Consumer complaint received 2023-04-03
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NC)

I have been a loyal customer of Capital One for several decades. I have a stellar credit rating and over the years have maintained 2 separate credit card accounts with them : one for the business I own, and another for my personal use. When I went online to pay my bill a week ago, I noticed I had been charged a {$25.00} penalty and a finance charge due to an alleged late payment. I checked my payment records and saw that I had indeed paid my bill on time, so I called customer service to alert them to this error and get these fines reversed. 

The customer service rep I spoke to looked at the record of payment and at first, was unable to understand why the charges had been levied against me. She eventually came to the conclusion that my payment had been made at XXXX XXXX that evening, and there was an XXXX XXXX cutoff. I asked her where this information was displayed online, as this is how I routinely make my payments and I did not recall seeing this stipulation. She admitted that the cutoff time was NOT displayed anywhere on the company website, but insisted that the fines could not be removed nonetheless, due to new company policy. I asked to speak to a supervisor. 

The supervisor was rude both in demeanor, language and temperament, the exact antithesis of how a customer service rep should be. She insisted that in spite of there being no documentation online about the cutoff time, my payment was considered late, and she was not willing to make any allowances for the situation. She said that the cutoff time may or may not be listed on a hard paper copy of the bill. I reminded her that Capital One has hounded their customers to opt out of receiving a paper copy and use the online options instead. As such, it is Capital One 's responsibility to make sure they clearly post such restrictions online next to the due date, so their clients can see it. I took screenshots of the online payment options, and can confirm that nowhere online is a cutoff time mentioned. 

To add insult to injury, Capital One will now continue to penalize me with fines for the next 2 months, as is their custom. This is precisely the kind of shady practice that President Biden has been aiming to eliminate, as per his recent speech about large corporations and banking institutions taking unfair advantage of their clients. I am sure that I am not the only person this is happening to, so in addition to reducing and ultimately eliminating my activity on all my Capital One accounts, I will be getting the word out on social media and local news broadcasts about this fraudulent activity and look into starting a class action suit against Capital One. 

Capital One could easily have avoided the onslaught of negative press simply by showing some respect for their customers, removing these charges as a courtesy, and then making sure they amend their websites to reflect their cutoff policy. Shame on Capital One. Their public rating is already extremely low. No company is too large to fail and hopefully, this one may become the poster child for proving this.