Consumer complaint received 2017-01-31
Product: Debt collection — Credit card
Issue: Taking/threatening an illegal action — Threatened arrest/jail if do not pay
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (MN)

My boyfriend and I attended a 3 day training class on flipping homes. It was called XXXX XXXX. The owners of the business are XXXX and XXXX and do a TV show called XXXX XXXX. We took the 3 day course in XXXX and were told this was a great market for flipping homes. The people who taught the class were excellent sales people but had no idea of the XXXX housing market. The lead trainer was from XXXX. They spent the first day getting every one pumped up on how much money we could make and the second day, they had us sit down with their assistants at lunch and we were told to call as many credit card companies as we could and charge as much as we could because we would make it back on our first flip. They guaranteed they would work with us until we make the money back. This means a phone call. I am now over {$20.00} in credit card debit with a terrible credit score. My credit score was very good before this disaster. We were both interested in XXXX. The staff was very professional and skilled. The leader was XXXX XXXX known as the ( XXXX ). He was very good at what he does -- building people up to a big dream and then enticing them to pay big money for it. On day 2 of the seminar they offered us a package after pumping us up on day 1. He told us this was the perfect time to get into the XXXX in our area. He showed us the market was on the upswing in the XXXX XXXX area particularly. We would be able to make a lot of money. He talked about many success stories and that it was n't that difficult if you just follow the easy steps. Look for properties, look for investors and buyers, and continue to develop an income stream. Easier said than done! On day 2 we called as many credit card companies as we could to see how much credit we could get. He never explained that this would lower your credit score, not allow you to qualify for any type of loan or line of credit because of your high credit card debt. We only qualified for hard money lending which we would be unable to pay back because that would mean we would make no profit on the house we were flipping. Next problem, the flipping market high tide was 4 years ago when people made their money in this area. We have talked to local real estate investors, realtors, contractors, gone to investment club meetings, talked to other class members and found what I have just stated to be true. Also, if you could find a house, the ones that have already been rehabbed beautifully in the XXXX XXXX. area continue to sit on the market and they keep lowering the price because the area is not desirable to live in. The only people that can make money are the ones who already have money and can pay in cash. You can make as many offers as you want but if you do n't qualify for a loan what because you have such high credit card debt what good will it do you? So we are each out XXXX and struggling to pay back high interest rate cards. I currently do not have a job and have been threatened by the credit card companies with legal action. They made us feel very important by giving us their own personal phone numbers ( no response ). You call customer service ( their assistants ) and wait for someone to call you back. We both had great credit scores before this scam. It was very interesting that some people paid XXXX, some XXXX and XXXX elderly gentleman paid XXXX. It seemed like whatever you could charge on your credit cards is what you had to pay. I was n't completely stupid, I looked at the reviews before taking the class and they were good until more and more people took the class around the country and found out it was a scam and then the reviews turned bad. I have been working on this for the past 2 years to get my money back because companies should not be able to take money away fro