Consumer complaint received 2021-03-31
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Didn't receive terms that were advertised

Complaint:
My wife and I received an advertisement for a Capital One 360 savings account, promising a bonus of {$500.00} if we opened an account with new money before XX/XX/XXXX and held the funds in the account for at least 90 days, The offer ad did say on the back that the account should be funded within 10 " days '' of opening, but nowhere said that " time was of the essence '' as long as all was done before the offer end date of XX/XX/XXXX. Nowhere did it specify whether calendar or business days were the measure of the undefined term, " days. '' We proceeded to open the account on XX/XX/XXXX. In order to fund by transfer from our checking account we had to wait until Capital One verified the account settings by depositing and withdrawing sample funds. On XX/XX/XXXX Cap One deposited XXXX cents to the account in two deposits and on XX/XX/XXXX they withdrew the XXXX cents in one withdrawal. I do not see and do not recall any notification from Capital One that the verification process was completed and that I could transfer the funds to the account. I did notice that the deposit and withdrawal had been made later that month and I did transfer the funds to the account on XX/XX/XXXX well in advance of the XX/XX/XXXX cutoff date. 

I kept the required funds in the account for almost a year, well beyond the 90 days required. Capital One never credited us with the {$500.00} bonus. When we contacted them on XX/XX/XXXX we spoke with a young lady who advised that the deposit had to be made within ten " business days '' and we did not qualify for the bonus funds. She said that Capital One had previously granted extensions of up to 5 business days, or a total of 15 business days, but that we missed that mark by 1 business day under her count. She was wrong - XX/XX/XXXX was a Sunday and our account actually started at the earliest on XX/XX/XXXX. We were prevented from funding until XX/XX/XXXX at the earliest, assuming they had notified us on that date ( which is not what happened as best as we recall or can reconstruct with emails ). XX/XX/XXXX is only XXXX business days from XX/XX/XXXX and certainly should have qualified. Moreover XX/XX/XXXX is only 12 business days from XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and would fit within the extension period of 15 days. 

There is not rational basis for a claim that the 10 day funding period had any material or legitimate purpose so long as funding occurred prior to XX/XX/XXXX. Our case was reviewed first by the woman 's supervisor named XXXX, and later by someone named XXXX. XXXX send us an email on XX/XX/XXXX claiming that our appeal was denied and claiming that the terms referred to 1 " calendar days '' in direct contradiction to the information we were previously given. 

This seems like a pretty clear scam by a banking institution - a 'bait and switch '' to get us to make a significant deposit and then to deny us the promised benefit based on trickery and doublespeak. My scanner only does 8.5 X 11 documents so my attachment has two page ( top and bottom ) for each side of the ad.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation