|
|
| CApital One = CApital
Crime by debsfunstuff | Jun 30 '00 Pros: not a one Cons: everything about this company! I am sure most of us have done this as we had. We received a pre-approval for capital one in the mail and just like a lot of others decided to fill it out and send it in, hoping to get that low interest rate they advertised. Well, that was one of the biggest mistakes of my life (beside marrying my EX-but that's another story). Well, of course we didn't get their advertised rate nor did we get their advertised credit line. What we did get was a ton of sales calls for various things of which we said no thank you each time. But did that stop them? NO! At one point in time I was receiving a call from Capital One almost every day. I would cringe at the sound of the phone ringing and especially that out of area number. At the times I couldn't just let the phone ring I would hear one of the customer reps trying to pawn one thing or another onto me. Then after not answering the phone and letting the answering machine pick it up-the calls stopped for a while. Was that the end of it? I should think not. All of a sudden our payment somehow did not get their by their due date-coincidence? I think not! 10 days is plenty of time for the payment to reach them. When I called them to explain all I received was a verbal statement saying I should mail it earlier next time. well the next month I mailed it almost 14 days early and to my amazement it was late again! OK another call to the customer service reps, this time they did remove my late fee of almost $30 but said I would need to make sure it was their on time from now on. Well, we landed up going into debt consolidation (another huge mistake) and for the past 2 years somehow they cannot figure out that I am making payment but through a consolidation company. They insist I am way past due and have threatened everything from a charge off to suing us. I have in my possession the contract from out debt consolidation company to Capital One stating payment schedule, terms and their agreement. But now when they call they of course have no clue as to what I am talking about and send me in circles to other department. The old saying goes here the right hand doesn't know what the left one is doing. Even if you are desperate for a charge card believe me when I say this is the WRONG one to get. |
| Dont believe what they
tell you!! by Keoke | Jun 27 '00 Pros: Not one!! Cons: That's exactly what they are~~
I have had all the dealings with Capital One credit cards to
last me a lifetime. When I first started with Capital one my
interest rate was 9.9% which was great and for the first few
months all was well. On the 5th or 6th month I send in my
payment and it did not get there on the day it was due which
I don't blame myself cause I mailed it out 5-6 days in
advance and thought nothing of it. On my next statement I
noticed that the interest on my card was far larger then my
payment! I checked my interest rate and suddenly it was
26.99%!! I called Capital One and asked why my interest had
risen so high and they said that because my payment reached
them a few days after the due date it was there policy to
raise my interest rate. I said you raised it by almost 16%!
They said that because of being late that is the "penalty"
that is imposed on people who send in there payments late!!
I was appauled! |
| Punished for
Canceling by tigerb
| Jun 19 '00
Pros: pre approved with no credit history Cons: poor customer relations I was 18 just starting out on my own. Received a pre-approved credit application from Capitol One. No annual fee, decided it would be a good way to build some good credit. I've had the card for two years, paid it in full every month. I'd gotten 2 other credit cards that offered awards, so after not using my Capitol One card for four months I decided to cancel it. That is when all the problems started. When I called in to cancel on April 4th the telephone rep. would not cancel my account until I told her what other credit cards I was using and why I was canceling. I did not feel that this was any of her concern and asked to speak to her manger, then she finally canceled it. I cut my cards up in dozens of pieces and threw them away in separate trash cans for extra caution. I received a notice a week later letting me know my account had been canceled. I filed it a way and didn't give i a second thought until May 18th. I received a letter letting me know that I had made a charge to my account on April 26th and that had reopened my account with them. I called in that same day and also wrote my letter of dispute. And then I waited. I month went by I called back, wasn't anyone in to deal with it and had to call back three different times til I got some one who told me I would have to mail my letter of dispute again or fax it. I'm still waiting to have this resolved. I was told to wait 30 days... |
| Capital One aka
"Capital Punishment"
by ekratochvil
| Jun 17 '00
Pros: Second chance opportunity for those with less than perfect credit Cons: Fees, fees, fees, processing fees, over the limit fees from the processing fees, late fees Capital One has been nothing but an aggravating experience for my husband and myself. I got one in my name just a couple months before he did. We thought it would be a good opportunity to help get our sagging credit back in line. Get a credit card and start using it to help build credit back up. It's been more of a punishment for us than anything else! Funny how things never seem to work the way you want them too. The old saying is so true... If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. I received the card with a small limit of $200. I had sent my $29 or $49 start up fee in to get the card. I had charged about $120 and had not made my first payment yet, as it was not due. My husband and I were going to go out for a nice dinner and had planned on using this as payment. It's a good thing I called to double check the balance before we offered that as our form of payment. I was in amazement to find that my balance was over $230 !! What was that? I had no explanation to tell my upset husband. (Of course he saw it as my inability to responsibly hold a major credit card... but that is another story.) I was eager to see the statement when it came in the mail. Well, after what seemed a month and a half to two months from the day I received the card, I received the first statement. And guess what it said. Late fee... Over the limit fee... EXCUSE ME! I had in fact only spent about $120 on my own accord. Then they slapped on a processing fee of $89. Then that put me over the limit, so then there was the Over the Limit fee of $25, then there was the Late Fee of another $25. I had never even seen a statement previous to this one... how could I have a late fee?! Needless to say, they could do nothing to help me, and I felt it was my fault for not realizing they charge you a processing fee. The next month, much to my surprise, there was an extra $59 annual fee on my statement... once again putting me back over my limit. It's been a vicious circle ever since. I can't wait to get this thing out of my hair and my pocket book. Incidentally, my husband and I were more careful after he received his. We carefully watched and counted and made sure we were not going to get whacked again, but it was inevitable. Fees, Fees, and more Fees! One more payment on both of these and good riddance. |
| Capitol One...You must
check, check & then Check again
by anniedh
| Jun 16 '00
Pros: You can use it for a good credit report if you pay it off Cons: Fees incurred even if you are a day or two late, even when sending in the payment on time & fees for going over your credit limit even if it is their interest that puts you over the limit I received a pre approved application in the mail for a Capitol One Credit Card about a year ago. I took on this credit card as a way to get some good credit since I was recently divorced and my credit report had some blemishes on it. I figured I would put a few things on the credit card & pay them off as soon as I received the bill as a way to build up good credit. This went on very smoothly for a few months... then I started receiving bills from Capitol One that my payment was received late and they would add on a $25.00 charge (whew this is a biggie when my balance owed to them was only about $100.00) It seemed from that time on I was always getting some late charge for being one or two days late (even when I sent in the payments on time) so I decided last month to pay off the balance completely. On several occasions, I called Capitol One to see why I was incurring these extra charges. I was immediately told that I could pay by check over the phone for an additional fee of $10.00 (No way was I going to give them anymore additional fees!!!) So a few days ago I sent in my very last payment by express mail. While I was filling out the envelope, there was a guy next to me at the post office doing the very same thing. He looked over and saw that I was also sending my payment to Capitol One. We exchanged "Notes of disappointment" with Capitol One. So I thought, I'm not the only one with the same complaints. Made me feel better and also that I was going out of the post office knowing that I had paid my account in FULL made my day. Or so I thought I had paid off my entire account.... Today I received a bill from Capitol One. I have no clue what they are charging me $3.21 for (They say it's for finance charges... but how could I incur finance charges if I am paying off my entire balance???)and I'm not even going to call Capitol One. I am going to go to the post office after writing this Epionion, getting a money order and sending $3.21 cents to Capitol One. If I should incur any more charges after paying this amount, I am definitely calling Better Business and filing a complaint. My advice to anyone getting a credit card with Capitol One is this... Be careful, (check, check and recheck your bill) use it only to obtain a good credit rating & pay off the bill immediately. Oh and one more thing... DO NOT GO OVER YOUR CREDIT LIMIT... they charge you a $25 fee for that even if it is their interest that puts you over the limit. |
| Incompetent,
Incompetent, Incompetent!
by topolski
| Jun 16 '00
Pros: 800 number, one good guy at the end Cons: Unreliable web account access, Rude and uninformed customer service, phone tree I inherited these accounts because I do the bills in my family, and my SO had these two Capital One accounts from before we met. And so it goes that we've paid both accounts down, except for a mis-applied penalty fee. I wrote a letter on 6/1/00 to have the fee removed, but by 6/14, the fee had not been removed. My first call to customer service was unanswered. I hung up and called again. My second call to customer service said that due to high call volumes, they would rather I use the automated system to check my balance. Knowing that wouldn't help me, I elected to go on. Despite the fact that I clearly did not elect the automated information, the computer system made me sit through a long series of button presses and account balance, minimum payment, last payment, and other review information before it would transfer me to a live person. Finally, I was transferred. If there was a high call volume, it did not affect the fact that once transferred, I spoke to a live person right away. Maybe the "high call volume" is just a deflection technique to keep you from reaching customer service. After telling my story to the person, she said my account was being handled by the Consumer Credit Counseling department and she gave me an 800# to call. And, although I wasn't going through CCCS to handle my account, I was on hardship terms with the bank so it made sense that my account was being handled by a different department. However, the clerk had given me the wrong number. Rather than giving me the number to the Consumer Credit Counseling department, she gave me the number to CCCS! After 5 minutes of talking to them, I figured out that who I was speaking to and revealing all this personal and account information to WAS NOT a Capital One employee. My third call to customer service said that due to high call volumes, they would rather I use the automated system to check my balance. (Yes, this is repetitive) Knowing that wouldn't help me, I elected to go on. Despite the fact that I clearly did not elect the automated information, the computer system made me sit through a long series of button presses and account balance, minimum payment, last payment, and other review information before it would transfer me to a live person. Finally, I was transferred. (Sigh!) This time I reached an excited man who exclaimed that all of Capital One's computers were down and would I please call back in an hour. I told him that I would not call back and to please connect me to someone who could help me. He said that no one could help me. I asked to speak with a supervisor, he said "Hold On" and put me on hold for about 5 minutes. He then came back to the line and said the following, without taking a breath or waiting for a response: "My supervisor is not available. Is there anything I can do to help you today? Okay, Goodbye!" (Click.) My fourth call to customer service said that due to high call volumes, they would rather I use the automated system to check my balance. (I had to go through it again, might as well take you with me.) Knowing that wouldn't help me, I elected to go on. Despite the fact that I clearly did not elect the automated information, the computer system made me sit through a long series of button presses and account balance, minimum payment, last payment, and other review information before it would transfer me to a live person. Finally, I was transferred. (ARGH!) This time I reached a lady. I asked her about the computers being down, she told me the system has been working fine all night. I told her my story and she said that another department was handling my account. She transferred me to COLLECTIONS. Now, she had a reason. The Consumer Credit Counseling Dept. was closed and Collections sounded like the next best thing to her. Ultimately, Collections couldn't help me, but they did give me another 800# to the Consumer Credit Counseling Dept.. I tried calling it the next morning. It was simply another 800# to their main customer service queue. My fifth call to customer service said that due to high call volumes, they would rather I use the automated system to check my balance. (I'll spare you the rest of this paragraph.) After going through the mandatory phone tree and account review before getting transferred, I spoke to a pretty good clerk who transferred me to the right department. In five minutes, I was done. I didn't even have to whine about how badly I was treated the night before. Mission accomplished: My two Capital One accounts both have zero balances and are permanently closed. |
| Capital One is a Capital
Pain...with a Capital P
by ttee06
| Jun 15 '00 (Updated Aug 28 '00)
Pros: Ummm, errr, uhhhhh Cons: Read away Ring Ring....Ring Ring Hello? Hello, Soandso? yes? This is Mr. Paininthebutt from Capital One... My mind goes blank as I try to block out what he is saying No thanks, I'm not interested? But Ms. Soandso...did you know that as a valued Capital One Customer (he chokes) if you take advantage.....blah blah blah blah? No thanks, I'm not interested? But Ms. Soandso (with more force and frustration)...did you know that .....blah blah blah blah? No thanks, I'm not interested? click So, the next time the caller ID comes up with that "out of area" message I let it ring. No one leaves a message. Three hours on the nose, the phone rings again...out of area...no message. Later that day....oh c'mon it can't be them again! Hello? Hello, Soandso? yes? This is Mr. Paininthebutt from Capital One... No thanks, I'm not interested? But Ms. so and so...did you know that if you take advantage.....blah blah blah blah? No thanks, I'm not interested? But Ms. Soandso (with more force and frustration)...did you know that .....blah blah blah blah? No thanks, I'm not interested? click You know the drill. Capital one has to be the worst when it comes to the incessant sales calls. We have two accounts with them that were opened when our credit was "less than stellar." One was secured with a low limit and one was unsecured with a greater limit. We have shown good credit history with both accounts, but on occasion have had some odd circumstances occur. We mailed that payment in plenty of time The statement arrives and that's funny...there's a late fee and our payment posted exactly one day after the due date. How can that be? Not just once, but on several occasions. So I pick up the phone...blah blah blah, yes sir, no sir, blah blah, please remove the late fee from my account. And they do...you just had to call and ask. But wait Ms. Soandso ... don't hang up yet Now that we've taken care of your billing problem, did you know that as a valued Capital One customer you can take advantage of our payment protection program. No thanks But.... No thanks Did you know..... Hmmmm sounds great, I'm self-employed...can I still take advantage of that? Tee hee Well, uh, er, no. Okay...like I said...no thanks PUHLEEEZ! They've got their gig down So now let's say you are near your credit limit and you make a minimum payment (which I NEVER do anymore, btw) and your anniversary date is near. They charge you the $29 annual fee which bumps you over the limit. Then they post your payment the day after it's due...again. Now they've dinged you with a double whammy. Here we go again....blah blah blah, yes sir, no sir, blah blah, please remove the fees from my account. And they do...you just had to call and ask. I won't bore you here with the dialog that follows, but just a hint...it starts with: "Oh and Ms. Soandso, did you know that as a valued Capital One customer...." Gag me with a spoon....twice. Did my payment go through? What's my balance I use the automated phone system to sometimes check my account status. What a pain. Before I can get my personal information, I have to sit through a painful recorded presentation: "As a valued Capital One Customer....." GEEZ! My advice As a valued Capital One cardholder, I would suggest canceling your account or not opening one in the first place, but if you do I suggest: 1) Dispute every late fee or over the limit fee that they charge. It's a painful process but do it. Why let them have your hard earned money..they make plenty. 2) Negotiate your account in terms of annual fees. Call and ask about programs they have available for this. For example, I got my annual fee waived by switching my long distance to MCI. It remains in effect until I cancel MCI or Capital One...(I recently took my own advice and cancelled the secured card.) 3) Negotiate your interest rate. If you make your payments on time, call them and ask to lower it. They did for me. And more than once! 4) Be firm..say no to stupid offers. Don't be a sucker. 5) My latest request from them was to take me off their "call list". We'll see if the sales calls stop. Note: Since cancelling both cards, I can now answer my phone without my blood pressure rising an octave. Citibank, Discover and Bank of America never call!!!! |
| Six reasons why you
shouldn't have this card
by Andrew0124
| Jun 30 '00
Pros: NONE! Cons: The worst customer service, high interest rate, low credit line, and very very aggressive to customers! As I said in AT&T Universal Card, I love plastic currency. Comparing so many credit cards, I must say: CapitalOne is the worst credit card I ever have. The only good thing of this card I can think of is its beautiful picture. Before I go on, I have to remind everyone of you: Everytime you use the credit card, you're making money for the issuer. That's an extremely important idea. It's the bank who should beg us to use their card, not vice versa. Bank is a very interesting organization: if it lends too much money out, it's in danger whereas if no one wants to borrow money from it, it's in danger too. And thus, as we can see, it tries hard to invent new financial products to attract people to do business with them. Hence, getting a credit card is never a favor, it's simply a business. Now, I'd like to give you the reasons not to have this card: 1.Very high interest rate: Why you want to borrow money? Because you're short of it, that's it. And thus, the lower the repay(interest) is, the better deal you get. This card charges extremely high interest. 2.Annual Fee: CapitalOne plays tricks with the customers. There's no annual fee in the beginning, and then, you will see the annual fee pop up from nowhere. 3.Annoying telemarketing: Like other credit cards, CapitalOne will share your information with its ASSOCIATES. However, it seems every company is its associate. You'll be bombed with loads of telemarketing phones everyday--sometimes during your SLEEP. 4.Low credit line: CapitalOne gives the lowest credit line I've ever seen. Don't think it's of no importance. Combine low credit line and high interest rate--what do you get? You can borrow 200 dollars from it, however you have to pay 40 dollars as interest. Why not borrow 500 or even 1000 dollars and pay 45 or 50 as interest from others? 5.Very customer unfriendly: Lots of credit card companies are quite flexible and they provide good service to their customers lest they lose them. However, CapitalOne wouldn't even be considerate of customers' need, it only think of profit and nothing else. Last and the worst of all: 5.THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I'VE EVER SEEN: Due to the above reasons, I cancelled my CapitalOne Master card within 1 month, and I still receive some telemarketing phones recently. I called the customer service, and told her about the situation. She told me she can't help but she'll file a report for me anyway. I kinda want to reopen my account, and so I ask her if it's possible not to get any telemarketing calls but mails and emails are fine. She answers: Since you're not our customer anymore, why ask that? I told her again my opinion, she's still focusing on the account reopening stuff without answering my question. And here goes her last two sentences: Do you want to reopen your account or not? DO YOU? I'm extremely irritated, so I question her attitude. Ha, she hang up my phone!!! Can you believe it?! Hung up by a CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE? I've never experienced this kind of things. This is ridiculous and outrageous. Want my advice? NEVER USE CAPITALONE CREDIT CARD EVER! |
| My
last card.
by serena21
| Jun 15 '00
Pros: They give credit to just about anyone. Cons: Bad policies and procedures I got an AT&T card as a college student. About a year or so later I applied for a capital one card. Right as my financial situation ended up going downward I got the card in the mail with a $200 limit. For a while I kept up with the minimum payment. Then it happened. I lost my job and used the last of the available money on the card to buy food. Then I started running into the problem that because I missed a payment, I got charged a late fee and then on top of that I got charged an over limit fee. After that, there really was no catching up. I couldn't afford to pay the $50 in fees in the first place, let alone the minimum payment too. I know that sounds horrible, but unemployed and having a hard time finding a job, there was no way. I made the mistake of not calling them. I should have called them and asked if we could work something out. Although I don't think that it would have done much good at the time. I was out of work for three months. I kept getting my monthly statement at my parent's house each month. I can always get mail at their house. And each month they would tack on another $50 in fees for being over my limit and past due. I lost track of when I stopped getting the statements from them, but I can tell you that it's probably been about 2-3 years ago. Like I said before, my address has always been the same as far as they are concerned, so their is no excuse as to why I wouldn't have gotten a statement. Being naive, I thought that they forgot about it since it was such a small amount. Now it is about 3 years later. I'm thinking that maybe it was a charge off or something like that. So the other day I get a letting in the mail from some financial company stating that they are controlling the account now. They want $930 in full or they will pursue further collection measures! Ok, so now I'm realizing that even thought the statements had stopped, the charges were still getting accumulated each month....and don't forget finance charges! So a couple days later I get another letter from the same company. They offer me a settlement. It was a little less than half of what I owed at a whopping $511. I thought not bad. I thought that this was a good deal. But again, I don't have the money now either, at least not to pay the settlement in full. First I e-mailed a few epinioners that have wonderful financial reviews---Almighty, who then referred me to NetKat. The reason was because I wanted to find out how a settlement would affect my credit rating. Apparently it affects it just as badly as one that gets charged off. In other words, it's gonna be stuck on my credit report for at least 7 years! Well, I had called the company I got the letter from to find out how long the offer was good for, and the woman on the other end asked how long I would need to pay it. I said a month and a half. Now this is where I screwed up, because I hadn't slept in over 24 hrs (I worked the night before), I said ok to paying half of the amount over the phone by check. I'm lucky to a point because the check will be dated tomorrow, so I may have a chance.... You see, after I had already done this I had gotten the information that if Capital One is required to mail me a statement every month. If they don't, I may be able to get the finance charges and other fees taken off the amount that I owe. I'm thinking if I could get the amount down to around what the settlement is, I could still pay it off. The advantage of this, from what I understand, is that it looks MUCH better on your credit report. Now what? I'm not sure. I am going to call back today and try and talk to the same helpful woman I talked to yesterday. I'm going to see if I can cancel my payment and the settlement as it stands. I am going to TRY to negotiate the amount being lowered due to my never received a statement. I'm willing to pay the $511, despite the $200 limit. I just need my credit to look better. I would not recommend this card to anyone. I understand that some of the problems I'm having are my own fault. I understand that MOST of them are my fault. I just think that it is incredibly wrong of them to finally mail you something demanding their money or further legal action will result without any explanation of what the charges were. And once again, I understand now that I should have asked for them, but I didn't know. Aside from the illegality of them not sending a statement....their interest rate is EXTREMELY high. They prey on students and people will little to no credit history. They even give credit cards to people who have slightly bad credit. Although, this could be a good thing for those people trying to rebuild their credit. The limits that they provide are also pathetic. On their website they advertise up to a $2000 limit, but almost everyone starts at $200. |
| Capitol "R"as
in Ripoff!
by castrostreet
| Jun 02 '00
Pros: Will give a card to any one, any thing. Cons: Fees, their so called "Mistakes" I had my capitol one visa for 6 months. In that time I was wrongly charged a $25 late fee 3 times, Billed twice in that time for my "Annual fee" of $40. And had my interest rate jacked up 3 times with no notice. I was never late and had to waste my time waiting to get an idiot McDonalds reject customer service person. Then wait again as they said no and I asked to speak to a manager. Then finally got it reversed each time. By month 3 I had started sending in payments using registered mail. This time I had proof they had the payment for 6 days before they posted it. Not to mention every time you call for your balance you have to listed to some stupid commercial trying to sell you something. As if they don't charge enough in fees. I finally gave up and got a card from Providian and that is another horror story for another epinion! Now I am with my credit union's credit card and let me tell you it is much better both interest rate and customer service. Capitol one = Capitol Sleezeballs! |
| Date: 01 Jun 2000
Comments: What a rip off I decided to apply for a Capitol One credit card in the United Kingdom, and I paid the the £10 charge to push the application through quicker. Three weeks later the form was returned to me, with a comp slip telling me that I had not filled out the form correctly, I signed it and returned it, two weeks after that I had my card, which I thought i would use for emergencies. The annual fee of £18.00 was to be deducted from my card immediately and I took care of this ( I thought!!!) in time. Imagine my feelings when my Statement arrived 30/05/00 saying that because my payment had arrived late I now owed £43.30. What a rip off, I won't let this one go, anyone who has had similar problems with this company, please contact me directly and record your complaint on this Board. I hope I get a day in court with this one!!! Rebecca Lisa Goff, United Kingdom |
|
|