Consumer agency fines Capital One for card marketing

radcen · Jul 21, 2012

tessaesque said:
I used to work for Citi in the credit card division.

We had 10 or 15 products available to customers similar to those Capital One is being fined for.

These programs, while expensive, can be beneficial to a certain demographic of card holder.

The payment protection plan, which is usually a varying fee based on your balance (i.e. $0.43 per dollar of balance) is a program that will cover your minimum payment for a designated period of time under certain circumstances. Those circumstances would include lay-offs, serious illness that results in short-term/long term disability, and a few other situations. The down side, other than the fee, is that you cannot use the card when you're in protection mode. Then again, if you don't have normal income you probably shouldn't be using a credit card anyway.

Credit monitoring is a service offered by almost every single bank in existence and several 3rd party companies. It can be invaluable. I know when I had it on my Citi card I got alerted quite a few times when "weird" stuff happened...out of state inquiries, a card swipe outside my normal activity area, etc. The program also offered $10k to cover costs associated with credit theft.

I'm assuming the issue that led to Capital One being charged involves their methodology. And I'll agree that the men at the board room desk/marketing department/supervisors are very, very serious about pushing these credit products onto consumers. And why not? They're a HUGE profit boon for companies. I know how Citi did it: We had to offer, offer again, and if the customer accepted we had to read them 2 pages of legal information (they'd later receive that in the mail, too) before signing them up.

Looks like C1 reps were lying about the system. My guess, having been that poor jerk sitting at the phone bank, is that the pressure to meet sales quotas, especially in this economy, resulted in a lapse in proper procedure. I actually feel bad for the reps in this situation. I remember very well how hard we were pushed to sell, sell, sell...but we were never encouraged to lie about the programs. In fact, we were warned that if we were caught lying in a call audit we'd be immediately terminated.

Red: I don't disagree, and in an ideal world I'd even agree, but at the same time a credit card may be needed for things like food and gas for a job search. Unless you're maxed out, I think it'd be a better option to save the insurance premium and continue to use your card (albeit in low-volume crisis mode) and get small cash advances to make minimum monthly payments.

Blue: My son used to do this type of job for a few different companies, and he was always taught to ask three times before giving up... which just pisses me off when it happens to me. When I say 'no', I mean no. The first time. I expect that to be respected. I don't care that it works on others. I used to get mad, but no longer do that. No point. It's just a job for the rep, albeit an annoying job. Then I would hang up, but I got no satisfaction out of that. Plus, it probably helped the company as the rep could talk to the next 'victim' faster. So now I'm a bit more insidiously passive-aggressive about it...

Them: Would you like to buy <blah blah blah full spiel>
Me: No thank you.
Them: Round 2 of what I'm missing <blah blah blah full spiel>
Me: No thank you.
Them: Round 3 of what I'm missing <blah blah blah full spiel>
Me: No thank you.

Call finally ends.

Helix said:
and it's not just capital one. my credit card is somehow charging me the credit protection nonsense again after i had it removed. looks like i'll have to waste time calling them (again) to have it removed (again.) every time i use the damned card, i think about how much i don't want to ever use a credit card. needless to say, i don't use it often, and i do not carry a balance from month to month.

If phone calls won't get it resolved, write them. Snail mail. Create a paper trail just in case you need to dispute the charges.

lpast said:
The bane of having an 800+ credit score is that EVERYONE wants a piece of you and everyone wants to sell you something...My wife and I are utterly inundated with garbage everyday...via mail, email and phone...I have my name on ALL do not call lists...cell phone too...I unsubscribe from everything I can and it just keeps coming...sigh...maybe I should go bankrupt so they leave me alone and let turtledude pay my bills lol

At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you have a low credit score you get bombarded with offers from bottom-feeding usury credit cards like First Premier, Credit One, and so on. The ones that have annual fees like $175, AND monthly fees that also add up to $175/yr, interest rates anywhere from 35% to 79%, and so on. No matter who you are, somebody wants a piece of you.

RadicalModerate said:
Get bent.

:applaud

danarhea · Jul 21, 2012

lpast said:
Ive posted several threads in a short period of time about Big Banks and Corporations and Big Pharma criminality. Their ripping off the american people for millions and billions and in turn recieving MINOR slap on the wrist fines...then issuing WE DID NOTHING WRONG but were paying the finet....Your crooks and thieves just like AL Capone and Vito Genovese and Mexican Drug Cartels...
This bank like all the others just laugh at this...they swindled and pocketed alot more than the fine...

Capital One Financial agreed to pay $210 million to resolve charges by banking regulators that its call-center representatives misled consumers into paying for extra credit card products
The enforcement action, announced on Wednesday, is the first by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which said it unearthed the activities through an examination of the bank
The CFPB was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and is nearing its one-year anniversary.
The government said $150 million of the sanctions will go to reimburse affected customers, while the remaining penalty will be split between the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which fined the bank $35 million, and the CFPB, which will collect $25 million.

Consumer agency fines Capital One for card marketing | Reuters

Here's what Bank of America did to me: I had a Visa card through them, and it was at 12.9%. One day, they upped the rate to 29.9% because it was close to maxed out at the time. OK, no problem there. They can charge whatever rate they want to. But what else did they do? They applied that rate retroactively to everything I had bought under the 12.9% rate, and increased my payments.

Here's what I did to Bank of America: I said **** you, and refused to make payments. They got quite nasty for a while with the bill collectors, but after 3 years I am past the statute of limitations, and they can't do a damn thing to me. Also, during this time, I recorded all my calls, and got one of the bill collectors in a lot of hot water, when they attempted to tell me that a warrant was out for my arrest, which was not true, and was also illegal as hell. After I filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, I never heard from them again. Bear in mind that this is the only debt I refused to pay. I paid the others all off, and in October my car will be completely paid off. They did not attempt to pull the Bank of America scam on me, and so I dealt straight with them.

Bottom line here is that Bank of America attempted to rob me, so I robbed them instead, and I have no remorse whatsoever about it. My credit is shot, but I don't need those assholes anyways, so a big fat middle finger from me to them. I will never own a credit card ever again, even AFTER the 7 years expires, and I can get credit again. I will save money for those times I need it instead, and these scumbags can take a flying leap off a short bridge into deep water, while wearing cement shoes. I don't need them. Period. End of story. And I also made it crystal clear that I am the last person a white collar criminal enterprise wants to **** with.

washunut · Jul 21, 2012

danarhea said:
Here's what Bank of America did to me: I had a Visa card through them, and it was at 12.9%. One day, they upped the rate to 29.9% because it was close to maxed out at the time. OK, no problem there. They can charge whatever rate they want to. But what else did they do? They applied that rate retroactively to everything I had bought under the 12.9% rate, and increased my payments.

Here's what I did to Bank of America: I said **** you, and refused to make payments. They got quite nasty for a while with the bill collectors, but after 3 years I am past the statute of limitations, and they can't do a damn thing to me. Also, during this time, I recorded all my calls, and got one of the bill collectors in a lot of hot water, when they attempted to tell me that a warrant was out for my arrest, which was not true, and was also illegal as hell. After I filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, I never heard from them again. Bear in mind that this is the only debt I refused to pay. I paid the others all off, and in October my car will be completely paid off. They did not attempt to pull the Bank of America scam on me, and so I dealt straight with them.

Bottom line here is that Bank of America attempted to rob me, so I robbed them instead, and I have no remorse whatsoever about it. My credit is shot, but I don't need those assholes anyways, so a big fat middle finger from me to them. I will never own a credit card ever again, even AFTER the 7 years expires, and I can get credit again. I will save money for those times I need it instead, and these scumbags can take a flying leap off a short bridge into deep water, while wearing cement shoes. I don't need them. Period. End of story. And I also made it crystal clear that I am the last person a white collar criminal enterprise wants to **** with.

Good for you, what BAC did was reprehensible. That being said as you mentioned this was the one bad experience you had with financial institutions. We should call out the bad actors (as you have done) but not paint everyone in that industry with the same brush (as you have not done).

Consumer agency fines Capital One for card marketing

radcen

Phonetic Mnemonic ©

danarhea

Slayer of the DP Newsbot

washunut