Consumer complaint received 2020-05-19
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
I am a 20-year cardholder with Capital One. We use our card regularly and pay our balances in full each month. We have had experiences in the past when the fraud department has contacted us because of an unusual or out-of-pattern purchase. We have either verified it was us and the charge would go through, or confirmed it was fraud and the card number would be shut down. I completely understand the need for these protections. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I used my Capital One Mastercard to make multiple purchases for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. It is not unusual for me to make clusters of purchases at disparate vendors on a particular day. Given the current Corona virus situation, I am using my card even more and purchased a gift card at XXXX. The next purchase I made at XXXX XXXX was declined. I called Capital One right away. I had to go through several verification processes to confirm that I was the cardholder, including receiving a text message to my phone with a security code I had to give to the person I was speaking with at the time. After that, they could speak with me and the person indicated there was concern about several recent transactions on the account. I verified that the purchases were all initiated by me and were okay to process. I asked if I needed to redo the purchase at XXXX XXXX and I was told that, yes I would have to make the purchase again, but that the account was cleared now and it would go through. 
I did so and the purchase was declined again. I thought that it might have been because I had used my phone, so I tried making the purchase from my computer and it was declined again. I might have tried once more before calling Capital One again. This time I was put through directly to the fraud department. The person at the fraud department said that there was suspicious activity and that they needed to verify some recent transactions with me. Again, it was the same purchases I had JUST verified with the person on my earlier phone call. She apologized and said this time I should not have a problem. I asked that she stay on the phone while I made the purchase and this time it did, in fact, go through. 
She then asked me if I wanted to receive text alerts for the account. That way, she told me, I would not have this happen to me again. Instead of being declined, I would receive a text message asking if a particular transaction was being initiated by me. I could text yes if it was mine and it would go through or I could text no if it was fraud and it would be declined. I told her that would great. She asked if the number they had on file was correct. It was not. It was a landline from when we had first opened the account 20 years ago. I gave her the new cell number, the one that I have been using to call them for over 7 years, the one they had just sent the text alerts to, and she made the change. 
All of the above, while time-consuming and a little annoying, was understandable given the conditions of the Corona virus lock-down. 
The real problem occurred on XX/XX/XXXX, when I was making purchases for my daughters and daughter-in-law for XXXX XXXX. I had decided to give gift cards to their favorite restaurants, trying to do my part to support those restaurants. The first transaction went through fine. The second was declined. I did NOT receive a text alert, allowing me to indicate that the transaction was mine ; it was just flat out declined. I called Capital One again. I went through the same verification process, including having a security code sent to my cell phone. Again, I was told there was suspicious activity on the account and again I verified it was me making the purchase. I was told that the account was cleared and I should repurchase the gift card. I explained what had happened five days earlier and asked the person to stay on the line while I re-entered the information. The transaction was declined again. 
This time the person I was speaking to said something to the effect, Oh, your account has moved into a higher level of authentication. Let me place you on a brief hold. 
After five minutes, the person got back on the phone and told me that the only way the account could be unrestricted now was if I sent CapitalOne a photo of the back my husbands or my drivers license. I was astounded. I said I would not give them that information because of concerns over identity theft and the fact that the real ids we use now have bar codes and QR codes with all kinds of information associated with them. I asked if there was some other form of verification I could give, like a utility bill. They said no, only a photo of the back of the drivers license. I asked to speak to a manager. 
I was connected to XXXX, a manager in Fraud & Disputes. She indicated that the elevated level of authentication had happened because the account had too many declined transactions. Mind you, none of the transactions CapitalOne had raised concerns about were actually fraud, and I had verified each of them. In fact, many of these declines were just repeats of the same transaction that CapitalOne had told me their system had cleared to process. 
It then occurred to me that I had never received the text alert on XX/XX/XXXX that was supposed to allow me the opportunity to verify that a suspicious transaction was indeed mine. Why hadnt that happened? When I spoke to the person on XX/XX/XXXX, she had indicated that she had set the account up do so. I had even received a text on XX/XX/XXXX confirming that my cell phone was going to be receiving texts, etc. from CapitalOne. XXXX said that that was another reason for the elevated authentication. The phone number had been changed on the account. I said that that was ridiculous because the person in the fraud department was the one who had made the change. She had done this because the phone originally associated with the account when it was opened was a landline. She needed to enter my cell phone number so I could receive text alerts. And the number she changed it to was the same number that CapitalOne was already sending the security codes to, so clearly it was in their system, associated with my account. XXXX said none of that mattered. The system had been flipped to an elevated authentication level and they would only accept the photo of the back of one of our drivers licenses to unlock the account. I was furious. About the only compliment I can give to CapitalOne at this point was that the several people I spoke with kept their cool. But that is it. There was no ability to look at the fact that their fraud detection system had failed. Now I was not able to use my credit card in the midst of a crisis that required even more frequent use of such credit cards in order to remain socially distant and safe. The only way to correct their systems error was to give information that I felt would put me at greater risk for identity fraud. I hung up. 
After logging into my CapitalOne account online, I was going to close the account. I had a sizable number of miles that I was going to use first and then I was going to pay the difference in the amount due. However, CapitalOne had locked down my miles as well. So now, I couldnt even close my account without losing a great deal of money I had already earned. There was no need for the lock down of my miles to occur. Obviously they were still accepting my payments and this was just a form of payment. Those miles were earned on transactions that had already been paid for and I was using them to pay down the account balance. There was no fraud risk to CapitaOne.

I called CapitalOne again. This time I spoke with XXXX, a manager in the same department. While she agreed with everything I said, she told me she could do nothing. I asked what happened when they received the photo of the back of my drivers license, what switch was flipped so-to-speak, that allowed my account to operate without restriction? I asked, if knowing that the fraud system had failed, why couldnt she override the restriction and put notes into the account indicating why she had done so. She said she would be fired if she did that. What kind of company does not empower their employees to override a failed system, especially with a customer who has been with them for 20 years?! So then, I asked if she could release the lock on my miles so I could pay my bill and close the account, explaining my rationale that there was absolutely no fraud exposure to CapitalOne here. The payment would be going to my account, nowhere else. She said she was unable to help me. I hung up again and called the CFPB to find out how to register a complaint. 
Before writing this, I tried one more time to contact CapitalOne. This time I called Customer Service rather than the fraud department. I asked for a manager and was transferred to XXXX, an Account Dispute Manager. He basically told me that their fraud system was acting correctly. I asked him if I should expect, as a cardholder, to make a purchase, have it declined, call to verify with the fraud department that it was me making the purchase, be told that the account was cleared to make that purchase again, to go ahead and make the purchase and then to have the transaction declined again. Not only that, but to have my account locked down until I gave them a photo of the back of my drivers license. He said that apparently the system was still concerned about the purchase. I admit, I was angry and probably rude. I assume there are recordings of all these phone calls. I hope so. I have screen shots of the call details as well as the texts to my cell that include the security codes I was sent and the notice about receiving texts from CapitalOne. I will include these as substantiation of my story. 
At one point, all I wanted was for my account status to be returned to normal without having to send the photo of the back of the drivers license. I had been a happy customer at CapitalOne for 20 years. But I have spent too much time on the phone and too much time changing all of my automatic payments tied to CapitalOne, hoping that I catch them all before the next billing cycle, and too much time writing this. 
I no longer have any faith in CapitalOne as my credit card company. The only acceptable resolution for me is to be allowed to apply the full value of my reward miles against my balance, regardless of how long ago any travel purchases were made. I will then pay the remaining balance and close the account. I want a written statement from CapitalOne that this account was closed by me because of my complaint regarding how this was handled. I want to make sure that there is no negative report made to any credit bureaus regarding this closure. I expect an immediate resolution. 
Thank you for allowing me to air this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation