About November Capital One Bank issued me a MasterCard.in immediate promotions, they said my credit report would be raised from $1,000 to $1,500 if I made my first three payment on time. There were NO QUALIFICATIONS other than making my first three payments on time. My first three payment were on time, as were many payments after that, but their computer erred and listed the second payment as late. I later received a letter from a Vice-President confirming that the second payment had been on time and it was a computer error.
In April I called Capital One. My credit limit had not been increased, and I had been charged an over-the-limit fee on my December and again on my April statement. I repeatedly told the representative about Capital One's promise, as I did again and again in various forms of communication: phone, email and correspondence. Capital One never responded other than sending me a denial for increase of credit limit. I asked for credit for the over-the-limit charges, and I believe I got one of the two because they said there policy was to give only one. I should have been credited for the December charge, and then never charged for subsequent over-the-limit charges.
The representative had pointed out that the contract had a "discretionary" clause allowing Capital One to approve charges above a consumer's limit, and I specifically told them if they were not going to raise the limit that they should not appove over-the-limit charges. The representative had told me that it was my responsibility to keep track of the credit used and credit available, and I told her that was not reasonable with all the numbers one has to keep in their mind with phone numbers, Social Security numbers, account numbers, Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), ATM numbers and so on. I told her their policy was unreasonable and specifically asked that they either raise the limit as promised or deny over-the-limit charges. Please note: These were not over-the-limit because of late payments or interest charges: they were over the limit because Capital One chose to approve payments over the limit so they could charge over-the-limit fees along with their ridiculous interest rates.
Instead of correcting the problem, Capital One repeately approved new charges that were over $1,000, including one that put the balance a little over five dollars over $1,000, and for the next year, Capital One repeatedly charged me over-the-limit fees on almost every statement. I finally quit paying after a year of the nonsense. All this time the only responses to my contacts was letter denying me an increase in credit. The original problems were never addressed.
Capital One has now sued me for $1,735, although I have gotten another letter claiming I owe them over $2,200. The huge majority of the alleged debt is for the original over-the-limit fees, late payment fees since I quit paying, and extortionary interest, mostly on these ludicrous fees. The suit was filed on July 6, in Santa Barbara County, California, and I will answer next week with numerous affirmative defenses. I have no real estate for them to go after, so in the suit it appears that money is not enough; they want personal property and household items. Do they really want my 15-year-old frying pan or would they settle for my shower curtain and a few grand?
I would like to also counter-sue, and I'd be ecstatic if I could find a class-action suit to join or an attorney to begin one with me as the first client. With only a couple of thousand of dollars at stake and tough economic times, it is not feasible for me to hire an attorney to defend me unless they take it on a contingency-fee basis. I hope to win a counter-suit because of the fraudulent business practices, breach of contract, bad faith and other causes of action.
One sad thing is that even if I resolved the issue with their attorneys for less, I'd get a big tax liability for this year because if Capital One declared part of the sum as a loss and I agreed to settle for less, changes are they'd send me a tax statement where I'd have to pay taxes on the presumed "gain" of having the debt reduced by the creditor. It all stinks.
I urge all to avoid doing business with Capital One as you may find yourself mired in paperwork that means not much of anything and your valuable time resources may be put at risk defending yourself and trying to rectify the situation. If you know of an attorney who would be interested in this type of case in California or in the United States, please let me know immediately. Thank you.
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