Capital One
reviews and complaints

My dealings with Capital One have been long and convoluted, so I won't bother going into great detail. I'll just say that once you pay that deposit, don't expect to ever see it again. They steal it, and when you try to get it back they give you the run around - probably intended to make you just give up. It works.

Moral of the story: This company is a scam. No matter how bad your credit, it just isn't worth it to do business with Capital One. There are better, far more affordable ways to rebuild your credit. Get a secured line of credit with your bank instead, for instance.

Capital One is great because they accepted me when no other credit card company would.

I moved to a new state. Figured I would get a secured card to build credit to buy a house. They took my money out of my bank account and sent card. All should be good. NOPE. They called my father to ask if he applied for a card. He said no and they flagged my card as fraud. I hadn't lived in parents house in 13 years and we both have the same first name. They didn't ask hime to verify birthdate or social or full name. So I cant get my money back or get credit. When I called they told me I have to apply for credit in my own information. DUH I did and was told they would refund my 49.00 it has been six months it took 24 hours to take the money but wont return it. CROOKS Maybe if they want to go back that far you might want to get the information correct. there are Many John's out there get middle name, birth date, and social tooo... BEWARE I now have fraud on my account and cant get it removed until Capital ONe removes it

I Sonewhat agree with Criminal. It has been two months since I paid my deposit and I have the card, however I am still waiting for the 4 digit pin. I have made a couple calls to their customer service dept. However everytime I call they say I should have gotten my pin in the mail and they will resend it. (Should have it in 4 business days). If it is going to take 4-6 weeks to mail out a pin number then tell me that. So the deal was put $75 down for a $300 secured card. So I sent the money, (2 months ago now) 6 weeks to get the card and I still am waiting for the pin. After the card arrives I get a bill for 59.00 This is a activation fee? Wow didnt see that coming. So i paid it. Now the painful wait for the pin that never seems to arrive. Im not saying they are crooks, but seriously does it actually take 2 months to get a letter? I can get a parcel from the southern states delivered in less then 2 weeks. Just be more honest and punctual Capitol one. Heres the funny part... While I am waiting, , , I went into my bank to get a new debit card and they informed me that I was pre-approved for a $5000 Visa. I will keep ya posted on how long they take for comparison.

CapitalOneIsCriminal obviously has no idea how secured credit cards work (or credit cards in general for that matter). For one, he obviously did not complete the deposit process in an intelligent way, because mine was direct deposited, and I had my card within a couple weeks max. The 'my balance should be zero' part...needs no further comment. Also, credit card companies CANNOT charge overlimit fees unless YOU PERSONALLY OPT IN to overlimit charges, allowing your card to accept charges over the credit limit, thus accepting the fee. Mine has been over the limit due to interest applied, and I've never seen a fee. I've had a $500 secured card with Capital One for over a year now, and it has indeed improved my credit greatly. In addition, I was approved for a $750 unsecured card with them less than 2 months after opening the secured account. That said...they are the ONLY credit card company I can think of that DOES NOT offer the option for the secured product to 'graduate' to an unsecured card. Had I chosen Bank of America instead of Capital one, I would have an unsecured card with them now, and have my deposit back. So because Capital one runs their company ### backwards and doesn't care to deepen their customer relationships, I am now forced to either leave that $500 in their possession to keep my account open, or close it, get the $500 back, and open another secured card with a company that will actually take my payment history and account management into consideration and eventually return the deposit without closing the card. In doing this, I will be closing my first credit card, negatively impacting my credit score...So while this guy's complaint was based on complete ignorance of what he was signing up for...Capital One is still far behind their competitors when it comes to this type of product...they could care less if I remained as a customer, built my credit, and began to do more business with them as my credit history and credit lines improve and increase. So I'll likely be taking my business to another company, and re-investing that $500 with a company like Bank of America where it can help me improve my credit without ultimately harming it when I am forced to either close the account, or leave the money with them so they can make interest off of it and me, to avoid the harm to my credit that closing the account would likely cause. So no, Capital One are not crooks...they just make run a poor, no, more like idiotic business model that has no focus on long term customer relationships.

looks like you did not have a good experience with capital one. thanks for sharing your story.

I have an un-canadian (american) capital one secured card - and yes you secure it with a deposit, and your balance is what you charge onto the card.

You obviously did not understand how a secure card works. It is a regular credit card that you have provided secure funds for, and yes it is a long process, because you have poor or non-existent credit the Canadian government requires all credit providers to do an extra step to verify who you are. Capital One does not have branches in Canada so they have to partner with a federal agent (Canada Post) to make sure you are not a fraudsters (all banks do this with credit but their tellers do this so it is a bit faster and there are fewer errors). While you may dislike Capital One because they took a long time getting the card to you, other than that you can't blame Cap One for you not reading and understanding how to use a secure card. Over-limit fees and interest fees are clearly stated on the web site, Cap one also doesn't charge late fee's and will give you the occasional payment holiday so it looks like you made regular payments even if you missed one.

Capital One reports your good credit history every month unlike other cards that take their sweet time, Other secure cards won't bother looking at you without a $500 plus security deposit so you have to tie up more of your money. Capital One has a super simple web site that has dozens of tools to help you manage the card wisely and if you had taken the time to read it before racking it to the max and incurring over-limit fee's you might have improved your credit score enough by now. I have a $400 limit on my secure card and in less than a year I have gained 60 points and I am now hovering on the fine line of 'fair' and 'good'. That means in a few months i will qualify for an unsecured card and I can apply either at Cap One or get one from my bank and THEN I can cancel my secure card and get my funds back.

You are getting pre-paid cc and secured cc mixed up. On a pre-paid card you make a deposit say 300.00 . you charge 300.00 and your balance is 0. To use it again you need to make another deposit. On a secured cc you make a deposit of 300.00 secured on the cc. You charge 300.00 and your balance is 300.00, to make payments on. You owe 300.00. The 300.00 you put on the card is only security if you dont pay.

Capitol One is one of the four crooked Masterminds of Bank empowered theft. Osama Bin Laden should've smashed them instead of the World Trade Center. He'd have had millions of supporters.
Visa, Capitol One, Chase, MasterCard, Discovercard, CitiBank, and American Express are all crooks. Hanging is still a legal practice when dealing with Horse thieves and bank robbers in America.

Think about it.

Same story here. I use online banking services a lot, for bill payment, etc. A few weeks ago Capital One sent us a letter saying they were completing the takeover and that as a result on a certain date my login name would change (they provided the new one) and I should use the same password to access my info.

Well... I tried, and my login info was rejected. New one, old one, all caps, all lowercase, doesn't matter. After I tried a few times, the system DISABLED my online account. oookaaaay... There was an 800 number on the letter and an 800 number on the website. The one on the letter was an invalid number and the one on the website was an automated service that said they were closed after regular business hours and I should GO ONLINE BECAUSE THAT NEVER CLOSES. It would be funny if it weren't so horrible.

I can hardly wait to move my money. PNC here I come!

I have the sane experience and I suggest that t all the customers which had the same experience unite and sue the bank.

My bill has been coming two days before the due date...I've had to rush and pay online to avoid the late fee.

It's time to call an attorney. Read my complaint on COAF of today. I am suing in federal court and I'm going to win. So will you on the basis of bad faith and unfair dealing. Nancy Lewis

Today I received a notice from Capital One stating that they are raising my APR from 4.40% to 29.4%. I have NEVER been late making a payment, and have always paid MORE than the minimum due when possible. Some way to treat their loyal customers. Why should people that are customers in good standing have to get stuck with a higher APR because Capital One are greedy ###? And plus the way that its send out, it almost looks like junk mail, and I am sure some people are not reading it and throwing it away. I called to cancel my card after receiving this ridiculous notice and did not speak to one person. All automated. Pretty bad when you gotta make that an option. I will NEVER get another capital one card again. I am done.

I have had an automobile loan with Capital one for several years. Since the beginning of the loan I have been trying to get my payment date changed from the 12th to the 20th. I am a teacher in the state of Oklahoma and get paid once a month. Capital one has refused to change the payment due date and as of today I owe over $500 in late fees.

I fell behind in my car payment and was contacted by Capital one in late June and was told that I had to pay $903.00 within 5 days or the automobile would be repossessed. I sent the payment and spoke with a hispanic sounding gentleman in the repossession department. I explained to him for the 100th time that I needed to get my payment due date changed to the 20th of the month. He told me that as long as I made a payment by the 12th of July they would defer my past due payment to the end of my loan which would bring my account current and he would change my due date at that time. I sent Capital One an online payment on June 12, 2010. I called today to find out about the deferment and was told by someone named Teresa that I could not have the deferment unless I sent another $458.00!

I have gone round and round with this company for years trying to get this whole mess straightened out. I have done exactly what they have asked me to do in regards to making up the required past due payment and the continue to renig on what they have told me they would do as far as getting the payment due date changed. I am at my wits end and if this doesn't get resolved to my complete satisfaction by the 25th of July I will have no choice but to take action against the company.

You are absolutely correct. I worked in the loan industry in the early 80's. At that time we would take a credit application, call the employer, run the credit, talk, (yes talk) to the applicant regarding any late payments, etc. Loans were done in person (really) and character mattered. Then suddenly we had a new boss (I worked at a Credit Union), anyway, this new boss was really big on this new way of telling if a person would pay back their loan; and golly gee, it was this thing called FICO. I wouldn't use it, I somehow felt the "old" way was better. Try to understand what was the problem if something stood out on the credit report. People got to know their banker. It's how business was done.

This new thing back in the 80's, this Number thing, well it was the FICO. You got points for how long you were on the job, own/rent, got more points if MC over Visa. I never could understand that one. In fact I often said it reduced to a very impersonal way of doing business and not giving people a chance. Nonsense! I was told.

Today the only thing that matters is your FICO score and life be damned. Here is the funny part. A few years ago a poor FICO score was something like 450/500, that was poor. Good was somewhere around 500/600. Well, here's the funny part, today, poor is somewhere around 550/600.

I've said for years it is designed to keep the middle class down. Life happens. I can't count the times that if I had used this new thing FICO back when I did loans; well most likely half the people wouldn't have gotten a loan. Yet all loans were paid on time (thank you payroll deduction), but even those who had left employment, still mailed their payments in on time.

What sense does it make to stick someone with a higher interest rate because they had some bad luck? So their FICO score is bad. Which given how that number seems to change with the tides; YOU may have a good FICO today, but tomorrow...you can't be to sure.

You can look at the whole picture when it's a real person doing the looking. Not some computer, spiting out numbers.

Does this FICO score system need to be fixed? Yes. Is it designed to keep the middle class down? I believe so. The system can be fixed. There is nothing wrong with using the FICO score as a tool; as one part of the picture. To help confirm what the "person to person", reviewing the credit application and looking at the credit history line by line. Do that, take the score into consideration, talk with the client and bam! You can make a very good decision. I knew I never had a loan go bad! Never.

I don't agree with Capital One's process that you're mentioning, but perhaps this information will be useful to you:

When you apply for the one, Capital One evaluates your credit and makes judgment on whether or nor to extend credit to you. When you get the card, your transactions are monitored. Red flags are raised when patterns of activity suggest potential account fraud or identity theft. If someone does manage to steal your identity, they won't try and establish an excellent history on your behalf, they will try and max out any credit available to them, so if the monitoring program considers the transaction suspicious the card would become locked down. No-one you would have spoken to when activating or applying for the card would have foreknowledge of you having to go through the process. The only way they will release the hold on the card is by you verifying the information supplied on your original credit application. The people you speak to on the phone have no capability to release the hold and if they attempt to do so they face disciplinary procedures and potential termination.

There is only one team that actually reviews the documents sent in and you cannot speak to them over the phone, as they are not customer facing. They simply review the imaged documents and remove suspensions or send letters explaining what information is missing. It's an inconvenient process from start to finish. I would rather see Capital One ask for these documents prior to opening accounts but the manpower required to do that would be immense and it would slow down an already slow application process. The process does prevent fraud and so it is not entirely a waste but the implementation does leave something to be desired.

If you had spoken to someone using the number on the back of your card and pressed zero, you would have better understood your change in terms. That one sounds like a default rate increase. You only get a default rate vs a regular apr if your are past due 2 times in 12 months. If that was just a default rate increase as I suspect it is, then you had nothing to worry about. You would have kept your low apr and only gone to the higher one if you defaulted on your card (past due 2 times in 12 months). If you have already opted out, typically that is non reversible. In the future, if you get a letter like that, before you get upset call the regular customer service line and someone will explain it in truthful, correct and easy launguage that makes the change easier to understand. If you want to opt out after that, fine, but atleast you made the decision to opt out logically vs emotionally.

THEY ARE THIEVES! NONE OF THEM SPEAK ENGLISH AND CHARGE INTEREST UP THE ###! THEY RUINED MY CREDIT BECAUSE OF THE STUPID MISTAKES THEY MADE THEMSELVES! CHECK THIS I CLOSED MY ACCOUNT AND THEY STILL SEND ME STATEMENTS SAYING I OWE THEM FOR HAVING THE ACCOUNT OPEN, UMM NOPE NOT PAYING SORRY I PAID THE TOTAL AMOUNT DUE... SCUMS, DONT EVER GET A CREDIT CARD WITH THEM

In an attempt to use Capital One miles rewards I contacted Capital One prior to making my airline purchase. I was delightfully surprised and exited when the customer service representative checked my mileage availability and advised that I have more than enough miles to make the purchase. After the purchase appeared on my credit card, I contacted Capital One to redeem my miles. At that point the customer service representative told me I don’t have enough miles for that purchase. With my attempt to get information on who gave me the wrong advise I was transferred to a supervisor named Careth. She bluntly told me that maybe I heard what I wanted to hear when I was originally calling before my purchase. No wonder Capital One has such bad customer service rep. Needless to say I will be closing my accounts with Capital One.

What I don't understand is why there isn't a way to report the companies that participate in this repetitive spam, i.e. Orchard Bank, University of Phoenix, and any other company that uses some spammer to distribute their spam. They know it is wrong when they sign up with these spammers. I personally will NEVER do business with any company that sends me spam. Orchard Bank and some of these other companies should be fined. Hit them in the pocket book since that is the only language they understand.

I completely agree. I cannot imagine how the senior management of Orchard Bank, which appears to be a real financial institution, lives with him/her self. May as well advertise on the Jerry Springer show. I would gleefully set fire to the entire server farm pushing this ###. Yes, they win, as the most well known spammer. Congratulations. If you do garner customers from this spam, you have the stupidest customer base of all time!

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ORCHARD BANK. DO NOT REWARD THEIR JUNK-MAIL CAMPAIGN BY GIVING THEM BUSINESS! I have tried to block them in every conceivable way and they still spam the heck out of me 3-4 times a day! I hate these ba$$tards!
WILL NEVER DO Business WITH KNOWN SPAMMERS In my book they are no different than the skim of the earth peddling Viagra and replica junk watches!

I am a tech for my local library with a degree in information technology. I tell you from a professional standpoint to never click "unsubscribe" on spam emails. Your e-mail address has likely been redistributed each time you click "unsubscribe." Just mark as spam and let your inbox learn. Eventually all your spam will go only to your spam folder and you'll never have to see it again.

Sue them. I am.

Can you give more details? Sounds like the complaint I posted about another company, They changed the date to the end of the month and the next day is when they do a statement for the following month, so it was a big mess cause the idiot handling the payments kept screwing up or taking the payments on the side for himself.

You won't get your title. They said they lost mine, then repossessed the car from the tow lot because it was unregistered. Then they sold it at auction for more than they reported to me when they demanded nearly $25, 000 deficiency balance. Sue them. Get a lawyer or file it in federal court yourself. I did, and I'm going to win, big time. Bad faith and unfair dealing. But you could probably file it as fraud.

I was charged 250.00 for a Capitol One credit card I never had. Capitol One sent a letter deeming this credit card fraudulent. They have not refunded my money after numerous attempts, and requested paperwork faxed. The money was withdrawn from my wife's account. They state they will not refund the money because my name is not on that account. Case number [protected] Aug 18, 2015

I'm not the worlds biggest Capital One fan myself, but you entered into a revolving legal agreement with Melaleuca asking them to send you products if you didn't order any in a given month. Its really just that simple.

You blame Melaleuca on your other thread and on here you blame Capital One, but if the real truth was made known, you entered into a legal agreement with Melaleuca to spend so much money each month on their products. You then did not honor that agreement so to see you complain about it on here is a dodge of personal responsibility.

In the furture, read before you sign. Understand what you are doing before you do it. Take personal responsibility for your own actions. Its not Melaleuca or Capital One that are a problem in your case. It's just you not being willing to own up to the agreement you entered into with Melaleuca.

All the best,