Capital One
Blank checks promised 0% for 18 months but interest was charged

I held a business credit card with Capital One for several years. My habit is to pay off my balance every month and not accrue interest charges.

Capital One solicited me with an offer of blank checks with 18 months 0% interest on their usage. They would charge what I considered a reasonable flat fee of 3% to use these checks. They also would keep the amount of the checks in a separate segment on my statement. Sounds great, right? I used 2 of these checks.

It turns out that if you have ANY transactions on your card or if you use your card at all you WILL be charged interest. The only way you can avoid interest fees is to pay off the entire amount including the "interest free" amount. They cite the clause which states they may allocate your payments any way they wish. They therefore allocate all your payments to the interest free amount & everything else is left unpaid. It also looks as though they treat the amount of the check as a "purchase" which in my case carried a 15% APR, although it's hard to tell from their convoluted statements. From what I can tell I've paid nearly $70 in unexpected finance fees over a 2 month period.

Where is my 18 months 0% interest? Fortunately I was able to transfer my balance to a different card. Others may not be so fortunate.

Company: Capital One
Country: USA
State: Utah
City: Salt Lake City
Phone: 8009557070

  <     >