Consumer complaint received 2017-08-29
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with balance transfer

Complaint:
I was in the market for another credit card because although I signed up for automatic payments with my XXXX XXXX XXXX, it did n't go into effect until the next billing cycle. Because of this I missed a payment and lost my 0 % APR for nine months and started getting charged interest. I talked to a banker and he said that I should try to find another card with 0 % interest to transfer the balance to. I found the capital one spark business card and was interested because it had a 0 % balance transfer fee. I was confused if the 0 % APR for 9 months applied to balance transfers so before applying for the card I chatted online with a representative. I asked them " does the 0 % APR apply to balance transfers? '' and they said yes. So I applied for the credit card. When the card came in the mail I made sure to download the app on my phone and I set up alerts so that I would make sure to not miss another payment. A few days after I finished the balance transfer I got an interest charge in late XXXX. I called them and asked what the issue was and they said that I missed a payment. I explained that the first alert I received said my payment was due on XXXX XXXX and that I never got a notice that told me to pay anything before that. The representative was very understanding and they waived the fee, during the same phone call I asked them, " is the reason why I got an interest charge because the 0 % APR does not apply to the balance transfer? '' And they said " no the 0 % APR does apply to the balance transfer. '' So I said " great so all I have to do is pay my minimum payment every month and I wo n't get any future interest charges for nine months ''? And the representative said " yes. '' So XXXX XXXX came along and my automatic payment went through but then on XXXX XXXX I got an interest charge for {$120.00} so I called them to ask about it. The representative told me that the 0 % APR does not apply to the balance transfer and that I have to pay a much larger amount on top of the minimum payment to avoid interest on future statements. I told him that this was completely opposite of what two representatives had told me prior, he said that a representative would listen to my past phone calls and read my chat messages and they would get back to me in 10 business days. So 10 business days rolled by and I did n't hear anything from them so I gave them a call. I explained again my situation and they said that after reviewing the case they had no record that I ever called them or chatted with anyone even though they claim to record all of their phone calls. I told him that I felt swindled and that I was going to pay off both of my credit cards I had with them immediately and cancel them as soon as possible because I did not want to work with them any longer. I 've been using credit cards for 10 years and this is the first time that I 've had any issues with a company. I would not recommend capital one to anyone I care about.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation