Consumer complaint received 2019-01-27
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: AR
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship

Complaint:
I am on a set income. I have been though a situation which resulted in me being forced to initiate a 3 1/2yr civil matter that ended in XXXX and affected me financially. am still paying the cost of my representation and will continue doing so for the next 2yrs. I have never had such awful money problems. I had been successfully paying my cards off, buying essentials with them and my family would help if any medical problems or the like occured. My father 's workplace shut down and he lost his job early last year. At that point I had no help. In XX/XX/XXXX I missed my first payment to Kohl 's since I opened the account in XXXX. I continued paying everything I could but I could not pay in full after they shot my payment up to over {$120.00}. I contacted them but paid the amount initially thinking it would help, it didn't. Each payment thereafter accrued a higher fee like the inital missed payment. As I said, I contacted Kohl 's via their website message center on the payment page about my missed payment. I explained how long I had been a customer, that I'd been a VIP cardholder for the majority of that time, paid more than asked every chance I got and asked if they could drop the late fee, split it up or lower their " base '' interest rate. Explained I was struggling and so were my bills but wanted to get back on track. I let them know I was and would keep doing everything I could to keep my bill in good standing. They were far from empathetic. It continued to be like this every time I contacted them, at times the rep acted as if my distress and confusion was humorous. I grew increasingly frustrated, broke and behind on my other bills. I paid as much as I could when I could. Around XXXX I told the rep I was going to be forced to file bankruptcy if I didn't close my longterm account with them which had always been in good standing abd that I did not want to do either but could not keep paying these {$100.00} late fees and my monthly fee, to which they responded they'd just closed the account for me. From then on out I saw no balance changes but increase and was only given the option to pay the full $ XXXX+ owed ( back then ) every time I paid, they were still adding fees to each payment. I continued to maintain contact and attempted to find out why I was being increasingly charged extra each month. I did not find out until I checked my credit report last night after getting an alert from an XXXXand noticing another card had revoked 1/2 of my spendable amount. Around 3mo into this I started getting emails, phone calls and letters claiming to be someone collecting a debt on Kohl 's behalf and asking for full payment of the fee or a payment match option. I researched the option, it was a scam according to people who had tried it. I did not recieve another bill from Kohl 's, I didn't know who I owed but I paid. I just discovered Kohl 's had reported my account as delequint to all 3 credit agencies and is collecting my activity by way of an investigation watch. They have also been making inquiries and claims of ownership under seperate entitiy names for months and a bank I'd never dealt with. It's affected all of my accounts. The information shown regarding XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX payments, amounts, dates and balance they gave XXXX  does not match the information they gave XXXX. I was not able to get my score fron XXXX, I will have to contact them. The initial late payment date was reported, XX/XX/XXXX, but they did not show that as the initial flag. Starting in XXXX they have multiple 30day late months listed in a row, then 90 and then 120. They do not have the same balance/dates on both CRA 's and I do not have the information they gave them. I apparetly DID have a minimum payment option all along which is how they kept hitting me with a fee even after closure because I was still paying as I should have been. They actually claim I had the option of a minimum payment! 13 years I'd spent growing that account. One late fee and apathetic supoort rep later it's gone. The CRA 's accounts show every prior payment was paid. I was told I could reopen the account when I paid the fee off by the rep. I feel like it was just a game to them. On my report the minimum payment of {$120.00} a month shows up after XXXX or thereabouts. I was never told the truth and it makes me extremely angry. This very month it stated {$550.00} as my only payment option. Even though I'm just around {$270.00} over my balance. I would have borrowed money from my now newly hired Father and paid the fee off in 2-3mo if I had been given the chance. Each payment I made attempting to pay the fee carried whatever I did not pay of that hidden {$120.00} over as another late fee. I was intentionally kept in a late, unpaid state. There's no way to deny it. The " 120 '' day very late adverse account is now on my credit reports along with an insulting lie stating the creditor chose to close the account. Due to this my credit score is dead, other company 's have begun cutting my credit lines and everything 's now being flagged. It's taking my credit score down 5pts a day. I do not believe the incorrect information on file is fair, it's not a true representation of what occurred, nor do I believe the adverse account should have been flagged, I'm paying. I feel as if this was a petty jab made just to bring attention to it and further ruin my credit. I was not given any information apart from being made to think the debt had been sold last year. It makes me look like I have intentionally been dodging the minimum {$120.00}. I would like to see this removed from my credit report. I should not have my ability to get help or current cards stripped when I have genuinely tried to do my part.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation