I hate you, Capital One.

[dyamond]

I’ve had this particular card for probably about 5 years. I’ve only ever been late on a payment twice about 3 years ago when I was unemployed. Other then that I’ve never gone over my balance, I pay well before the due date and I pay them more than 3 times the minimum payment they ask for. What do I get in return?

This letter, stating they were restructuring accounts and were raising my minimum payment from $15 to $25 and adding a $5 a month “Customer Fee”. I emailed them at first, thinking it was someone trying to pull a scam and get me to “opt-out” by calling this number, allowing them to obtain my credit card number but I received a reply that said, no it’s accurate.. thus begun my wrath . Here is the angry letter I will soon email to the CEO of Capital One (it’s amazing what you can find on the internet )

I received a letter stating there would be changes to my account. I understand that these changes are not due to the status of my account because I have been active with Capital One for, I believe, 5 years and was only ever late twice on a payment about 3 years ago when I was unemployed. I always pay on time and I pay at least 3 times more than my asked minimum payment. The items that you listed on the letter, for this determination, are grossly inaccurate, which is why I thought it was a scam. I would completely understand these changes if I only made minimum payments or if I were persistently delinquent but I am not and have not been.

I, also, understand that these changes (although, I’m sure Capital One won’t admit to this) are in response to the recent changes by the Federal Government to credit institutions, restricting them from charging astronomical fees for various things. So, to make up for the loss in revenue from the fees, they are instituting these ridiculous customer fees and higher minimum payments. This is disgustingly shady and underhanded. To make these changes to hard working but barely surviving customers from which these people are slowly emerging from a debilitating 18 month depression is deplorable. I hope your measly $5 a month fee is worth losing a good paying customer. I hope, due to this fact, you lose many, many more good paying customers. Also, please note I have reported this company and these practices to the Better Business Bureau, The FTC and my State Attorney General.

I really liked Capital One, I thought they were fair and decent but I see I was very, very wrong. Please let this letter serve as notice that I wish to close my account. I will still make all payments accordingly until the balance is paid off but I wish to have no dealings with a company this despicable.

Sincerely,

One very pissed off (ex) customer

I can't believe they think they can get away with this! I was gonna close this off AFTER I paid it off but I refuse to pay one cent in "Customer Fees"

[Kodo]

They don't care. They are hemorrhaging money right now because people are paying down their debt's in record numbers. NO one in their right mind is ramping up their debt on credit cards unless they are intending to do so thinking it's all going to blow up anyway.

The more money they DON'T get from you because you're paying down your debt, the less money they can claim as revenue on their quarterly reports. So they found a loop hole in the new law that allows them to circumvent it and you see the results of it in your letter.

[dyamond]

While that makes business sense, you do need to up the make money where you are losing it, it does not make business sense to piss off your best consumers. All you have to do is google Capital One sucks and read the tales of woe and how many people are closing their accounts.

I'm sure they won't care about my letter or the fact that I am canceling my account but I don't think many people for stand for it and when they lose even more money, do to these shady practices, maybe they will re-think this idea because I haven't gotten any other letters like this from my other credit cards.

Judging from the lack of replies, I'm going to assume everyone else loves their credit card company. It figures I'd get stuck with the crappy one

[TimW]

Find a better deal and transfer your balance. Capitol One was one of the banks that got a huge government bailout!! Plenty of people are fed up with them.

[silas]

I dont have a card myself, but my family is having issues with their credit card place as well.

[Mimsy]

Originally Posted by dyamond

Judging from the lack of replies, I'm going to assume everyone else loves their credit card company. It figures I'd get stuck with the crappy one

I don't have credit cards. I have a debit Visa through my bank, and a rainy-day fund of easily accessible cash.

[Fred_G]

Sometimes you can call them up, tell them you found a better deal, and they will work with you (sometimes) to keep you as a customer. I am with you though, I am not paying a $5 am month 'Customer Fee', unless I am getting a heck of a lot of customer benefits from them...

Like TimW said, find a better deal, transfer your balance, and the heck with 'em!

[Kodo]

Originally Posted by dyamond

While that makes business sense, you do need to up the make money where you are losing it, it does not make business sense to piss off your best consumers. All you have to do is google Capital One sucks and read the tales of woe and how many people are closing their accounts.

I'm sure they won't care about my letter or the fact that I am canceling my account but I don't think many people for stand for it and when they lose even more money, do to these shady practices, maybe they will re-think this idea because I haven't gotten any other letters like this from my other credit cards.

Judging from the lack of replies, I'm going to assume everyone else loves their credit card company. It figures I'd get stuck with the crappy one

Again. They really don't care. On top of that, they don't get it either.. well, sort of. See, they know how to suck you in and after they gotcha, they know how to keep you paying. The CC companies are all in the game together. If you want to transfer to a 0% card, guess what, you're going to pay a transfer fee on that and if you're pushing 5k on the card, it'll probably 2 payment cycles, maybe 3, of minimum payments to recover that loss before you start paying down on the 0% debt. So if you're 0% is for a year, think again. In this case, it would be 9 months of 0%APR.

The game is "how much can we squeeze out of them now that we have them". The bastards!

[BILLMCC66]

Here in Belgium we have all the major credit cards but they are prohibitively expensive, normally between 16 and 19% APR.

I have an American express just for when we travel abroad and a bank debit card for everyday use.

I realise that not everyone is able to work the same as i do and the credit companies know it only too well so they are able to charge these extortionate rates.

With your card Dyamond i do not understand how they can charge you a yearly fee for the card and then stick a monthly fee on top of that (surely that's illegal)

[Spad]

We have only one credit card we use, and then just for on-line purchases . . . the balance is paid off almost at once.

Like Fred_G and TimW said, sometimes you can call around and find a better deal. My wife is a financial wizard . . . more then once she has transferred what small balance we have from one credit card co to another that offers some kind of deal (like 0% interest for X number of months, for example). She is also good at calling places and talking them into waving fees for this and that, and once convincing a card co to wave a late fee the one time she was late with a payment.

We wouldn't even use the one card . . . but I refuse to use a debit card that is attached to my actual bank account for on-line activity. Granted, the debit card has the same protections as a regular credit card - but if somehow it gets "stolen" online the thief can clean out your bank account of "actual" money, as opposed to "virtual" money on a regular credit card. It could take over a week to get your account accredited . . . and if it's your actual cash this can cramp your style. If it's virtual money, who cares how long it takes . . .

[Sgt. Tibbs]

I don't have credit cards. Learned my lesson the hard way in college. But my debit card used to be through Bank of America, and they were even worse.

I have two cards with them and everytime i had a problem with them they worked with me. Now a Wally world card stay the hell away from them. They screwed me up big time.

[Bill_Marsden]

My PayPal account was hacked about 5 years ago, they didn't respond to my queries for several days, meanwhile my bank kept charging overdraft fees (but not paying anything out) every time the folks in Russia tried to draw money out. When I finally did get someone they blamed automation, which I made a point of pointing out this was BS.

The bank refunded my 4 fees when they found out it was fraud.

I haven't had a PayPal account since, and never will.

[Mimsy]

No offense, but I'm not canceling a very good service after one single horror story from 5 years ago. Especially not since I have no idea how good your password was, how well you were protecting your log-in information, and what security program you were using on your computer at the time.

I'm not trying to say "it was your fault you lost your money", my point is that one single hacking incident 5 years ago, is not necessarily a relevant argument to anyone else today.

[Triaxx2]

Thank the industrial revolution for telling us that the deeper in debt we are, the better off we are. I believe that if I can't pay out of pocket, I don't need to have it.

5/3rd is up to the same trick though, so...

[Fred_G]

Originally Posted by Triaxx2

Thank the industrial revolution for telling us that the deeper in debt we are, the better off we are. I believe that if I can't pay out of pocket, I don't need to have it.

5/3rd is up to the same trick though, so...

Huh?

[Rikky]

Banks they do their best to get you into debt when you have no money but when you do have money they give you a private meeting with a financial advisor to give you advice on what the best thing to do with your money is.


Your not a good customer Dyamond your actually the worst bank customer 'And me' the closer your balance is to 0 'either way' or the quicker you can get it back near 0 the worse a customer you are.

[Fred_G]

I won't go very far with this, but Rikky, this is not right.

"Banks they do their best to get you into debt when you have no money"

Why would a bank loan money to someone who can not pay it back? And a credit card is not your money, it is debt when you use it. Should be used responsibly. You can drown in a 5 gallon bucket if you try.

"Your not a good customer Dyamond your actually the worst bank customer 'And me' the closer your balance is to 0 'either way' or the quicker you can get it back near 0 the worse a customer you are."

That, I agree with.

[Rikky]

Originally Posted by Fred_G

I won't go very far with this, but Rikky, this is not right.

"Banks they do their best to get you into debt when you have no money"

Why would a bank loan money to someone who can not pay it back? And a credit card is not your money, it is debt when you use it. Should be used responsibly. You can drown in a 5 gallon bucket if you try.

Because the longer they can keep you paying the minimum payment the more they can make out of you and don't forget banks usually have insurance in case you can't pay it back namely your house and property.

Another interesting tid bit about banks,often when you take out a loan part of the interest pays for payment forfeit insurance,if you can't pay the money back and declare bankruptcy the bank is insured for the full amount through a third party insurance company.

[BILLMCC66]

The Banks are just legalized bandits now, the days of the friendly bank has gone.

I am not able to speak about other countries but here the interest on a savings account is at the moment 1.5% but the interest on the cheapest credit card available is 17.5% but more commonly 19%, so in theory if you have a savings account and a credit card that you do not pay off at the end of the month you will pay 17 or 18% handling fee for borrowing you own money, It sounds crazy put that way but people use credit cards as extra cash and try not to touch their savings.