Consumer complaint received 2023-05-09
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Application denied

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for the Capital One Venture X. I was given a denial but no reason was offered. I was told to wait until the denial letter arrived 10 business days later, which the following words were printed : " Based on your credit report from one or more of the agencies on the back of this letter, there are too many revolving accounts. '' This is not the real reason I was denied. I called on XX/XX/XXXX and asked the Capital One phone representative to manually underwrite my credit application since my XXXX 1040 form accurately reported a gross salary with a verifiable income in the six figures. I was then told by the phone representative ( this representative was not in the XXXX, he identified himself as a US stateside Capital One representative ) that they can not manually underwrite me. The real reason for the denial is the practice of Capital One to deny customers credit who reside in a racially divided geographical area that Capital One has determined constitutes a higher credit risk, who otherwise would be approved based on accurate individual credit reporting.

I have eight active revolving accounts, & Capital One ignores that all accounts are in good standing, consistently report a credit utilization of under 10 %, and have a 100 % payment history over all 3 bureaus. With an average age of accounts of 4 years and 8 months according to XXXX, the excuse " too many revolving accounts '' is specious reasoning since an active credit history of " many revolving accounts '' has traditionally been used by all 3 credit bureaus as a positive indicator of low credit risk. According to credit bureaus, the amount and length of revolving accounts is a positive indicator, which makes up 15 percent of your XXXX Score. ( Again, Capital One used this as a illegitimate reason to deny credit and was used abusively to increase my credit risk instead of accurately using it to lower it. ) XXXX XXXX XXXX When the CFPB investigates XXXX they will find a pattern that Capital One applications that receive the denial message " there are too many revolving accounts '' is a dog-whistle reply that's given to people with good credit that live in predominately minority neighborhoods, with the intention of minimizing their credit risk portfolio that lower income neighborhoods legitimately pose to lenders. While it might " feel '' like everyone that lives in a lower income neighborhood " might '' pose a risk, the truth is broad generalizations applied to individuals is an inaccurate measure of individual credit risk which is why we have the XXXX algorithm in the first place, and which Capital One has ignored in my case. 

This is a direct violation of Capital One 's own credit policies : " The ECOA is a landmark civil rights law that protects consumers from credit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status and age, among other things. 

Capital One is proud to uphold the ECOA. Under this law, if your credit application is declined, you have the right to know why. If a consumer suspects a lender has been discriminatory, they can take action, thanks in part to the ECOA. '' https : //www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/credit-policies/

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation