Consumer complaint received 2017-06-20
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
In or around XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for and was approved for an unsecured Capital One MasterCard with an opening credit limit of {$300.00}. Having applied for the card in the hope that responsible use of the account would help improve my poor credit rating, I used the card often over the next several months. I kept constant watch on my account via the company 's mobile app, and I consistently made at least one payment per month, but more often multiple payments throughout each month, paying down the balance soon after I made a purchase with the card. I always, always, always made sure that the card balance was at {$0.00} before my statement cutoff date and long before the actual payment due date each month. I did experience a few irritating, but fairly minor, issues with Capital One regarding my account betweenXX/XX/XXXX and XXXX XXXX.  Specifically, I noticed that Capital One did not immediately update my account balance and available credit upon their receipt and posting of my payments. Many times, my available credit was not updated for anywhere from four to seven full days after Capital One processed the payment to my credit card account that I had submitted, although my current balance was usually updated corollary to my payment amount. I was often frustrated by Capital One 's very annoying, inexplicable, and inconsistent payment processing practices. I called Capital One Customer Service on several occasions almost every month, sometimes several times per month, to inquire why my payments were n't being fully processed to reflect the equivalent and related updates to my available credit and current account balance as my payments were made. I was rarely given a reliable, credible, logical, or sensible response. Most commonly, I was told that [ I 'm paraphrasing ] 'when a customer 's payment patterns or payment methods change " significantly '' each month, the algorithms programmed into Capital One 's computer systems will " flag '' such accounts to be observed more closely so that that any potential fraudulent activity might be avoided. First, neither my payment patterns nor the payment methods I used varied " significantly '' from month to month. I typically paid my Capital One credit card account payments via a personal banking account ( checking/savings ) which I tended to submit directly to Capital One via my PC or my mobile app, at my own initiative and never one second past the actual payment due date. As stated previously, I always ensured that my utilized credit balance was paid in full, several days or more prior to the payment due date each and every month since i received the credit card. It wouls not have been difficult to quickly understand my credit card utilization habits after a quick review of the first couple or scant few of my early monthly account statements. It 's completely preposterous, and misleading, for Capital One to offer such a ridiculously vague and baseless response on those times that I would call, which I did, more often than not, as I stood at a cashier 's counter attempting to make a purchase using my Capital One credit card, only for it to be denied, despite my own personal knowledge of my having submitted payment toward or equal to my most recent previous account balance. It 's unnecessarily humiliating, embarrassing, frustrating, and completely unprofessional, unethical, and I believe tantamount to Breach of Contract by Capital One, as there is absolutely no verbiage that would allude to the manner in which Capital One practices its credit card faction of its financial services business. I have scoured any and all Capital One credit card information and agreement documentation that I have personally received, or which is publicly available, and is specifically pertinent to Capital One credit card accounts, including all of the terms, responsibilities, assumptions, obligations, provisions, prohibitions and conditions applicable to and binding upon credit card accountholders as well as Capital One principles, management and representatives or assignees/designees of Capital One, and nowhere is it mentioned or implied or inferred that certain cardholders may experience random, arbitrary, without notice, unwarranted, unprovoked, and unjustified micro-scrutiny and blatant mismanagement by Capital One of their credit card accounts with regard to payment processing, account record updating, denial of appropriate purchase approvals, public humiliation, vague responses and idiotic non-answers which serve to accomplish nothing in the way of fostering and maintaining strong relationships with their customers. Several times, I was with friends or family, and with total strangers close enough to witness and hear, as my Capital One credit card was declined upon a purchase attempt. Although I knew that I had already made a payment that should have updated by the time I was trying to use the card, and although Capital One was fully aware that they had received and posted a recent payment, no one around me had that knowledge and they were horribly humiliating and shaming experiences, especially when I could not get the issue resolved immediately, requiring me to have to ask someone in my party to pay, or my having to abandon a shopping basket and leave a store empty-handed amidst the stares and judgment of other shoppers. Additionally, there were several instances in which I received automated and live calls from Capital One to verify a purchase I 'd made just moments prior on that same day was indeed my purchase and an authorized use of my credit card. These verification calls occurred nowhere near as frequently as the outright charge denials that I experienced so often, nor were they pertaining to any kind of purchase that would lead any reasonable, literate, logical person having an IQ of at least 75 and being at least or over the age of 12 years old to consider them possible fraud and necessitating verification. Small charges of less than {$50.00} or {$100.00} at most, geographically close to my residence, at typical times of the day for consumers to be active, and at common stores such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and clothing retailers, were randomly and abruptly questioned by Capital One by way of unexpected and often inconvenient phone calls and emails, and also text messages to my cell phone, yet other similar purchases at similar types of merchants were subjected to the public humiliation I 've described previously in this communication. Their practices are asinine and beyond mind boggling. How infuriating it is to know that you 're managing your credit card account in a responsible manner, well above the average consumer does regarding personal credit management ; paying off what you charge each month, on time, in excess of the minimum payment due, diligent about keeping watch on your account activity daily, and still have unforeseen and unreasonable and unfair obstacles thrown into your blind spot each month by the very company that extended the credit to you and should be applauding your successful efforts!!! As aggravating as those situations were and as frustrating as the memories of them are as I think about them fully for the first time in several months, they do still qualify as minor in comparison to my biggest grievance of all regarding Capital One and my credit card account. Throughout these annoyances from XX/XX/XXXXthroughXX/XX/XXXX,  including two separate additional requests for proof of my identity several months after my account was originally opened, and long after my identity had been verified upon my application, and again at the time of my approval for the credit card, and still again upon activation of my card once it was received by me in XX/XX/XXXX, Capital One continued to regularly review my account for credit limit increases, raiding my limit at least three times that I 'm aware : my credit limit from the original limit of {$300.00} in XX/XX/XXXX when the account was opened, to {$400.00} inXX/XX/XXXX, then to {$500.00} in XX/XX/XXXX,  and ultimately to its current credit limit of {$750.00} which took effect inXX/XX/XXXX However, for reasons unknown to me and never explained, Capital One decided to play a completely brand new game. All of a sudden, for no obvious or logically discernible reason, and without any provocation, explanation, prior notice, or any reference to any of the company credit card documentation issued by them and/or made publicly available online, Capital One decided in XX/XX/XXXX orXX/XX/XXXX to suddenly and arbitrarily restrict my credit card account from any use whatsoever. I 'd paid my previous balance in full, prior to statement and due date, as usual. It was accepted and posted to my account without reservation, question or any further delays beyond Capital One 's typical but inconsistent and inexplicable timetable for processing, posting and updating payments to accounts. No one called me about that last payment I 'd made, which ultimately resulted in a credit balance but only for a little over {$10.00}, on my account due to some returns/refunds i later received. Nothing. One day I could use my credit card account to make purchases. My last  payment was received and processed in Capital One 's abnormally atypical version of normal, and then soon thereafter, my card was declined when I tried to make a purchase at a store or pay a bill online. Growing accustomed to the need to occasionally call Capital One to reassure representatives that yet again it was me making an authorized purchase on my credit card account and to please, please, please, with sugar on top, release the suffocating, iron-clad, knuckle-whitening,  desperately strange death grip on my available credit limit so that I may use it and pay it off as I had been consistently doing for the over six months of ensuring this pathetic and grueling business relationship with a very warped and disturbed Capital One ... It was then that I was advised that my account was placed on RESTRICTION and could not be used until the restriction was lifted. The way to have it lifted? I had to provide proof of my identity AGAIN, plus proof of my residential address, a real time photo of myself holding a piece of paper with that day 's date written on it .... AND -- - here 's the kicker -- - I was told that I MUST consent to a three-way telephone call between Capital One, myself, and the bank where the account used for some of my payments was held, so as to verify my ownership or co-ownership of the account, or validate my authority to use the account. Please take very critical and thoughtful note of this next fact I 'm about to share, because I think it finally, fully, and very accurately illustrates just how outrageously out of bounds are the business practices of Capital One. More than one " Representative '', " Supervisor '', and " Fraud Specialist '' had the astounding audacity to demand, mandate, require, and attempt to coerce me into allowing them access into my private, individual, PROTECTED, financial, personal, and business affairs by way of me or facilitated by me or authorized by me and pertaining to a financial account that is in NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH CAPITAL ONE. This account used to pay my bills is a local credit union account with no applicable business connections to Capital One that would necessitate Capital One to suddenly, randomly, arbitrarily and without provocation or inciting by any third party, but especially from a credit union staff member, need to verify THAT account is not being used fraudulently, despite the fact that no payments have been returned by my bank unpaid but most importantly, it 's quite notable that Capital One has not once, ever, refused to accept, post, deposit and retain any of the funds from this bank account used to make payments to Capital One. Not once. They 've not had any action taken against them that would cause them fiduciary loss, my bank has not initiated any inquiries into the account 's utilization, activities and management, I nor the former co-account holder ever initiated any inquiries or concerns. There has been absolutely NO reason for this issue to have arisen. And there is NO reason for Capital One to try to meddle into my personal financial affairs when o have no other accounts related to Capital One, my credit union is not affiliated with Capital One and the credit unions business is not any business of Capital One, and Capital One has not suffered the loss of one red cent due to me, my bank, my Capital One credit card account, my card usage and management, my payments, nor in any other way, not real nor imagined, not clairvoyantly predicted nor hallucinated, not speculated, not projected, not conjectured .... and most certainly Capital One has absolutely no justifiable cause, logical need, legal right, reasonable excuse or fiduciary interest to invade my personal financial autonomy and privacy. And they need to be reminded that businesses are in businesses because of their customers. And they need to receive an extensive and intensive education in customer relations and business ethics. A refresher in the US Constitution might be a pretty good addition to their schooling as well. Maybe the founder and current majority shareholder has lost his mind, his perspective, or maybe he 's lost any and all contributing management over the company. I do n't know. Maybe he 's been an unethical, deceptive, underhanded and cutthroat greedy capitalistic oligarch his entire life. Maybe his taste of unlimited, ostentatious, obscenely grotesque amassing of wealth in a sector that is largely unchecked, unbalanced, poorly regulated, barely overseen, mostly ignored, and silently encouraged by the joke the US Government has been evolving into, especially the astonishing circus XXXX and XXXX parade taking place under this administration consisting of an insane clown president, his handpicked swamp posse, and his personal band of intellectual buffoons and drooling XXXX doing his media bidding ... ..like it 's just another day of another XXXX reality show. Worst of all, all the politicians who took an oath that they 've conveniently forgotten as they legitimize this nonsense, and all the high school and college graduated citizens who " voted '' for that reprehensible excuse for a human being, all who continue to support him as though this is no big deal instead of the very real, very dangerous, very potentially destructive tragedy and act of complicit high treason this country has ever seen. The systems, all of them are broken. And the only ones who can even start to fix them are the very ones who would be negatively impacted to their very core- $ $ $ -should they actually do their jobs, represent the people and consider the nation above their own self interests. Many of us have finally awakened to find ourselves in a real life horror movie where there is no one listening to our screams. So maybe XXXX XXXX has shrewdly taken advantage of XXXX disastrous administration that created the financial instability we 've rolled up and down on since then. But the very dubious and ineffective smokescreens of these farcical agencies such as relating to " consumer protections '' and " citizens advocacy '' and " civil rights '' and the " US Constitution '' are n't fooling everyone anymore. They 've helped nurture a nation of morons and sadists, and made unbridled greed the new cultural norm. But there are still people -- -citizens -- -in America who are n't yet infected with that disease. And we are sick to death of being ignored, pushed around, pushed down, deprived, abused, disregarded, and underestimated. The professionals in this country better start being professional and the regulators better start regulating and the protectors better start protecting. And those who are sworn to uphold the constitution of the US and to represent ALL of the people and the best overall results for the whole of American society better start taking a good long look at who and what they 've become. Because one day, they might find themselves facing off against .... Karma And she 's a ... ..

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation