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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Discover
# May 08 2002 at 9:44 AM Rating: Decent
24 posts
If the places around you take it (the major problem with this card: not many people take it, especially on college campuses), then Discover is a good card. I have never recieved any debtors calls from them (maybe noone else with my name has a card?), but also I don't get junk mail at my billing address. In fact I don't get any mail, but that is a different issue. =) I have had this card for years (infact I got it to get something on my credit report so I could buy my computer) and never had a problem with them. So if it is available in your area, I would recommend Discover.

Adolin
52 Dwarf Warrior
Tarew Marr


P.S. No, I don't work for Discover. =)
RE: Discover
# May 08 2002 at 11:32 AM Rating: Decent
10 posts
Another heads up...I would suggest against Discover. Here's why, they have differing contract terms on different accounts, one of the absolute worst practices I have seen with a credit card company is done on some Discover accounts, and no, it's not a secret, it's just hard to understand. All of their terms are listed with the card and statement every time you get a bill, you just need to have a financial dictionary next to you to understand them all. Anyways, one of Discover's practices is to charge an "average" monthly interest rate. What they do is take the amount due last month and the amount due the current month and average together the interest owed. This is why some of you that have paid off your discover card in full one month may have wondered why you got a bill the following month for a few more dollars. They averaged last month(you just paid it off) and the current month(since it's paid off now the balance is $0.). Given that situation, you still owed them money. Lovely, yes? Oh, and that whole 2% cash back thing...think about it, your interest rate is anywhere from 7-23%, and they pay you back 2% of what you charged. I'll give you a $1 bill if you give me a $50.
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