Consumer complaint received 2016-02-09
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: GA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
My wife and I opened a joint savings account on XXXX XXXX, 2015, seeking to take advantage of a bonus offer that we received from Capital One via e-mail. The offer we received via e-mail is at the following URL XXXX When we received this e-mail, we had been looking at other savings accounts at other financial institutions. This offered the best bonus, and we decided to take advantage of it. To make the qualifying deposit, my wife transferred funds from her personal savings account at another financial institution to my checking account at the same financial institution. We then opened the joint account at Capital One, and we transferred my wife 's funds to that account, again, seeking to take advantage of the offer that Capital One had e-mailed to us. 

After some time, we realized that the {$300.00} cash bonus that was advertised in the offer had not been deposited into our joint account. At that point, I called Capital One to inquire about why that was the case. 

I spoke with XXXX customer service representatives and XXXX managers, all of whom told me that because I already had opened savings accounts at ING Direct that my wife and I could n't take advantage of the bonus offer. When I asked if my wife could then open an individual account and receive the bonus, they told me " no, '' indicating that even though the offer is still valid that my wife had become ineligible because she was now a joint account holder with me. 

My wife never had a savings account at Capital One until we opened this joint account. We saw the ad that Capital One e-mailed to us, and we relied on that ad to our detriment. My wife transferred {$30000.00} of her own money to the account when there were other bonus offers at other institutions available, and we did so because Capital One 's ad did not in any way make clear to us that we would not be eligible for the bonus reward. 

Capital One 's customer service representative gave us the URL ( included above ) showing the e-mail ad that we received. Even looking at the ad again, after they told me that we were ineligible because I had a individual savings account that I had opened at a predecessor institution, I did not see any indication that we would be ineligible. The representative had to point out to me the fine print at the bottom of the page that I had no idea was there because nothing in the body of the ad suggests that there are additional eligibility restrictions. Specifically, at the top of the ad there is the bold " Here 's how it works '' section, and there is nothing anywhere in the body of the webpage to suggest anything like " See below for eligibility requirements '' or something to take effect - nothing directing me to the fine print that has the additional requirements. How could we possibly know, based on the body of that webpage, that there were those additional requirements and thus that we would be ineligible? There is no way we could have known that. 

This ad is unfair and deceptive on its face. Even reading the hidden " What do I need to do to get my bonus '' in the fine print at the bottom of this page ( and, really, how is that supposed to be different from the " Here 's how it works '' section? These should say the same thing! ), does n't tell me that we, as joint account holders, would n't be eligible for a bonus because I, individually, opened a savings account with ING years ago that Capital One assumed when it bought ING. 

After the phone call with Capital One 's CSRs, we each e-mailed Capital One requesting that they honor the offer. Capital One denied our request, simply indicating that we were ineligible for the reasons that they had already stated.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation