You know those Capital One commercials that end with a barbaric looking character asking “what’s in your wallet? ” Well apparently pirates. Capital One is just like the rest of the credit card companies, and just like pirates they pillage. What’s worse is that they take from their good customers for no reason other then to line their own pockets.
Case and point, on the 29th of July I reviewed my then current statement from Capital One. It said that for the prior month I had been charged a late fee of $29, and an over the limit fee of $29. To my amazement I realized that my due date had been moved up from the 10th, to the 7th for the month of May, and to the 1st for the current month June. I was technically late on the 7th for the May payment even though my payment to them posted before the 10th. Capital One charged the late fee, which put me over the limit. I was now liable for the over the limit fee, and charged as well. Like millions of people I make my payments about the same time every month especially now that I use on-line banking. During this period I realized that I would be late for that current month payment because the new due date was now the 1st (hmm). This meant that I would be charged a total of $89 in fees in two months.
To my surprise a Capital One representative called me on the 2nd to inform me that I was once again late (now by less than 24 hours). When I questioned him about the due dates moving he informed me that the company has the right to do so. I then asked him if I could request the due date to be changed back to the 10th. He said that this would require two billing periods, WHAT??? It is important to note that in subsequent phone calls to Capital One two other representatives told me that Capital One does not move due dates. I said, “I have the statements indicating that your company did move the dates.” They offered to remove one late fee and the overdraft fee. I wanted no part of doing business with a company that behaves this way. I promptly paid-off the credit card and requested that the account be closed. Then things became even more disturbing.
About a month later I received a statement not confirming that my account was closed, but informing me that I owed yet again another fee of $29 plus finance charges that they could not clearly explain.By the time I finished dealing with Capital One on this matter they had tried to charge approximately $130 fees within three months. They reduced this amount by two late fees, but that is not the point.
We all know when we are truly late, but charging us fees by using deliberate tactics to make it difficult to pay on time is STEELING. Making it nearly impossible to close the account, and charging even more fees should be illegal. Auto lenders must give payoffs good for a few days at a guaranteed amount, and so should these credit card thieves.
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