I hate you, Capital One.

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by dyamond, Sep 23, 2010.

  1. dyamond

    dyamond Imelda Marcos of Majorgeeks

    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 :mad. 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 ;) :-D)

    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" rolleyes
     
  2. Kodo

    Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

    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.
     
  3. dyamond

    dyamond Imelda Marcos of Majorgeeks

    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 :-D
     
  4. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    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. ;)
     
  5. silas

    silas MajorGeek

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

    Sgt. Tibbs Ultra Geek

    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.
     
  7. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

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

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

    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!
     
  9. N5638J

    N5638J Guest

    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.
     
  10. Kodo

    Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

    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!
     
  11. BILLMCC66

    BILLMCC66 Bionic Belgian

    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)
     
  12. Spad

    Spad MajorGeek

    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 . . .
     
  13. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    I have two bank accounts, my main account and work account. If I'm going to purchase something then I just transfer money into the work account and that goes out over the internet. No credit cards here either, just a line of credit at the bank for emergencies.
     
  14. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    PayPal ;)
     
  15. ItsWendy

    ItsWendy MajorGeek

    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.
     
  16. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    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.
     
  17. Triaxx2

    Triaxx2 MajorGeek

    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...
     
  18. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek


    Huh? :confused
     
  19. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    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:-D '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.
     
  20. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

    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. :-D

    "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. :cool
     
  21. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    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.
     
  22. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    The perfect bank customer is one that stays in debt until death,if you keep paying only the interest or minimum payment the bank is making money from you,over the course of a debt some people will have paid it back maybe 2-3 times and still owe the bank or loan company the same amount of money.

    So the bank has been paid back even though you have not settled the debt.
     
  23. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

    Perhaps we are interchanging the word band, and CC company. ;)

    And your willingly incurred debt and payment options are results of your own actions. The bank does not issue you credit and send you a car or TV randomly to increase their profits.

    Is it the bank's job to make a profit, well sure. Are you using your credit responsibly, I don't know. It is in the consumer's best interests, to monitor this, and find the best option for you. As Dyamond has done.

    And to get back to the OP's thread (sorry) a more competitive company is most likely out there and ready to transfer your balance, or you can get a new CC, and just pay off the old balance, whichever is most to your advantage.

    :cool
     
  24. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

    Well, this seems to be drifting a bit towards a forum we no longer have here. :-D

    A smart consumer watches for stuff like this, and adapts their financial plan to benefit themselves. The bank looks to maximize it's profits. Fred_G pretty much out on this one. ;)
     
  25. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    All I've done is state how banks work Fred its seems your tryna have the old the banks are evil vs personal responsibility debate but I haven't made any moral judgements about how 'banks' work.

    I think you've agreed with all my points by saying banks seek to maximise profit. And they do this by making it easy to stay in debt so I don't know who your arguing with.
     
  26. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

  27. Fred_G

    Fred_G Heat packin' geek

    I think you've agreed with all my points by saying banks seek to maximise profit. And they do this by making it easy to stay in debt so I don't know who your arguing with.

    All companies try to maximize profits, as do you. They make you sign when you use your credit card.

    I am really out this time. Peace all.
    :-D
     
  28. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    Now you've taken what I said out of context and used it as a genralisation of how banks work,the context was credit card use,lending money and minimum payments. ref.OP

    Where banks get their money is irellavent in my points:confused Again Dyamonds opening post is just concerning banks policies towards its credit card customers and the reasons for them thats's all! And that's all I have addressed.:tired

    Its like your hardwired to go into Bank defense mode when someone criticises a bank:-D
     
  29. BILLMCC66

    BILLMCC66 Bionic Belgian

    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.
     
  30. Phantom

    Phantom Brigadier Britches

    Yep, Credit Cards make money out of debts. That is why they are credit. No debts and they would have no business, (as far as the credit side of things are concerned, anyway). About 17-21% is pretty good profit on debt, and if minimum payment is made on say $5k, roughly about 70% of it is pure interest, (profit). Then there's all the extra fees, as said.
     

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