Consumer complaint received 2022-12-29
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
XX/XX/2022 I called Capital One about my new XXXX account and problems setting up my account online to enable me to view account activity and make payments. Capital One advised they had to verify my identity. 

Repeated arduous attempts to provide them my scanned drivers license on their ID Verification website failed. The image was not clear enough, or the representative reset the process prematurely. As an alternative, I was instructed to email the scanned image of my drivers license. I did so. Some time later Capital One confirmed my ID was verified and I could proceed to set up my account online. 

I attempted several times to access or set up an online account and my efforts proved not productive. 

XX/XX/2022 I again attempted to set up online access. The system responded that I already had an account set up. I attempted to recover that information through Capital Ones I forgot my user name or password link. It requested my last name, full social security number, and birthdate to locate my account. It then instead, routed me to a webpage instructing me to call XXXX. 

I did so. Capital Ones representative asked me my cellphone number to send me a text message containing a 6-digit code as verification. I gave my cellphone number. The rep came back and said Capital One could not use my cellphone number because its one of several phones under my daughters family plan, and is not a cellphone account held specifically under my name. 

The rep said she would text a link to my cellphone and instructed me to follow it to an online webpage. I did so. 

The webpage is the same address that Capital One sent me to on XX/XX/2022 to unsuccessfully attempt uploading a scanned copy of my drivers license. I completed the ID Verification process by emailing a copy of my drivers license to Capital One. Capital One advised that my identity was verified. 

Now however, they say it is not and demand I go through the entire process again. Im more than a little concerned about the repeated entry of my personal and private information data that they have and are again requesting that I provide. No website is 100 % secure against data dumps and hacks. This level of repeated carelessness is very disconcerting to me. 

And all the while, though promised otherwise, I have never been provided access or enabled to create a new online account to access, view, and timely make payments to my account. Capital One is charging late fees and this inability to access my account is not only frustrating and increasingly costly, its harming my credit score. 

When I asked for a supervisor, my request was refused. Capital One demands I repeat the entire ID Verification process again or my access to and management of my credit card account will remain denied, without recourse. 

They can not verify me by sending a 6-digit code to my cellphone to relay back them, because my phone is on a family plan under my daughters name. 

But they can text my cellphone a link to their scanned drivers license webpage that apparently, even when successful, does nothing to enable a person to set up an online account. 

They can also take my payment over my cellphone. 

But they simply can not accept my cellphone as a trustworthy device for anything else, such as allowing my access to their online account for my credit card, so I can manage it from my cellphone. 

I consider this unnecessarily unreasonable and unfairly detrimental to me in that it places my credit score at great risk of undue harm.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief