Consumer complaint received 2022-08-11
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD
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 XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email notifying me that my Capital One account was closed on XX/XX/XXXX. I had no idea that my account was at risk of closure, so this was completely unexpected. 
On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I called to ask about why my account was closed and to try to find a resolution. I was told that Capital One sent me two notifications warning me about the account closure ; one by mail, which I have no recollection of receiving ; and another by email, which I only found in my inbox while I was on the phone with the Capital One representative. On both occasions, I was told that there was nothing Capital One could do to remedy the situation and make me whole. 

I don't feel it should be necessary for me to justify why I was not using the Capital One card in question, but the following is included for context and transparency : I have more than one credit card and signed up for this Capital One card to use as a " travel '' card because it offered more travel rewards than most of my other cards. I used the card extensively after I got it, even earning the sign-on bonus. According to my XXXX credit report ( reviewed XX/XX/XXXX ), my last activity on this card was in XX/XX/XXXX, which agrees with Capital One 's justification for the closure of my account. XX/XX/XXXX is also right before the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic, which made travel difficult and unsafe. Accordingly, I had little need for this Capital One card, which I had designated as a travel card. 

Given the serious implications of credit card account closure, including, in this case, the forfeiture of XXXX reward points, Capital One 's notifications about my impending account closure were entirely inadequate. 
I can not speak to the effectiveness of the mail notification ( because I didn't see one ), but the single email message I received was easily overlooked. I've attached a screenshot ( Capital OneXXXXScreenshot_1 ) of the inbox search I had to do to find the message. As shown in the image, none of the messages clearly indicate that my account is at risk of closure. Capital One_Screenshot_2 shows the actual closure notification from XX/XX/XXXX. This message is inappropriate to communicate a credit card account closure. The subject line and bolded portion of the message body makes this sound like a rewards email, similar to the other dozen rewards/special offer emails I receive from credit card companies every week. For a serious email about account closure, I need a message that screams, " YOUR ACCOUNT IS CLOSING! '' Furthermore, it's neglectful and/or deceptive that this was the only warning I received before receiving the account closure message on XX/XX/XXXX. As shown in Capital One_Screenshot_3, I received a number of emails from Capital One between the warning and the closure, including messages about AutoPay and statement availability. None of these subsequent messages gave any indication that I was at risk of account closure. 
I understand that I'm not a valuable consumer to Capital One because I pay my bills on time ( i.e., without interest ) and accumulate rewards that Capital One doesn't want me to redeem. Regardless, I feel that Capital One has a responsibility to provide adequate notification prior to closing my account. One poorly written 90-day notification is, at best, lazy, and at worst, intentionally deceptive. Adequate notification would include, at a minimum, 90-, 60-, 30-, and 7-day warnings ahead of account closure. If Capital One is going to ignore this feedback and stick to its policy of only providing a 90-day notification, that notification should be one that adequately communicates the severity of the situation and is IMPOSSIBLE to miss. 

To add insult to injury : Coincidentally, on XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, a couple days before my account was closed, I started looking into booking a flight with my Capital One rewards points. This would be my first flight in over two years ( i.e., in line with the last usage of my card ). When I logged into my Capital One online account to book my travel, I had no idea that my account was scheduled to close. Even though I began this search in my Capital One portal after the date of my scheduled closure ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I received no pop-up/notification warning me about the closure ( a pop-up or banner notification within the portal seems like another minimal-effort strategy that Capital One should be using to warn consumers about account closures ). At that time, the Capital One rewards portal told me that flights to XXXX were overpriced, so I signed up to receive email alerts from Capital One about the best time to book my travel using my Capital One rewards points. Had I known that I was about to lose my rewards, I would have booked my flight regardless of the current price. A couple days later, I was informed that my account was closed and that my points were lost. Since then, I've received 20 email alerts about price changes for the flight that I'm tracking, including 7 that tell me to " book now '' because prices are low. I suppose the travel department in Capital One didn't get the memo that I've been canceled and that my rewards points have been involuntarily forfeited... I love how communicative Capital One has been about this opportunity to use my [ expired ] points, and I only wish they'd been as communicative about my account closure.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation