Consumer complaint received 2021-08-17
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem accessing account
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (MN)

My husband and I have been banking with Capital One for over 10 years. Until recently, we have never had a problem with access to our online accounts, which we hold jointly, including a savings account, a credit card account and a custodial account for our daughter. 


Recently, we discovered that Capital One has instituted, without our prior knowledge or consent, a procedure the consequence of which is to block our access to our online accounts unless we agree and consent to " Capital One Auto Finance Online Terms and Conditions [ Rev. XX/XX/2015 ] '' for an auto loan which we obtained through a dealer, which happened to be underwritten by Capital One. The loan agreement we signed at the dealership included no requirement or statement that our auto loan be linked to existing accounts that we might have with Capital One. We were not asked about nor did we disclose the existence of any such accounts. 


After the loan transaction was successfully completed at the dealership, Capital One unilaterally and arbitrarily blocked us from accessing our accounts by the device of a web page interface that appears when we enter the user ID and password of our account on the log-in page, and that requires us to consent and agree to a document called " Capital One Auto Finance Online Terms and Conditions [ Rev. XX/XX/2015 ] ''. Unless and until we do so, we are denied access to our online banking and credit card accounts. We never asked Capital One to link our auto loan to our other accounts, nor did Capital One require it as a condition of the loan. In a blatant breach of its fiduciary duty, Capital One is holding our accounts hostage to its unlawful demands that we consent to conditions related to online access for our Auto Loan in order to be able to access our funds and account information for pre-existing and ongoing accounts.

We have been trying for approximately two weeks to resolve this matter with Capital One, to no avail. The representatives we have talked to could only tell us that our accounts are already linked to my husbands and my profile that is associated with our social security numbers and other identifying information. If that is the case, it appears that Capital One has arbitrarily linked our loan to our existing accounts without our consent, and is now demanding our consent after the fact, in order to justify its actions. To force us to agree, it is blocking access to our accounts. 


In fact, Capital One tacitly agreed at one point that its actions were arbitrary. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was told by someone in the Auto Finance department that web support had confirmed that the interface would be removed, but that it would take 7 10 business days. When this didnt happen, and we were still unable to access the accounts 9 business days later, I called the Auto Finance department again, and this time was told by a representative called XXXX, after consulting with web support, that in fact it would not be possible to remove the interface. If the interface was legally required or justified, Capital One could not have agreed to remove it, technology notwithstanding. 


In the meantime, on XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, we received a letter from CapitalOne inviting us to activate your auto account today at www.capitalone.com/autoenroll. Attempting to do so once again produced the problem described above. Sometime after that however, and before XX/XX/XXXX, we received another letter, asking us to set up our account at the link above ( letters attached XXXX. Believing this to be a follow up on the conversation I had with the person who said the interface would be removed, my husband then followed the instruction to set up a loan account, creating a user ID and a password. However, this didnt work either. Numerous attempts to log in to the auto loan account using this ID and password have been denied, not because the password or ID is incorrect but because the website asks him to verify his identity by selecting a phone number that they can call to give us a code. When he does so, he gets a message saying that something went wrong and to wait a moment while it is straightened out. It never is, and this happens at every attempt. At no point does the website tell him that his username or password are incorrect, nor does it allow us to reset the password. This non-procedure is described in the attached document.