800-903-3637 for the first time on January 19th 2005, and negotiated the dizzying array of voice message-tree options, none of which indicate “or press zero to speak to an actual human to manage an interaction too complex for a machine” to make an immediate payment on the card I was told by a friendly and understanding Customer Service Representative “that while I had applied for a card with no annual fee, failure to use the card, resulted in an annual fee.” What a brilliant way to do business! Since I also had two “late payments” my A.P.R. was also increased respectively, and the Customer Service Representative told me that “the computer” would not allow them to remove these extra charges for non-use of the card, etc. I asked her if she really understood how unfair this was, and she kept smiling and said “Yes, completely.” I made two payments over the phone which cost me an additional +/- $25. The total cost of “not using” a Capitol One line of credit? Approx: $143.22. Knowing that you have been f*cked by a billion-dollar Fortune 500 Company? “…Priceless.”
This earlier in the century, this would be called criminal usury. If I thought it wouldn’t be a further colossal waste of my time and money, I would take Capitol One to small claims. As it is, I called and paid off my balance and closed the account due to my dissatisfaction with your billing practices.
On one level I really don’t mind having something cost me a bit of money to learn an important financial lesson. What I’m pissed off about is when I called to explain my situation and possibly have at least one “late payment” fee knocked off I ran into a brick wall by customer service on both occasions that I called. While unlikely, it would still give me enormous satisfaction to receive my “late payment” fees on my “no annual fee” (but read the fine print) of +/- $60.00 back. If this does not happen, however, not only will I never do business with Capitol One, I explicitly forbid Capitol One, or any of its Subsidiaries to contact me by mail for additional offers of credit. I estimate being off your mailing list will save me about 50 trips to the recycle bin per year. Good day.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Morales, dissatisfied customer
A.k.a. Account # xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx
Enclosure: latest Capitol One statement
January 20, 2005
Capital One Bank
P.O. Box: 60024
City Industry CA 91716-0024
RE: Unfair Billing Practices
Platinum Master Card Account #: xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
This letter is a complaint of unfair billing practices by your company. Narrative of Capitol One Billing follows:
I am a typical young working consumer trying to maintain good credit standing. I live on about $42K per year and without a mortgage or a car payment and I can actually afford to pay hard cash for most of the goods and services that I purchase. On a weekly basis I receive armloads of offers of credit from all manner of credit agencies. I have received dozens of offers from Capitol One, but refrained from signing up for any with an Annual Fee. Sure enough, Capitol One sent me an offer for a card with “zero annual fee,” for which I applied, just to have in case of emergency. I got the “to activate card” and put it away and basically forgot about it for a couple of months. I saw a couple of statements come in with zero balances. A couple of more statements came in, which I basically ignored, since I still had not had the opportunity to use or activate the card. At some point I opened a statement, I believe it was a late December Billing and puzzled and annoyed to find a $59 annual fee applied plus two 29.00 “past due fees” plus finance charges applied. Of course I did not have a copy of the original agreement on hand, and so I postponed dealing with it for a couple of weeks, due to being undecided about what to do. My statement postmarked January 13th then stated that I owed $118.22 for a “no annual fee” card I have never even activated or used. I did receive a letter stating this also on January 19th 2005, while helpful, I thought it was a bit late in terms of notification to avert negative financial consequences from the non-use of an account.
When I called the Customer Relations number at 1-800-903-3637 for the first time on January 19th 2005, and negotiated the dizzying array of voice message-tree options, none of which indicate “or press zero to speak to an actual human to manage an interaction too complex for a machine” to make an immediate payment on the card I was told by a friendly and understanding Customer Service Representative “that while I had applied for a card with no annual fee, failure to use the card, resulted in an annual fee.” What a brilliant way to do business! Since I also had two “late payments” my A.P.R. was also increased respectively, and the Customer Service Representative told me that “the computer” would not allow them to remove these extra charges for non-use of the card, etc. I asked her if she really understood how unfair this was, and she kept smiling and said “Yes, completely.” I made two payments over the phone which cost me an additional +/- $25. The total cost of “not using” a Capitol One line of credit? Approx: $143.22. Knowing that you have been f*cked by a billion-dollar Fortune 500 Company? “…Priceless.”
This earlier in the century, this would be called criminal usury. If I thought it wouldn’t be a further colossal waste of my time and money, I would take Capitol One to small claims. As it is, I called and paid off my balance and closed the account due to my dissatisfaction with your billing practices.
On one level I really don’t mind having something cost me a bit of money to learn an important financial lesson. What I’m pissed off about is when I called to explain my situation and possibly have at least one “late payment” fee knocked off I ran into a brick wall by customer service on both occasions that I called. While unlikely, it would still give me enormous satisfaction to receive my “late payment” fees on my “no annual fee” (but read the fine print) of +/- $60.00 back. If this does not happen, however, not only will I never do business with Capitol One, I explicitly forbid Capitol One, or any of its Subsidiaries to contact me by mail for additional offers of credit. I estimate being off your mailing list will save me about 50 trips to the recycle bin per year. Good day.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Morales, dissatisfied customer
A.k.a. Account # xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx
Enclosure: latest Capitol One statement
