Consumer complaint received 2024-05-16 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NC

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/2024, my billing cycle closed, and I had a balance of {$9600.00}, with a due date of XX/XX/2024 ( see attachment ). By that date, I had made partial payments and redeemed reward credits totaling {$10000.00}. Regardless, on XX/XX/2024, Capital One made a withdrawal from my checking account through their " Auto Pay '' system for {$8200.00}. This was improper because the total credits applied to my account exceeded the balance due on that date, so I disputed the transaction with my bank, and the payment was returned. 

Capital One now claims that despite the fact that the total credits applied to my account exceeded the balance due by XX/XX/XXXX, I did not make the total payment due, and my account is past due. While I fully disagree with their contention that my account was ever past due, I agreed to make a payment of {$1000.00} today ( XX/XX/2024 ). Capital One 's representative XXXX, ID number XXXX, promised that if this payment was made today, no information about a past due payment, or anything other than " paid as agreed '' would be reported to credit bureaus. While I was skeptical of this promise, I agreed to make the payment, in the interest of protecting my credit rating. 

After extensive discussions with Capital One, the dispute boils down to the application of two Capital One policies, which I contend are misleading and improper : 1. Capital One 's Auto Pay feature allows a consumer to automatically schedule a payment to pay statement balances in full on the due date. However, nonsensically ( and in opposition to the behavior most of their competitors ), Capital One does not subtract any early payments made from the " balance '' due. Capital One representatives have described this to me as " that's just the way Auto Pay works, '' and claimed that in order to truly have only the balance due subtracted, I would have to call the company before any automatic payments are completed. The behavior of their Auto Pay is both unreasonable, and opposite to how the system is described on their own website when setting up the feature ( see attached image ). Applying a common sense interpretation of what a consumer would believe will happen is not congruent with the behavior of their system. 

2. Capital One does not apply promotional credits to payments due, and does not make it clear to the consumer that this behavior exists. All promotional credits are listed as payments on their website and their statements ( see attachment ), like any other payment would appear. Despite this, Capital One does not apply these credits at the time they are redeemed, but holds the credits and applies them to the balance due at the end of the billing cycle - despite the fact that they appear immediately on the transaction list, with the redemption date. Given the way the information is presented by Capital One, any consumer would be expected to believe that their credits had been applied to their account immediately.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation