Consumer complaint received 2017-03-02
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TX
Product: Credit card
Issue: Other

Complaint:
My husband and I were going to purchase a home last year and I was informed of a judgement against me by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). I was unaware and immediately began trying to locate the debt to resolve the matter. Eventually I found that Capitol One had purchased the debt and so the story goes ... In XXXX XXXX, I had been speaking to and had established a good working relationship through numerous lengthy phone calls with XXXX XXXX XXXX at Capital One. She informed me that her granddaughter is in the military and that she believed the judgement was illegal. I began researching it ( as I had just recently learned about having this judgement against me in the first place ) and low and behold, XXXX XXXX was correct. It was filed illegally. XXXX XXXX told me that, due to our circumstances ( trying to close a VA home mortgage within a couple weeks ), the quickest way to get this resolved and OFF my credit report so that the VA would close our loan, was to : 1. Overnight payment to Capital One of {$3000.00} ( which I did immediately ). I even took a huge risk and took this money out of our closing costs because I was promised it would come right back. 

2. Capital One would " satisfy '' the judgment and remove it from my credit immediately ( she even had extensive details on the attorneys names that would be handling this " rush '' job ) so that we could close on our home on time. 

3. Capital One would enroll me in the SCRA program and return the money to me quickly. She said disputing it on my credit report would take far longer, but would work. But this way, if I paid it, you all could close it out, remove it from my credit, and refund my money faster than a credit report dispute. 

I called and called each and every day trying to find out where my money was after about a month. At XXXX point I was told by XXXX ( on XXXX XXXX, XXXX ) that a check had been cut on XXXX XXXX and therefore I should be receiving it any day. We continued pushing out our closing and making up ridiculous excuses until we ran out and eventually had to borrow the funds from my grandfather. How embarrassing! Over the next two weeks I spoke to 7 different people in the escalations department, all of who told me they would get back to me and never did. 

The SCRA does not protect ONLY when the servicemember is the account holder. It also protects spouses who are account holders, as well as servicemembers who are authorized signers ( and in our case, had a separate credit card for this particular account ). In fact, because my husband was an authorized signer and had his own card, when the account went delinquent, it went on BOTH of our credit reports. We tried relentlessly to remove it from his credit ( because we, too, thought he did not have liability being an authorized signer ), and were never granted that request for seven years. Conveniently, XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) put the judgement in only my name, not my husband 's, as they knew running a simple check at the courthouse of XXXX XXXX service at the time of filing would not raise flags if filed in my name. But this delinquency was on his credit until XXXX ; judgements stay on your credit for longer. Mostly ALL of my other creditors complied with SCRA and reduced my interest rate to 6 %, whether my husband was the account holder, an authorized signer, or had nothing to do with the account. Those who did not comply, eventually sent me an apology letter along with a check for the overpayment in interest, fees and " inconvenience '' ( i.e. most recent was XXXX Bank, XXXX XXXX for {$2500.00} ). This is very likely due to the recent federal oversight and laws set in place ( and now actually enforced ) as well as numerous federal lawsuits filed against banks for non-compliance. CO offered me a " courtesy credit '' of {$1000.00} which I have turned down as I will accept nothing less than what is owed to me. They STILL have not removed from my cred

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation