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Report: #186561

Complaint Review: Capital One - Richmond Virginia

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  • Reported By: Coconut Creek Florida
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  • Capital One capitalone.com Richmond, Virginia U.S.A.

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My original credit limit with Capital One was $500. I was close to the credit limit and I overnighted my payment. Capital One did not post my payment for 1 week and by then it was late. They charged me late fee. I called and sent them proof that they signed for the overnight payment 1 week before payment was posted, but they would not take off the late fee. I told them I would not send another payment until they credit the late fee. The following month I was charged late fee, and because of the late fees added, I was then over limit and was charged an overlimit fee. This was back in 2003.

Now, on the $500 limit card, my balance in just 3 years is $2200. Yes, that is over 400% of my original debt. Back when account was $1200, Capital One wrote the account off, but are still charging me. They are willing to settle for $1100, but will only note my account as "Settlement Accepted on this Account". I don't feel an $1100 payment should be construed as "settled".

Does anyone know if they can legally do this? If they did this to me, how can anyone in a bad financial situation ever recoup their life and credit? Don't we have any rights as to how items are reported in our files? In addition, the collection agency has called my work and asked to speak with the manager. When asked what it is in reference to, they said my name. I was put on phone and they told me they want to talk to my boss about my unwillingness to pay. I refused. I know this isn't legal, but thought I should add this.

Getting Ripped Off
Coconut Creek, Florida
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/13/2006 09:51 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/capital-one/richmond-virginia-23285/capital-one-still-charging-account-after-writing-off-richmond-virginia-186561. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
13Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#13 Consumer Comment

PO Boxes

AUTHOR: Tiffany - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, April 20, 2006

Just FYI-But large companies PO Boxes are actually called Lockboxes. They are at a bank and the checks can be signed for by employees of the bank. If the check did not post for a week, well it could be either Capital One or their banks fault. I don't think a large company like Capital One has a PO Box at the post office and just periodically picks up checks. Their bank processes the checks and automatically deposits them into their customer's bank. Their customer in turn gets a lockbox report which shows them who the payments came from, the memo, and the amount of the check. The bank then either e-mails the checks or has a courier deliver them. It's unfortunate that what happened did, but it was possibly an error on someone else's part.

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#12 Author of original report

Answer to Jennifer

AUTHOR: Nikki - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, April 16, 2006

I know you cannot send overnight payments to a PO Box. In fact, I called Capital One and asked for the physical address to overnight the payment. The person on the phone checked my account and gave me the correct address for my account. In addition, I've called a few times over the years to set up a payment settlement. In fact just 3 months ago I offered $800 and was denied by the collection agency. When I called Capital One directly to offer it to them I was told I had to deal with the collection agency. When I told Capital One I really didn't want to deal with a collection agency, that I owe them and would rather deal with Capital One directly, they told me they would not accept anything less than the full amount due and if I didn't want to pay full amount due, not to bother to call them anymore. I grew up with my grandparents who taught me that honesty and fairness were the "American Way" and not to bow down to anyone or anything that was unfair to me. As I previously stated I really didn't think it would get this far and yes, I am the one who lost. However with all the proof I had I really thought someone from Capital One would have credited my account.

One more thing to add that I didn't include in original post since I could not prove any wrongdoing by Capital One and I didn't want to be unfair. Two months prior to this problem, I sent in my payment 10 days early. It posted the day after the due date and I was charged a late fee, which I paid. The month prior, I sent in my payment 12 days earlier and it posted the day after the due date and I was charged a late fee. That is why this time I overnighted the payment 10 days early which, coincidentally, posted the day after the due date too. I guess I should have just kept paying a late fee every month and looked at it as a fee for having a credit card with Capital One.

A lot of people have been scolding me for not just paying the darn thing and you're right. Shame on me for not paying the late fee. What a horrible person I am for not sending Capital One their measley late fee. After all, they're in business to make money and I why should I expect a company to credit an administrative fee to me, regardless of the circumstances. I mean, who am I? One of those situations of "If I knew then...".

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#11 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Where did you send your payment?

AUTHOR: Jennifer - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, April 16, 2006

From working in Payment Investigations, I can almost guarantee the reason why your overnight payment did not post the next day: You mailed it to the PO box instead of the physical address used for receiving overnight payments.

ITEMS THAT NEED TO BE SIGNED FOR ON DELIVERY MUST GO TO A PHYSICAL ADDRESS, NOT A PO BOX!

Capital One's PO boxes each receive thousands of payments every day. Somebody WILL sign for anything that needs to be signed for, but they're NOT set up for that. It is, after all, a PO box.

Overnighted payments and payments sent via regular mail are processed at different locations. When an overnight payment is mailed to a PO box, it is signed for and then forwarded to the correct physical address for processing. This can cause signficant delay. I've seen it take an extra day or two, sometimes two or three weeks.

The bottom line is, it is NOT the creditor's fault if you mail something which must be signed for to a PO box. That just doesn't make any logical sense.

What ALSO doesn't make any logical sense is that you allowed your $500 balance to balloon up to $2200. Again, not Capital One's fault. Your initial refusal to pay because your payment was late shows an utter lack of responsibility and maturity on your part.

Did you really think that by refusing to make payments, Capital One would just decide not to charge any fees more to your account? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Fees are generated automatically when the account goes past due or overlimit, or if a payment is returned. There is no person monitoring your account and making a decision whether to charge a fee or not.

As for settling for $1100, what would YOU think is fair? If you ONLY had a balance of $500 at 28.9% APR for three years, with no fees and no payments made at all during that period, that alone would accrue around $250 in finance charges. So instead of $500 your balance would be $750. Would THAT be a fair settlement? After all, you were the one who didn't make the payments -- yet Capital One had to continue to pay back THEIR lenders so they could then loan that money to you in the first place.

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#10 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Where did you send your payment?

AUTHOR: Jennifer - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, April 16, 2006

From working in Payment Investigations, I can almost guarantee the reason why your overnight payment did not post the next day: You mailed it to the PO box instead of the physical address used for receiving overnight payments.

ITEMS THAT NEED TO BE SIGNED FOR ON DELIVERY MUST GO TO A PHYSICAL ADDRESS, NOT A PO BOX!

Capital One's PO boxes each receive thousands of payments every day. Somebody WILL sign for anything that needs to be signed for, but they're NOT set up for that. It is, after all, a PO box.

Overnighted payments and payments sent via regular mail are processed at different locations. When an overnight payment is mailed to a PO box, it is signed for and then forwarded to the correct physical address for processing. This can cause signficant delay. I've seen it take an extra day or two, sometimes two or three weeks.

The bottom line is, it is NOT the creditor's fault if you mail something which must be signed for to a PO box. That just doesn't make any logical sense.

What ALSO doesn't make any logical sense is that you allowed your $500 balance to balloon up to $2200. Again, not Capital One's fault. Your initial refusal to pay because your payment was late shows an utter lack of responsibility and maturity on your part.

Did you really think that by refusing to make payments, Capital One would just decide not to charge any fees more to your account? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Fees are generated automatically when the account goes past due or overlimit, or if a payment is returned. There is no person monitoring your account and making a decision whether to charge a fee or not.

As for settling for $1100, what would YOU think is fair? If you ONLY had a balance of $500 at 28.9% APR for three years, with no fees and no payments made at all during that period, that alone would accrue around $250 in finance charges. So instead of $500 your balance would be $750. Would THAT be a fair settlement? After all, you were the one who didn't make the payments -- yet Capital One had to continue to pay back THEIR lenders so they could then loan that money to you in the first place.

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#9 Consumer Suggestion

Online Bill Pay Through Your Bank

AUTHOR: Chip - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I have a Cap One No Hassle card...I make my payments to them online through my bank. It has always posted to my account the day it comes out of my bank account. ALWAYS. I have never had a problem with payments being late. Just a suggestion.

By the way, I have a car loan through Cap One. Same thing. Pay online through my bank. Never a hassle.

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#8 Consumer Comment

I Caught MBNA Doing the Same Thing

AUTHOR: Buddy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I had an MBNA card for years. My payment due date was always the 5th of the month; I always sent my payment the 25th of the month before, and it was always credited within a week. This went on for about 5 years, until credit card companies were allowed to charge a late fee.

Suddenly, the payments that were sent on the 25th were now taking until the 7th or 8th to be credited, instead of the 1st or 2nd of the month which had been the practice for the 5 previous years. So, there I was, racking up late fees and over-the-limit fees. I had to start overnighting my payments on the 25th and there was no way they could get my payment on the 26th and hold it for 10 or 11 days to post it one day late.

After a few times of this, I was able to rearrange my bill paying schedule to start sending in payments on the day I got the bill, which was usually around the 15th or 16th of the month. This immediately took care of the late fees, and it only took one payment to get rid of the over-the-limit fees. After that, I paid them off as soon as I could and will not do business with them again. In fact, after my experiences with Capitol One and MBNA (and Citibank which is another story), I now only use an American Express card which has to be paid off each month. It saves a lot of headaches, and also really cuts down on spending when you know you have to pay it all in one lump sum.

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#7 Consumer Comment

I Caught MBNA Doing the Same Thing

AUTHOR: Buddy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I had an MBNA card for years. My payment due date was always the 5th of the month; I always sent my payment the 25th of the month before, and it was always credited within a week. This went on for about 5 years, until credit card companies were allowed to charge a late fee.

Suddenly, the payments that were sent on the 25th were now taking until the 7th or 8th to be credited, instead of the 1st or 2nd of the month which had been the practice for the 5 previous years. So, there I was, racking up late fees and over-the-limit fees. I had to start overnighting my payments on the 25th and there was no way they could get my payment on the 26th and hold it for 10 or 11 days to post it one day late.

After a few times of this, I was able to rearrange my bill paying schedule to start sending in payments on the day I got the bill, which was usually around the 15th or 16th of the month. This immediately took care of the late fees, and it only took one payment to get rid of the over-the-limit fees. After that, I paid them off as soon as I could and will not do business with them again. In fact, after my experiences with Capitol One and MBNA (and Citibank which is another story), I now only use an American Express card which has to be paid off each month. It saves a lot of headaches, and also really cuts down on spending when you know you have to pay it all in one lump sum.

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#6 Consumer Comment

I Caught MBNA Doing the Same Thing

AUTHOR: Buddy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I had an MBNA card for years. My payment due date was always the 5th of the month; I always sent my payment the 25th of the month before, and it was always credited within a week. This went on for about 5 years, until credit card companies were allowed to charge a late fee.

Suddenly, the payments that were sent on the 25th were now taking until the 7th or 8th to be credited, instead of the 1st or 2nd of the month which had been the practice for the 5 previous years. So, there I was, racking up late fees and over-the-limit fees. I had to start overnighting my payments on the 25th and there was no way they could get my payment on the 26th and hold it for 10 or 11 days to post it one day late.

After a few times of this, I was able to rearrange my bill paying schedule to start sending in payments on the day I got the bill, which was usually around the 15th or 16th of the month. This immediately took care of the late fees, and it only took one payment to get rid of the over-the-limit fees. After that, I paid them off as soon as I could and will not do business with them again. In fact, after my experiences with Capitol One and MBNA (and Citibank which is another story), I now only use an American Express card which has to be paid off each month. It saves a lot of headaches, and also really cuts down on spending when you know you have to pay it all in one lump sum.

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#5 Consumer Comment

I Caught MBNA Doing the Same Thing

AUTHOR: Buddy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I had an MBNA card for years. My payment due date was always the 5th of the month; I always sent my payment the 25th of the month before, and it was always credited within a week. This went on for about 5 years, until credit card companies were allowed to charge a late fee.

Suddenly, the payments that were sent on the 25th were now taking until the 7th or 8th to be credited, instead of the 1st or 2nd of the month which had been the practice for the 5 previous years. So, there I was, racking up late fees and over-the-limit fees. I had to start overnighting my payments on the 25th and there was no way they could get my payment on the 26th and hold it for 10 or 11 days to post it one day late.

After a few times of this, I was able to rearrange my bill paying schedule to start sending in payments on the day I got the bill, which was usually around the 15th or 16th of the month. This immediately took care of the late fees, and it only took one payment to get rid of the over-the-limit fees. After that, I paid them off as soon as I could and will not do business with them again. In fact, after my experiences with Capitol One and MBNA (and Citibank which is another story), I now only use an American Express card which has to be paid off each month. It saves a lot of headaches, and also really cuts down on spending when you know you have to pay it all in one lump sum.

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

The Remainder Will Be Reported to the IRS as "Income"

AUTHOR: Buddy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

If Capitol One is willing to settle the $2200 "debt" for $1100, the other $1100 will be reported to the IRS as income and you will owe taxes on it. Seems like you get screwed no matter what you do. I had a similar experience with Capitol One, and I just bit the bullet and paid them off. I ran into credit problems about 10 years ago because I foolishly bailed my daughter out of some problems -- so what happened? Because I sent in checks with my name on them to pay off some of her bills, suddenly the debts ended up on my credit report.

Anyway, I got a Capitol One card with a $300 limit, and used it a few times. Suddenly, I was getting late fees and over the limit fees I couldn't believe. I, too, decided to fight it on "principle" and got nowhere. Finally, after paying about $700 on the card (for less than $100 in purchases), I still had a $750 balance, and I got a letter telling me they were going to "write it off" but would be sending the IRS a 1099. I went ahead and sent them $150 a month until I could get it paid off -- the late charges stopped immediately, and eventually, once the balance was under the original credit limit, the over-the limit fees stopped, too. I probably had to send $1000 or more to pay off that $750 balance, on top of the money I had already sent them through the years. On my last payment, I deliberately overpaid because I didn't know how many things they would find to tack on to my bill, but much to my surprise, I was sent a check for the overage I paid, and I haven't heard a word from them since! (except, of course, to get new credit card offers from them which go directly into the shredder).

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#3 Consumer Comment

Why blame Capital One?

AUTHOR: John - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

I don't know why Capital One posted your payment so late, and I would continue to question the late fee, but it doesn't give you the right to stop paying your bill!

Because you didn't make the monthly payments they have every right to continue to charge you late charges, over your limit fees, interest, etc. You gave them this right when you signed up for the credit card.

You should have continued to make monthly payments on your account so that you didn't incure any more late charges. You should have paid enough so you weren't over your credit limit. You also should have continued to question the late fee.

Just because they "wrote off" your account does not mean that you no longer have to pay them. The settlement of $1100 is a bargain.

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#2 Author of original report

Agreed to late and overlimit fees is true, but...

AUTHOR: Nikki - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

You say I agreed to pay late and over limit fees, but don't forget, I wasn't late. Nor did I go over the credit limit. Yes, I should have paid the $30 and get it over with, but what would have happened the following month? Another late fee? How many times would that have gone on? Many according to the lawsuits filed against Capital One for holding payments until after the due dates just to collect fees. I have never dealt with such an unscrupulous company before that and I really thought I could get someone there to reverse the fees since they were wrong. I guess honesty and upstanding character do not account for much when dealing with these types of companies.

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#1 Consumer Suggestion

You Should Have Paid

AUTHOR: Chip - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, April 14, 2006

You should have paid the original late fee, even though you thought you were right on pronciple. What was the fee -- around $30? That's a very small sum to pay for protecting your credit and avoiding a massive headache. Now your credit is trashed, if you get new credit it'll be at an outrageous rate, and all for $30 and principle.

You used the card, which means you agreed to their terms, which means you agreed to all their late fees and overlimit fees. It's fair and legal. You owe $2200, they are willing to SETTLE for half that, so yeah, it's a settlement. The fact you let this go on for years, allowing the fees to pile up, is beyond my ability to understand, and your failure to attempt resolution for 3 years, in my mind, has put you in the position you're in today...it's completely your fault.

But I will give you that calling your manager to shame you into paying...I do not believe THAT is illegal. They cannot discuss your account with anyone but you.

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