Consumer complaint received 2021-09-07
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (DE)

I am writing to inform you of an incident that occurred in XXXX XXXX in the hopes you will help me remediate this situation. I have a Capital One Credit Card and have been making on-time payments since XXXX. In the months leading up to the incident I had enrolled my account in autopay so that I would not miss a payment. I happened to use my credit card in the months following that which caused my monthly minimum payment to increase. In XX/XX/XXXX the payment was {$37.00} which caused my payment to fall late by {$2.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX, the minimum payment due on my credit card increased to {$72.00}. Thinking that I had autopay previously set-up, I thought this payment was made on time. Come XX/XX/XXXX, I have a minimum payment of {$120.00} due, and again believing I had autopay, I thought this payment was made on time. By XX/XX/XXXX, I saw a minimum payment of {$170.00} was due, and knew something did not make sense. I noticed my online account was set to pay a fixed amount of {$35.00} as a recurring monthly basis as the payment towards my account. Realizing that this was never something I set-up online ( I was under the impression I always had autopay ) this caused my payments to be late 3 months in a row, accruing more fees over time, and unfortunately being reported to the credit bureaus. I could not fathom how the system would allow me to set up recurring payments and that I had never been contacted by phone to remediate the issue. I had received an email giving me notice, however I was not able to view it in time. This incident happened at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which I understand has taken a toll on the nation, however as an elementary school teacher I had a lot of other issues to work through at the time and this was simply overlooked. I had to transition my entire classroom and curriculum from in-person teaching to fully remote for the first time and simply put I didnt have the bandwidth to keep both my professional and personal lives running at maximum efficiency. If anyone had reached out by phone, just one time, this would have been resolved. Instead I feel this is a predatory/abusive practice by Capital One. 
Knowing that I have sufficient funds to make these payments on time, and realizing the online application did not set-up autopay, I called Capital One to dispute this in XX/XX/XXXX. After calling Capital One I was informed that the system would allow for an automatic payment below what the minimum amount is due without giving any notice. Again I feel strongly that it is predatory/abusive for the company to do that in addition to charging late fees. After speaking with several members of Capital One, only one representative gave me feedback about how to handle this. I was informed I should write a letter to Capital One appealing this decision. Immediately after that conversation, I set up autopay on XX/XX/XXXX to avoid any more fees, paid my past due amount in full, and wrote my letter. I later received a letter back in XX/XX/XXXX that stated nothing could be done to remediate this from reporting to the credit agencies. After much reflection over these past few months, I feel that this decision was unfair, and I contacted Capital One again, the manager I spoke with offered no help or direction with solving this problem. Not once did the collections department attempt to reach me by phone letting me know that the automatic payment was not set for the minimum monthly payment amount, but for a fixed amount of {$35.00}. I have never heard of a bank allowing this sort of arrangement, let alone not contacting the customer about late payments and letting it report to all three of the major credit agencies. I am trying to buy my first home with my husband and this has been a huge obstacle that has stood in our way because it has affected my credit score.