Consumer complaint received 2020-11-12
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NM
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I have been using Capital One credit card for over 10 years. On XX/XX/XXXX, in the late evening, I received an email alert from Capital One informing me your card was declined : its expired further stating, Hi there, A recent purchase was declined because you or someone on your account used an expired card. 
Its time to use your new card and shred or return that old plastic. Then you can retry your purchase, if needed. To be clear, the card referenced above expired in XX/XX/XXXX, and I shredded that card immediately after receiving the replacement that does not expire anytime soon, and I do not have any additional users on my credit card. 

I immediately called Capital One and was informed that I should instead contact my insurance company ( XXXX ) since someone from there attempted to use an expired card. It was after hours, therefore on XX/XX/XXXX, I called my insurance company, as well as checked my online account. I discovered the card on file for monthly insurance automatic payments was indeed the XX/XX/XXXX credit card. 

I called Capital One back and was told initially by a rep that there are some companies that Capital One has an agreement with, and those companies, when apart of the program, will receive automatic updates of their credit card information. This did not make sense and I requested to speak to someone else. The call was then answered by a supervisor who repeated what the rep stated, and added that maybe my insurance company was once a part of the program but now they are not ; so when the insurance company attempted to process the charge, it was declined. Sounding very proud, I brought to her attention that the same company had already successfully processed payment for XXXX She then put me on hold, and returned with, oh yes, I see nowI was looking at your latest statement. 

I then called my insurance company who stated they are not a part of any program under those conditions explained by Capital One and was not aware such conditions existed. The insurance company could not see what department the charge originated from or could conclude why a second charge was attempted since they had already received an on time payment. 

Here lies my problem with both companies. The insurance company had already charged me on XX/XX/XXXX, the payment cleared and posted, so it is not apparent as to why a second charge was placed and for Capital One, the complaint stems from the company having the sole authorization to process or decline such a request, and they chose to process charges over and over. 

Once my insurance company confirmed they are not a part of any program for updating expired cards, I called Capital One back. I spoke with a different supervisor who understood my concern unlike the first three Capital One representatives I spoke with. She said, That is alarming because an expired card should not be processing charges. She contacted Capital One billing department whom she stated did not have an answer. She then contacted the fraud department who confirmed there is a program that does exist with those conditions, but, the program does not have a name. In Capital Ones policy, it is centered on the wording of continuing merchant charges. Thankfully the supervisor had already referenced that verbiage, and she informed the fraud department that was not my situation as the card has never been reported lost/stolen, so that section would not apply to me. In the end, Capital One fraud department could not or just did not provide the supervisor with any additional resources for her to explain to me what had been taking place on a monthly basis from XX/XX/2020-XX/XX/2020. XXXX said they do not require security codes for reoccurring charges, only card number and expiration date, so in all fairness, the charges should have been declining since XXXX or until I updated the expiration date in their system. 

No other issues have taken place with the use of my card prior to this. I suspect XXXX fraud in some form as the charge declined was {$1.00}, and that could easily be a test to see if the card is still working. However, I would like to understand from Capital One, why or how were payments authorized for an extended period on an expired card. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation