Consumer complaint received 2020-09-24
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
CapitalOne is engaged in devious and deceptive billing practices which disadvantage the consumer. Periodically they offer a balance transfer option with a % fee of the amount transferred and 0 % interest if paid off prior to expiration date. The problem is that there is no way to track the balance amounts of the balance transfes and how payments are applied. There is a total lack of transparency on the monthly statements. The Customer Service Representatives ( CSR ) freely admit that it is impossible to track using the monthly statements and that they are privy to information the consumer can not see. It is a painful process to get through the automated recordings to actually speak with a CSR. The CSR 's struggle to explain in clear, concise language and figures how payments are applied and why the transfer balances are what they are. I have been asking for over a year to have the statements updated so that there is transparency in billing, all to no avail. Recent example : I made a payment of {$1200.00} on XX/XX/2020. {$60.00} for current charges and {$1200.00} to go to an outstanding balance transfer that I am trying to pay down before XX/XX/2020. After two phone calls with different CSRs, I found out that they only applied {$530.00} to the balance transfer and {$720.00} was applied to " purchases ''. Payment for these purchases is not due until XX/XX/2020. There is nothing on the current statement that reflects how the XX/XX/2020 payment was applied, and they still billed me for {$800.00} of purchases. So, in order to pay off my transfer balance and keep current they say I owe {$1700.00} by XX/XX/2020. This amount includes the {$800.00} which they claim they applied {$720.00} against. I posit that it is deliberate, and the non-transparency is specifically designed to cull more revenue from unsuspecting consumers who are trying to pay their bills and pay them on time. If I miss the XX/XX/2020 payoff date then I will owe additional interest for almost an entire year on {$3900.00}. All through no fault of my own. To have zero transparency plus arbitrary and capricious application of payments is simply wrong. They count on consumers giving up in frustration and simply paying what they see on the monthly statement despite the fact the statements are inaccurate. How many more people like me are out there who have been duped and deceived and paid more than they needed to? They can't tell me where my {$720.00} went, only that I still owe them almost {$1800.00}. They should not be allowed to get away with this. Please stop them. Credit card companies are pillaging consumer with high rates, denying credit and reducing credit lines which affects credit scores for no valid reason all in this time of Covid with high unemployment and people not able to feed their families. Someone needs to investigate and put them back in their box.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation