Another Capital One sucks story....

[CreditusMaximus]

So I have had a capital one card since I was 18 (~10 years).  I used the card heavily for about 6 years, but then it got sock drawed while I was in school (2007 until present).   I pulled my credit report the other day and remembered that I actually had the card, but I believe it was in the safe at my Mom's house.  I called Capital One to get a new card sent to my address.  They were great.  They heaped praise on me for being a member for 10+ years and they offered to overnight my new card.  I received the card last night and it had no activation sticker, so I figure I am good to go.  I try to use the card today and it iwas declined.  I call Capital One to figure out what's going on, and after a customer service rep put me on hold for me 10 minutes, he came back and said that Capital One had decided to suspend my account.  He couldn't tell me why, but I can only assume inactivity. I was told that I would get a letter in the mail with steps to reactivate the account under the same terms (interest rate + CL).

Does anyone have any experience with reactivating a Capital One card?  Do they require a HP to reactivate?  If so, that blows.  I'm not sure why the first customer service rep who offered to overnight me a new card didn't tell me about my account being suspended  Perhaps the decision was made after they overnighted the card?  My online account summary makes no mention that the account is suspended and shows that the full balance of the card is available for use.

Should I call back to complain and leverage that I have been a customer with Capital One for 10 years?  If they have to pull my credit report to reactivate, i'd rather apply for a different card altogether.  However, I'd hate to lose an 8k CL and 10+ year account history.  Argh!

[JayRizzo]

Sorry to hear about your inconvenience, but I'm not understanding your title "Another Capital One sucks story...." when their process does what it's supposed to do when someone use a card without doing their own due diligence.  You received a card and noticed no sticker and proceeded to charge without checking anything... not even an initial phone call -- if something seems out of place, call and ask.  This is where I believe their security kicked in and suspended the account.

Next, you appearantly called the general number on the back of the card rather than acquiring service from more experienced Senior Account Managers as noted in this forum's sticky as Backdoor Numbers.

Finally, I'm not sure how the conversation went between you and Cap-1 when requesting a new card.  I'm not sure if someone mistook "new" card with "replacement" card -- we need to be very specific with ccc's.  There is no HP for activating an active account.

They always praise everyone for what we're supposed to be doing -- it's in their script of "Feel Good Phrases".

[CreditusMaximus]

Hi,  Thank you for the response.

Let me try to answer some of the irregularities.  I did not think twice about the lack of activation sticker because the replacement card was the same account number as the prior one AND because the customer service rep told me that I would be "good to go" upon receiving the card.  My mistake for not calling to confirm that my card was ready for use.

I guess what i'm unsure of at this point is why and when exactly my account was suspended.  The customer rep said they couldn't tell me because that is "personal" and they do not have the information.  If my account was suspended for inactivity (which I have assumed after 4 years of no use), why would they have sent me a replacement card?  Perhaps my account was suspended because I tried to use it without calling first to confirm I had received it?

I guess I will have to wait until I receive their letter for more specifics.  And I was told that I would need to "reactivate" the account, which I assume means a new credit inq.  The account shows as open on my credit report, unlike a store card that was closed for inactivity in 2009.

I'll be more careful next time.

[Anonymous]

My experience with creditors is that usually when I call a card company for any reason,, they review the information on me that they have on file to see if it is still current (Have I moved?  Do I still have a job?)  I suspect the person who sent the replacement card either omitted to do so or had very narrow responsibilities.  A charge on the card "out of the blue" after years of not being used likely raised flags.  The OP notes that they "suspended" his account (as opposed to canceling it.)  I suspect once the company refreshes their profile of the customer they will open to account back up.  My experience also tells me that a hard pull is very possible.

[daytrade5]

IMO, I would be happy your account was only deactivated & not closed all together. It's happening alot lately.

[Lil_Me]

I agree, for no reason at all Capital One closed my account. Said that it had to do with my credit report reporting too many high balances... I said "I don't have a high balance with you do I?" After that I closed out all of my bank accounts with them....

[LilloEsquilo]

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@Lil_Me wrote:

I agree, for no reason at all Capital One closed my account. Said that it had to do with my credit report reporting too many high balances... I said "I don't have a high balance with you do I?" After that I closed out all of my bank accounts with them....

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That's another thing I love about CCCs. They give you a CL, but they apparently don't want you to actually USE that limit. If you use that limit, you are a threat to default, but if you don't, they don't make interest money so that's bad too. And we haven't even talked about how can you get credit if you don't have credit because you need to have credit to get credit.....gotta love the game!

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My experience with creditors is that usually when I call a card company for any reason,, they review the information on me that they have on file to see if it is still current (Have I moved?  Do I still have a job?)  I suspect the person who sent the replacement card either omitted to do so or had very narrow responsibilities.  A charge on the card "out of the blue" after years of not being used likely raised flags.  The OP notes that they "suspended" his account (as opposed to canceling it.)  I suspect once the company refreshes their profile of the customer they will open to account back up.  My experience also tells me that a hard pull is very possible.

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+1.  This is very likely what happened.   I'm sure that their systems flags dormant accounts at a certain point.    I have to say that I'm very suprised that they never shut your down prior to this after only a single year or two of inactivity.

Hopefully their letter won't say something like this:

Step1:  Cut up your old card  

Step 2:  Re~apply for any of our fabalous cards at Capitalone.com

[Anonymous]

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@CreditusMaximus wrote:

 I did not think twice about the lack of activation sticker because the replacement card was the same account number as the prior one AND because the customer service rep told me that I would be "good to go" upon receiving the card.  My mistake for not calling to confirm that my card was ready for use.

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Your exp date and the numbers on the back would have been different. You said it has been SD'd for approx 5 yrs now. Even if a replacement card, it would still need to be activated. That's for your safety. Just imagine if someone had stolen that card out of your mail and attempted to use it before it had been activated. You'd be praising Crap 1, right?  

[namvet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditusMaximus wrote:

 I did not think twice about the lack of activation sticker because the replacement card was the same account number as the prior one AND because the customer service rep told me that I would be "good to go" upon receiving the card.  My mistake for not calling to confirm that my card was ready for use.

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Your exp date and the numbers on the back would have been different. You said it has been SD'd for approx 5 yrs now. Even if a replacement card, it would still need to be activated. That's for your safety. Just imagine if someone had stolen that card out of your mail and attempted to use it before it had been activated. You'd be praising Crap 1, right?  

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+1  Looks like Cap One fraud department is doing their job!  A card that was sock drawed for that many years would have expired IMO.  I would also assume that Cap One will be pulling credit on you again (all 3 bureaus).