Consumer complaint received 2017-11-16
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, XXXX Capital One sent me a letter notifying me that my credit card account is closing. The letter states : " It 's been over five years since you 've used your credit card account ending in XXXX. As a result, your account has been restricted as of XXXX XXXX, XXXX, which means you no longer have charging privileges, and it will be closed due to inactivity. Your account will remain restricted, and it can not be unrestricted prior to closure or reopened once it is closed. '' I attempted to contact Capital One on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX to inquire about stopping the closure of my credit card account. I was advised the card was already in the closing process and that nothing could be done. I spoke with " XXXX '' whom assisted me with cashing in the XXXX miles I had accrued previously with Capital One. I inquired about this policy, as I have been a member of Capital One for over 15 years, and that at no other point in time was I ever made aware of a policy that I must use the credit card in any specific frequency in order to avoid closure of the account. In fact, according to XXXX, I believe the card has not been used in approximately 8 years. This by itself did not mean that I did not wish to continue to have the account or have access to available credit if needed, or that I never intended to use the card again. 

I have been able to manage my accounts to avoid the need to rely on credit on a regular basis and feel that I am being punished for doing so, and not allowing Capital One to attempt to make money at my expense via credit card interest or fees. I am being punished because this is one of my oldest active credit accounts, which I maintain very few of, as I understand the mechanics of how credit / credit scores work. Age/length of account, percentage of available credit utilized, and number of active accounts are factors I have taken into consideration to maintain my credit score, and have selectively kept Capital One because of this. Due to the actions of Capital One without my consent, or notification prior to, my credit score will ultimately be negatively effected which could potentially increase my interest rates or ability to access credit in the future. I reiterate that Capital One never gave me any prior notification that I was required to make charges to maintain my account, and that it could be potentially closed for inactivity. Based on my history with Capital One and my inactivity, I never expected this to be a factor that could potentially have my account closed. Had I been made aware of this potential closure and the negative impact it could cause me, I would have made a purchase to avoid inactivity, and thus been able to avoid the account closure due to this reason, and avoid the negative impact it will cause me. According to XXXX, my account was in good standing, and had been so for a long period of time. I understand Capital One has the authority to close my account based on changes in my standing / credit status, but it appears that they could potentially cause this with my other accounts simply because they were not making any income from my activities or lack thereof. Due to the nature of how this impacts my credit score and other accounts, I feel that I should have received some notification in advance that Capital One planned to close my account, prior to actually closing it, so that I had an opportunity to take corrective action to avoid the negative impact they are thus imposing on me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation