Capital One Interest hike!!!

jeff1969

I took out a new capital one card to put a balance transfer on, the amount was over £10,000!!!

Now I took this out at a fixed rate of 3.94% pa fixed for the life of the balance.

All was well until last months statement, where I found that the interest rate had shot up to 15.??% :-( As I'm sure you can imagine I got in touch with an operator to find out what was happening and was informed that it was a mistake and that he would contact the relevant department to get it put back.

A week later I received a letter informing me that, as per a previous letter sent to me the interest rate had changed as stated and that I did have 3.94% previously, this confused me so I rang again ( about an hour ago ) and spoke to a woman who said that the original letter had informed me that I had three options available,

1) pay off the amount and close the account,
2) tick a box and they would keep me on 3.94%
3) do nothing and be put up to the new interest rate

I informed a manager ( as I had decided I could get no further with first line support ) that I had received no such letter so was not aware of my options, he informed me that as far as they were concerned a letter had been sent out and they had not received a reply ( and as they had not been informed the letter was lost assumed I had decided to do nothing, I said a letter such as that should be sent registered post, he said they didn't do that as it would cost too much, it seems wrong that a letter can be worded that way, in that they do something because you do not reply) so they put up the interest rate.

Basically he informed me that they would do nothing, and if I wanted to take it any further than I would have to go through the standard complaints methods, which obviously would take months ( the interest hike is costing about £60 pm extra ) so I've decided to try take my business elsewhere.

Just thought I'd make you all aware to keep an eye out for capital one sending any type of letter regarding interest rates ( maybe I was stupid, but I've had letters from other lenders regarding interest changes, but this was to tell me the new rates, not to effect a pre existing one )

Part of me thinks this was done as they were losing too much money on the account as I always tried to make sure it was paid on time, and there's still around £6,500.00 to pay.

Hope this never happens to anyone else :-)

Jeff

mountainofdebt

I have always found them to be pretty quick in responding (normally about a week) so a letter may be worth while.

However I'm confused as to why Capital One would send you a letter like the one they claimed was lost in the post...after all who in their right mind voluntarily agree to a nearly 12% ????? Certainly not me!

However your last comment is interesting. Are you sure that payments have been made on time? Can you honestly say that all payments have been made on time? If not then this might have triggered the 'lost' letter but still I think the contents of the letter are a little stupid for Capital One to have actually written.

W1zz

I'm currently running a Capital One Platinum Card with £6.5K (Was £8.5K) @ 3.9% life balance transfer and haven't recieved such a letter (Although I'll be on my guard). My latest statement, 09 June, still says the monthly Balance Transfer rate (BT) Interest is 0.323%

W1zz

aliasojo

I had a similar letter from Cap 1 last year. I can't remember the exact figures now, but suffice to say they were enough for me to choose option 1 without a second thought.

I had two Cap 1 accounts at the time and I did wonder if this was an easy way to get me to close one of them.

jeff1969

As I said previously, what annoys me is that I never received a letter which asked me to make a choice, and when I stated the fact that I'd never received such a letter, the customer manager said "well that's what people would say isn't it".

Apart from the fact he's calling me a liar, it just seems incredulous that they can phrase a letter in such a way that by not replying they can make a change to an account, they have no proof that the letter was received at my address, but make the change anyway.

Would this be legal? I wonder if they should actually require a signature of authorisation before a change can be made?

Unfortunately I don't have enough legal background to know the answer to this myself, perhaps I should seek some, in the meantime looking for another card provider who should have my business :-)