
Diane of Olathe, KS on May 3, 2004
I first got my card when I was right out of high school. I never had a credit card before and I thought it was a good idea to start establishing a credit record. My limit was only $200. My balance had gotten up to about $180.00. I sent them a check for the whole $180 about the same time I moved to a new apartment. I was going to call the company and give them my new address, but I kept on putting it off, since I knew I had paid them off and I had not charged anything else new on the card, I wasn't that worried about receiving my statements. About 2 months after moving, I had almost completly settled in to my new address and thought to call the company with my new information. When I called, I learned that I owed almost $300! This came as a total shock as I knew I had paid them off and made no new charges.
They not only showed no record of recieving my payment, but also has added on tons of late fees, which put me over my $200 balance, so they also added tons of overlimit fees. The fees were growing by the month. I called the company to work something out, but they were unwilling to work with me. A few days later I called my bank to see if the check I had sent Capitol One had cleared - It hadn't. I was really scared that it was lost in the mail or something. I decided that I was going to cancel the original check that I had sent them and send a new check to pay the original $180 and all the fees. I was disappointed that the check had been lost in the mail.
I called Capitol One to tell them that I was going to send a new check. When I called, my balance had been reduced to about $120. What happened? They finally found my check that I had sent several months earlier - the one that I was going to stop payment on because I thought it was lost in the mail! I told them that it was their mistake that the check had not been credited to my account and that I wasn't going to pay the $120 in fees. The phone rep told me that she could put my account on hold while I worked the problem out with management. She said that I wouldn't accrue anymore fees while I was in the process of figuring it out with them. She advised me that the concern would have to be dealt with through the mail.
So, I wrote a letter and sent it to the address that she had given me. I waited for 9 months to get a responce by mail, pretty much saying that it was not their fault and that I had to pay them all these fees. After this response, my account was reinstated with fees that had accrued during the 9 months. My balance was almost $500. I was so angry, but I didn't know what to do or how to fight. I didn't want it to ruin my credit. I ended up settling my account with them for $250. So, in the end, I had to wrongfully pay $250 and my credit was wrongfully reported negativly.