Consumer complaint received 2022-02-26
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
Capital One does not disclose how it calculates the " minimum payment due '' amount that appears on each month 's statement. The manner in which it is calculated appears nowhere in the terms of the credit card agreement. Further, on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Capital One and spoke with a supervisor named " XXXX '' and he TOLD me how the amount was calculated and gave XXXX different responses during the call stating the amount is based on XXXX XXXX of the balance at XXXX point and then stating the amount is based on XXXX XXXX of the balance at another point in the conversation. He also asserted that any fees incurred are added to the minimum payment due amount each month. When I requested that he inform me of where I can find this information in the terms of the card agreement he could not and attempted to claim that it was just a minor issue and the terms can't cover all issues. The minimum payment due is not a minor issue and is perhaps the single most important information that appears on a monthly statement. I asked him to tell me where I could find the information about how the amount is calculated if it is not in the terms and he was unable to provide me with any document or other written item that contained the information. When I asked him if he could research the issue and then give me the location of the information when he found it he flatly refused and eventually hung up on me. 

I have attached a copy of the terms of the card agreement that were sent to me by Capital One. As you can see, NOWHERE in the terms does it state how the minimum payment due amount is calculated. More importantly, the terms CONTRADICT the explanation given to my by XXXX and are in conflict with the manner in which Capital One is calculating the minimum payment due amount. Contrary to XXXX 's representation and Capital One 's actual practice, fees are NOT to be added to the minimum payment due amount according to the terms found on page " XXXX '' of the agreement. Under the heading " Interest Charges and Fees, '' the second paragraph explicitly states " We will generally treat Fees as purchase transactions unless otherwise specified below. '' Treating fees as purchase transactions means that the fees will not be added to the minimum payment due amount but will instead be added to the total balance amount of the card just like any purchase made at a store or business or elsewhere would be added to the total balance of the card and not to the minimum payment due amount. 

Given the explicit representation that fees will be treated as purchase transactions, the only way for Capital One to treat them as part of the minimum payment due amount would be for there to be something in the terms that follows the explicit representation and would constitute the " unless otherwise specified below '' clause and requirement found at the end of the explicit representation. There is, however, nothing in the terms that follows the explicit representation that specifies that any fee will be treated as part of the minimum payment due amount instead of as a purchase transaction. Specifically, with regard to late fees, the only information about late fees that follows the explicit representation that fees will be considered as purchase transactions is the following brief statement under the heading " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' : " We may charge you this Fee if we do not receive your payment as instructed on your XXXX by the payment due date. '' There is nothing else in the terms of the agreement that discusses late fees, much less how they will be applied. The brief statement clearly does not change the previous explicit representation that fees will be treated as purchase transactions. In fact, it says nothing at all about how late fees will be treated and how they will be applied. 

Capital One is refusing to abide by the very terms of the card agreement that XXXX wrote. There is nothing unclear or ambiguous about the assurance that fees will be treated as purchase transactions. When I asked XXXX why he believes that the assurance does not apply to late fees he could not give me any logical or reasonable answer. Capital One 's disregard and violation of the very terms it wrote for its card agreements is outrageous and has caused financial harm to me while, at the same time, unjustly enriching Capital One since it is unilaterally taking money to which it is not entitled and, from the terms of its own agreement, is prohibited from taking. Because Capital One disregarded the terms of its card agreement, it unlawfully and without authorization, added a {$39.00} late fee to my minimum payment due amount this past month that resulted in an illegally increased minimum payment due. When I made a payment on XX/XX/XXXX, I fully expected that the payment amount would cover the current minimum payment due amount and it would have but for Capital One unlawfully adding a {$39.00} late fee to the expected minimum payment due amount. When it did this, it cause my XX/XX/XXXX payment amount to be insufficient to meet the new minimum payment due amount that was created by its unlawful and unauthorized addition of {$39.00} to the amount due. This, of course, then enabled Capital One to then again assess yet another {$39.00} fee to my account because I did not pay the unlawfully increased minimum payment due amount by the date it was due ( it would've been paid had it not been for the addition of the unlawful {$39.00} late fee to the lawful amount that was due ). 

Capital One representatives, including XXXX, have completely avoided addressing Capital One 's unlawful practice of adding late fees to the minimum payment due amount despite being repeatedly told that the practice is not only unauthorized and unlawful ( since it is not disclosed anywhere in the terms of the card agreement ) but that it is also completely contrary to and in violation of the express terms of its card agreement. Knowingly taking money that the terms of the card agreement written by Capital One expressly prohibit and provide for an entirely different manner in which the fee is to be assessed and applied is nothing more than outright theft. If Capital One was an individual or average person, it would be criminally prosecuted and convicted for the actions it is taking. It should not be permitted to violate the law and the terms of its own card agreement simply because it is a huge financial company. 

An additional indication that late fees are to be treated exactly as stated in the provision that assures that they will be considered as purchase transactions is the fact that the word " Fee '' and " Fees '' that appear in the " Interest Charges and Fees '' section and in the " Late Payment Fee '' section are identical in their use of an upper case " XXXX '' and in their appearance as italicized text. There can be no conclusion drawn other than that the intentional displaying of the words in the exact same manner with the exact same emphasis appearing in them means that the XXXX terms are exactly the same thing. Thus, the fees being referred to in the " Interest Charges and Fees '' section expressly includes late fees found in the " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' section. 

Because Capital One has unlawfully applied late fees to the minimum payment due amount without providing any proper disclosure that they would be treated this way and, more importantly, in blatant violation of the terms of its own card agreement, I am requesting that it remove the late fees from my recent statements, refund the amounts charged for them, and credit to the account any interest accrued because of the illegal addition of the fees to the minimum payment due amount. 

Thank you and please contact me if you have any questions or need any clarification.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief