Consumer complaint received 11/16/2017 about Credit card or prepaid card (General-purpose credit card or charge card) with CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NJ).
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint: I have been a customer of CapitalOne for roughly 10 years. With 3 credit cards and 2 banks accounts. I have also had a card loan with them. 

This week I randomly received a notice that my second oldest Credit Card was being restricted and cancelled due to lack of activity within 90 days. This was my emergency card so I never used it but kept it just in case. 

There are two problems : 1. The minor problem is that CapitalOne never notified me nor gave me any warning that my card was in danger of being closed if I did n't use the credit line. I exclusively use Credit Cards for all purchases possible, therefore, I would have used it if I had known, but I had no warning. 

2. The Major problem is that this being my second oldest card, and CapitalOne forcing me to close the account against my will without giving me a chance to use the card has directly and NEGATIVELY impacted my Credit Score. 
a. This will lower my Average Credit Age. 
b. This will lower my overall credit line across all my cards. 
c. This will raise the percentage of credit used to credit limit ratio used across my cards. 

All three factors are going to negatively impact my credit score, which is ludicrous because I have spent the last 10 years being a responsible creditor and building my credit score up. 

This will directly impact my ability to get the best interest rates on loans and I have been waiting and patiently savings to a buy a new car next month. I 've had a car loan with CapitalOne in the past, and guess who I was planning to use this time around? CapitalOne has never does something for me to complain about like this. 

Then CapitalOne stated that I could simply open another account with them. However, this would just hurt my Credit Score even more as : a. It will lower my Average Credit Age even further. 
b. It will add a hard credit check on my record for the next 2 years. 

I have been good customer with CapitalOne and have never had any issues or complaints until now. 

Additionally, CapitalOne supervisors claimed that they have no one in the company that understands Credit Scores. They only report to the credit bureaus but are unaware of how Credit Scores work. This should of course be very concerning to all current and potential clients of CapitalOne as they are a bank, credit card and loan company.
CapitalOne needs to : 1. Hire someone that  understands how Credit Scores work.
2. Realize that their actions can negatively impact their client 's Credit Scores and make fair decisions accordingly.
3. Notify clients that their accounts are in danger of being closed if not utilized BEFORE closing the account.
4. Have a direct procedure for reversing account closures as I have had several calls with CapitalOne now and they state that it is impossible to reverse the account closure or let me talk to someone who can help me. 

I am still reaching out to CapitalOne but as it stands my credit score will be negatively impacted and not because I messed up but because I decided to be a CapitalOne customer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation