Beware Capital One -- A Consumer's Story

Yeah I know this has nothing to do with EQ or DAoC, and I'm not normally one to use this as a pulpit for things like this, but after a couple of hours on the phone on this, I figured I would give people a heads up about this company's practice. I have (soon will have had) a Capital One Credit Card. You know the one with those cute "what's in your wallet" commercials. It's actually under my wife's name, which has some bearing on this. Well today I get a call from "Rod" from "The Account Solutions Group", a collection agency, stating that our credit card payment is overdue. Amazed, I tell him that this is impossible, since I pay the card off each month and in fact just sent in a payment last week. He of course insists, in very strong and insistant terms, that we owe Capital One money. Basically, he was rude as hell. Well after much hassle back and forth from him, I finally get out of him that he is looking for a "Tony Moyer", male, born in 1979, instead of "Toni Moyer", female, born in 1965. Great. So I figure it's just a stupid, if unpleasant, mistake. Nevertheless, to be safe, I call Capital One to make sure they do not have us listed as delinquent and that our credit rating has not been affected. After the usual wait on hold and a transfer, I finally get to "Kevin" of customer service. He tells me that there should be no problem with our credit report since the account would be under a different social security number. But I insist he look further since someone got our number to call us and harass us, so I figure someone thought that was our account. Then he says the most amazing thing: that if they can't track down the actual debtor, the collection ageny will typically pull every phone number in Capitol One's database with the same name as the person who owes them money and call them all to try to collect their debt. I'm like "are you saying that just because some Tony Moyer in Podunk owes you money, you called us and accused us of being delinquent?" Basically yes. There were 15 variations of Toni Moyer in their database and apparantly they called them all over this single debt. They didn't call us by mistake as much as mistakenly called us. He claimed that was the price we are supposed to pay for getting that low interest rate. So of course I told him to cancel my account. Then, after I had hung up, it occured to me that a company this unscrupulous and unethical could not be trusted to not somehow mess with our credit rating, so I decided I had better get a letter from them confirming that our credit with them was fine just to have on file somewhere. Plus, I had to make sure what he told me was truly correct, because it seemed so incredulous to me. So I called back and eventually got to 'Nancy" in customer service. Yes indeed she confirmed, we will call everyone necessary to collect a debt. "Even if the age, sex, and social security number all don't match?" You bet. That is apparantly a company policy. I believe the exact quote was "Capital One will do whatever is necessary to collect a debt". Apparantly even if it means hassling people who have absolutely no connection to the debtor beyond a similar name. So if you are considering getting a Capital One credit card, keep in mind that if anyone with your name owes them money, you can expect to get a similar phone call from a collection agency accusing you of not paying your debts. In addition, I ask you to consider this. If they will use the information you provide them in this unsavory manner, how else will they use it? I of course only know about this incident, but do you want to take the chance that this is the only way they will twist your data? Is this the type of company you want to deal with? You may want to consider a different company, and if you currently have a Capital One Card, you may want to consider another option before you too get a call like this.
Tags: General, News

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Life sucks, then you get a bill.
# May 08 2002 at 8:34 AM Rating: Decent
3 posts
I am 19. I have my own trailer, my own car, my own pet, my own bank account. I spend $900 a month in bills. I was hoping to get a Credit Card to help with the bills, and they told me I am not able to get a Credit Card for 2 more years. Why? Insufficient Credit Data. Sure, I can go with the scam companies, but I want to go with Visa. My Father, Mother, and Stepfather all had a Visa card at one time or another, and had no problem with them. Mastercard? APR is too high. American Express? Not accepted where I live. Capital One? Read the post. It really hurt to be told I couldn't get a card, since I make about 1200 a month, and the government takes 300-400 of that, which makes it hard to pay my bills. Any suggestions people? A second job is out, I already work from 7am to 7pm.

James Carson

Kresh Quickbow
42 Ranger, Terris Thule

Salnyien Quickheal
30 Cleric, Terris Thule

Saraden Starwalker
27 Mage, Terris Thule

And 5 more characters but don't wanna waste all the room.
RE: Life sucks, then you get a bill.
# May 08 2002 at 10:23 AM Rating: Default
find someplace cheaper to live lol..you definately do not want to get credit cards to help pay and manage your bills..you will just put yourself deeper into debt that you will not be able to get out of until you end up in bankruptcy court..believe me..been there and done it..credit cards are best used as quick use purchase or large secure purchases that you know you can pay off in a short period of time...once you get a large amount on a card, unless you can make bulk payments, you will only be paying interest on it for the rest of your life..example..you have a card with 1000.00 limit on it..if you max it your monthly payment will be about 29.00 a month..of this 29.00 paid 20.00 of it will be MONTHLY interst on the card.. 4.00 of it will be put towards various fees..the other 5.00 left will be put towards your actuall principle..so your $1000.00 credit card just got paid down to $995.00..so you see instead of paying your card down you just lost 24.00 in fees just for owning one with a balance
RE: Life sucks, then you get a bill.
# May 08 2002 at 10:25 AM Rating: Default
oh yah forgot to add..next month since your principle only paid it down to $995.00 you now get hit with an over the limit fee because that 20.oo interset just threw yuou over..now your charged an extra 30.00 on top of your normal fee..
RE: Life sucks, then you get a bill.
# May 08 2002 at 11:35 AM Rating: Decent
1 post
Here's another option - if you'd like to build credit at least. Be a Co-signer with someone you "Trust" on items, the risk they don't pay you have to. Another way to build credit is to take out a small loan say 500 or 1000 dollars. Don't spend that money. Just use it to pay off your loan... you'll end up spending less than 100 dollars on interest usually with a decent bank it's about 50 to 60 dollars but it gives your credit a huge boost. Do that a few times then you can take out a larger loan at a low interest rate which is usually much better than any credit card rate you'll get.
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