Consumer complaint received 2023-11-01
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
About a month ago, I reached out to Capital One regarding my 360 Savings Account, which despite having a variable interest rate, has been earning a steady and paltry .3 % interest for nearly 3 years. I have been an account holder for 15 years and during that time, up until 2 years ago, my savings APR had fluctuated with the market, as expected. After years of declining interest rates, I expected the APR on my savings account to finally rise as interest rates in the US began increasing, but it never did. 

I have copies of bank statements which shows that Capital One paid the following APRs on deposits : XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX -.3 XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - .3 XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - .3 XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - .3 XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - .3 XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - .3 APR As you can see, Capitol One regularly adjusted the interest rates on my 360 account until XX/XX/XXXX. Capital One then froze my so-called variable interest rate not coincidently when my APR hit rock bottom. I am happy to share copies of my bank statements in a secure portal that will protect my PII.

I was shocked to learn that while Capital One was reneging on its obligation to increase the variable interest rate on my 360 account, it had created a NEW savings product called 360 Performance Savings and only offered market interest rates to NEW customers. At the same time, Capital One failed to notify existing customers that they would no longer be adjusting the variable interest rate on our 360 savings accounts nor did they notify us about this new product that we could and should move our money to in order to receive the higher interest that we are owed. Capital One committed fraud by failing to meet their obligations to existing customers by freezing our variable interest rates at the lowest level possible and theft by holding on to our savings while failing to pay us appropriate interest. I'm sure they thought it was a clever strategy to create a new product and only pay a higher APR to new customers, which would be a small fraction of existing customers. This move undoubtedly saved them millions and millions in interest owed on existing savings accounts, but it was not just clever. It was fraudulent and theft. 

I filed a complaint with CFPB about this issue ( XXXX ) and Capital One responded without remotely addressing the substance of my complaint. As I stated in my feedback, Capital One is free to create as many new products as it likes but that does not remove its obligation to service existing clients per the terms of their agreement. It is unfair, deceptive and abusive to promise customers one thing and fail to deliver. The fact that they created a new product, 360 Performance Savings, at the same time that they stopped adjusting the interest rate for existing customers is proof that they knew the appropriate amount of interest owed to the original 360 savings accountholders.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation