Consumer complaint received 2024-11-14 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MA

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX, Capital One emailed me an advertisement for their XXXX XXXX credit card product Reservation number : XXXX and an Access code number. The advertisement made a material claim that I could Count on these benefits including Enjoy 0 % on purchases for 9 months with a 29.49 % variable APR after that. I would not have signed up for the XXXX XXXX credit card without this material representation of 0 % interest charged for the first 9 months after opening the card. 

The advertisement did not make it clear, not even in any fine print, that in order to be eligible for the offer, one additionally needed to click the Continue button link within the email. Being a Capital One customer myself already and assuming that Capital One had my best interests at heart, I applied for the XXXX  XXXX credit card within the Capital One app in XXXX instead of clicking on the link within the email. I went through the application process, and did not understand that I was actually going to be paying interest for the first 9 months. When I saw the disclosures during the application and follow up emails about the interest rates, I reasonably assumed that Capital Ones application system would have my best interest at XXXX by knowing that I could count on 0 % interest for 9 months as advertised to me for the XXXX  XXXX card. I thought the rate shown was the rate that would be charged once the promotional term of 9 months expired. 

Again reasonably assuming that Capital One had my best interests at heart and would understand the bait and switch I had fallen victim to through their credit card advertisement, I called Capital One and requested they honor the promotional 0 % interest rate advertised to me that I was not eligible for because I did not click on the green continue button. I provided them with my reservation number from the advertisement, and Capital Ones response was to manipulate the narrative around what happened here by telling me an unverifiable personal anecdote about how the manager had fallen victim to a bait and switch themselves, as if that made it okay what Capital One had done to me. Having had my request to honor the 0 % interest rate for 9 months denied by Capital One because I did not open the XXXX  XXXX credit card correctly according to their systems, I felt used by Capital Ones abuse of my reasonable assumption that they would have my best interest at XXXX when I applied for the XXXX  XXXX credit card through their mobile app instead of through their advertisement. 

Having already invested time and a credit inquiry on opening the credit card and calling customer support trying to get them to address the deception I fell victim to, I felt pressured to keep the credit card open and use it instead of cancelling the card and spending more time searching for another line of credit. Over the next 9 months, I needed to use the credit card and incurred damages totaling {$320.00} of interest paid to Capital One that I would not have been charged without the bait and switch from their deceptive advertising.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation