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Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

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buttercup415
Established Member

Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Like many others my income and health has been affected by the pandemic. I have 3 credit card accts and 1 auto loan through capital one.

I contacted customer service via chat earlier this year about options, they seemed helpful and arranged a delayed payment plan for all of my accounts. I thought that was it. Within a couple of weeks, I am getting emails saying I missed a payment. I contact them again and go through almost an hour of explaining the same situation and they say they see my notes from my previous arrangement and ignore the warnings, they're "automated".

 

Long story short I have reached out to Capital One at least 4x via chat and phone each time re-explaining and going over my notes. Sometimes they extend my payment dates out since I am still in/out of the hospital.

 

They once again tell me to relax and ignore the missed payment emails. 

Well I am now getting alerts on my credit reports that have negative Capital One reportings for the accounts I made the arrangements!

I am sick and tired of calling them just for me to be transferred and talk for an hour.

I have the dates and some of the chat transcripts (I prefer chat over phone for record keeping but it's not always available).

 

1. I thought there was some sort of Consumer Protection/Cares Act that prevented creditors from negatively reporting during the pandemic?

2. Is there anything I can do besides calling them AGAIN? Should I file a complaint w/BBB?

 

My score has dropped drastically! Please reply!

 

Thank You!!  🙏

8 REPLIES 8
coreysw12
Valued Contributor

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement


@buttercup415 wrote:

1. I thought there was some sort of Consumer Protection/Cares Act that prevented creditors from negatively reporting during the pandemic?


Nope. There are some protections in place with the Covid bills, like eviction moritoriums, but nothing to my knowledge that would prevent a creditor from reporting lates to the credit bureaus.

 

For now, the best course of action is probably to just continue talking to Cap1 until they clear your reports. Next time you speak to someone who agrees that they were supposed to extend your payments and not report missed payments, have them send you that agreement in writing so that you can fall back on that if this problem arises again. And if they fail to remove the lates, you can file disputes and show the agreement to the bureaus so they'll remove the lates for you.

 

If you don't need to apply for any new credit at the moment, then try not to panic or let this get you depressed or frustrated, you'll be able to sort this out soon enough.

    Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k


    Total SL: $78k

United 1K - 725,000 lifetime flight miles    |    Chase Status: 4/24
Message 2 of 9
buttercup415
Established Member

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Thank you for the reply, at the moment I don't need new credit but I will need to apply for an apartment around January.

 

I am exhausted from talking to capital one because I have been in/out of the hospital with surgeries, I don't have a lot of energy to stay on the phone with them repeating myself just to get nowhere.

I am considering filing a complaint somehow, I just don't know with who, Cap 1 directly, BBB, Atty General?

Message 3 of 9
coreysw12
Valued Contributor

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement


@buttercup415 wrote:

Thank you for the reply, at the moment I don't need new credit but I will need to apply for an apartment around January.

 

I am exhausted from talking to capital one because I have been in/out of the hospital with surgeries, I don't have a lot of energy to stay on the phone with them repeating myself just to get nowhere.

I am considering filing a complaint somehow, I just don't know with who, Cap 1 directly, BBB, Atty General?


Thankfully, your credit quality doesn't really change the terms you'll get when applying for an apartment - it's more of a pass/fail type of thing. So as long as your scores stay above 580 or so you'll probably be ok getting an apartment. But it'll definitely be a problem if Cap1 is still actively reporting new late payments come january, so hopefully you can get this resolved by then. Like I said, make sure you get the agreement in writing before anything else - once you've got that, the rest will be easy. If the person on the phone won't give it to you in writing, hang up and call again until you get someone who will.

    Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k


    Total SL: $78k

United 1K - 725,000 lifetime flight miles    |    Chase Status: 4/24
Message 4 of 9
buttercup415
Established Member

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply in detail. Noted!

Message 5 of 9
coreysw12
Valued Contributor

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Once you have the agreement in writing, the next step is to send the agreement to everyone you can at Cap1, including their executive's office, and ask them to please clear the lates off your reports, and to stop reporting any new lates for as ong as you're still under the payment arrangement terms with them. Then give them a few days to sort that out on their end, and if that doesn't work, send the same letters to the credit bureaus (via disputes) to have them removed. If that still doesn't work, then there are government agencies you can send it to, but I'm not sure which ones, hopefully others can chime in on that. But I don't think it'll need to get to that point anyways.

    Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k


    Total SL: $78k

United 1K - 725,000 lifetime flight miles    |    Chase Status: 4/24
Message 6 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

I don't believe there are any protections in the CARES Act for credit cards.

 

Some banks were doing hardship programs on their own.

 

In different "circles", they said they were cutting credit lines, getting tighter about card issuance, and closing unused accounts.

 

They're not in business to lose money, but they also have a PR game to play. So while they're actually shoring up risk so that people don't have a lot of open credit laying around for when they get desperate that will end up in bankruptcy in the next 3 years, they're talking about helping customers with their hardship program.

 

You could report them to the BBB if you want, but the BBB is sort of a joke. 

 

Capital One has historically been known as one of the more litigious banks. In fact, I saw a report from the last recession that showed that they were more than 5x as likely to sue for charged off accounts under $1,000 as the other banks.

 

Before I filed bankruptcy, I can tell you that Citi was the first to charge off the account and say talk to their debt collector (3 months after the payment went late), Capital One does it at about 6 months (in Illinois, they sell accounts to lawsuit trolls outright that are above $10,000 because that's the limit for small claims. They keep smaller ones in house and sue directly where it's not going to be a major case and you probably won't show up.), and Chase waits about 6 months too, but sells accounts of any size it seems. 

 

When I was discussing debt settlement to see what they would throw at me, Capital One and Citi said pay it in full or we'll just charge off. Chase offered to settle for half. Considering that the going rate on debt is half and a lot of the "balance" at that point is penalty interest and late payment fees, they all could have offered half and have been just as well off as selling it.

 

Anyway, again.....they're a bank and banks are used to having a license to print money with sky high interest rates, so they talk and talk for PR, but they play hardball on the other end, so I'm not at all surprised that while they're talking to the news about hardship programs, they have you on the 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, charge off treadmill. Be very careful with that.

 

I don't know what your living situation and particulars are, but many people make the mistake of paying them whatever they can to make them shut up until they have no money left and the cards charge off anyway. Sometimes bankruptcy isn't the worst idea, depending on how bad it is.

Message 7 of 9
buttercup415
Established Member

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Hi BaronHK thanks so much for your very detailed reply! That's a lot for me to chew on. 

it sounds like you went through your own hell and survived to tell.  
I will bookmark this as I have to go to an Appt but it's very helpful.  

THANKYOU ! 

Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Capital One negatively reporting to CBs despite previous agreement

Many landlords in my neighborhood don't really care about bankruptcy. 

 

Some obviously have strict credit requirements, but others will rent to anyone. Even undocumented immigrants. It's easy to talk them into accepting a bigger deposit or something.

 

Alternatively, there are extended stay hotels. In my state, they have to stop charging you room tax after 45 days (what you paid so far gets credited to your room) and then the stay is tax free. I have a hotel room on my driver's license because the year I had forced me into a "non-traditional living situation" because of some legal trouble my ex had tried to get me into (which in turn brought about the $100,000 bankruptcy).

 

For months and months I just charged up the hotel room on credit cards. Food? Credit cards. Gas for the car? Credit cards. Mom gives me a beater to drive that needs fixed. Credit cards. I get fined. Credit cards. Before I knew it, I owed $40,000 or so just to the credit card people. 

 

Some offered to settle, but there's problems there too. 1. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. 2. It doesn't get you out of trouble with people who won't settle. 3. Anything they cancel is taxable income that rises from the dead in the form of an IRS (and state) tax bill next year, whereas bankruptcy just kills it dead. 

 

One advantage of a hotel is there's no lease. They don't generally check for pending cases or criminal history, or your credit, and there's no deposit. 

 

I might not even check out for years. Some people don't. The manager here told me that the longest stay was 7 years. 

 

When you really think about it, landlords are evil. If you need to move, they'll at least keep your deposits and might sue you. You have to stress out about having credit good enough to get the thing, and before I beat the criminal charge a couple said "NO!" even when I offered deposit and first and last month's rent. 

 

Also, there's few around that aren't already trying to break the eviction freeze, but it's a really bold move to defy a bankruptcy court because we know what happens to people who do.

 

My ex forced me out of our apartment, but then I came in to get some things while he was at work 2 weeks later and there was trash, rotting food, and dirty clothes everywhere because I wasn't there to clean for him anymore. When he moved out, I had HIS landlord coming at me for having to send someone in there every day for a week to clean it, AND he skipped out on the last month of rent. Bankruptcy blew that away too.

Message 9 of 9
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