In February 2019 I had written about Capital One offering a $500 incentive to open a money market account in September–October 2018 under promotion code OFFER500 if one made deposits of $50,000 or more. Capital One’s terms for this promotion did not say that one could not deposit, say, $10,000, transfer to an external bank, and then re-deposit the amount five times in order to meet the requirements. In addition, they had been automatically paying out the $500 bonuses to all customers up until September 24, 2018 who did this, within just 1–2 business days of the deposits being completed, but then halted this even though customers should have had until October 31, 2018 to meet the requirements, and claimed that such activity did not qualify (although they did not claw back bonuses already paid out).
As reported by Doctor of Credit on June 17, 2019, Capital One has now been quietly issuing checks by mail to all customers who they had previously denied the bonus to. Although my continued complaints and threats of suing in small claims court resulted in Capital One offering a settlement arrangement subject to a non-disclosure agreement, my fiancée who also participated in the promotion recently received the letter and check shown below. In fact, she got $6 extra as well:
The text of the letter states:
Attached is a check for your 360 Money Market bonus.
Dear [name],
Late last year, you didn’t receive the $500 bonus that was offered for your 360 Money Market account ending in ####.
This check for $506.00 covers that bonus — plus interest.
If you have any questions, give us a call at 1-888-464-0727. We’re here to help Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–6 p.m. ET.
Thanks for saving with us.
Capital One
Even customers who did not complain are being issued checks by mail, and those who already complained and were offered a smaller consolation prize (most commonly, $200) are now receiving checks for $306 to make up the difference.
This is another example that putting pressure on corporations who defraud customers can produce positive results. I have no idea how many customers Capital One stiffed, but even if it was only 2,000, that’s $1,000,000 they are now paying out, and it’s possible my complaints to Capital One’s Office of the President, Florida Attorney General, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau played a part in their decision to capitulate. Obviously, they would prefer to privately pay the bonus only to customers who complain vociferously, but in this case they totally capitulated and decided to pay, 8 months later, all the money they would have paid in the first place had they simply honored their end of the contract.
Capital One is keeping this quiet, not mentioning it by email or in online banking, nor are they depositing the bonuses directly to customer accounts, but instead are issuing checks by mail. Although a customer could just end up throwing out the check by accident thinking it is another credit card or auto loan advertisement from Capital One (the envelope is no different from these), in these cases I am not sure Capital One would get to keep the money or have to escheat it to the state after several years as unclaimed funds. Regarding my continued complaints about Amazon.com stealing customer gift card balances, I am almost positive Amazon is skirting state escheatment laws, however.
Capital One is one of the most heavy handed of credit issuers; no other lender sues more of its customers in small claims court seeking payment. They are a notorious subprime lender that abuses customers with especially high usury interest rates and worthless credit cards with annual fees and no rewards. Of course, the whole industry participates in usury, thanks to a 1970s court case that determined that credit issuers could headquarter in usury-enabling states like Delaware and South Dakota to evade usury laws in their customers’ home states. Even Florida, which does not have a particularly stringent usury law, caps interest rates at 18% annual percentage rate, which is why credit unions who charter in Florida can’t exceed this APR on their credit products, but Capital One and others routinely demand APRs of 24.99% or even higher.
As alluded to in my February 2019 post, in March 2019 I switched from the Republican to Democrat party and will vote for Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary (who, incidentally, was also a Republican until age 46). Warren is a professor-turned-senator who has a long history of advocating for consumers in financial matters, including spearheading the founding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Although I have now learned that addressing the climate crisis is objectively and undeniably more important than financial literacy or advocacy, the broader issue of wealth inequality is related to both financial literacy and the climate crisis, in that the wealthy have manipulated the government and the people into abetting their theft (via tax schemes, collusion, privatizing profits while offloading liabilities and debts onto the public) and genocide (via greenhouse gas emissions), while simultaneously encouraging a culture of self-blame where the victims of plutocracy are indoctrinated to blame themselves for not understanding predatory financial products or failing to recycle plastic cups, instead of demanding real justice and change.
Previously, I had wrote that my flights to California and China to visit family will kill people in 2075 and 2150 due to exacerbating the climate crisis. In fact, I conveniently forgot the many people who have already died and are presently dying from heat waves, flooding, famines, and other disasters caused by humans flying, driving, building with steel and concrete, and other madness (e.g., California wildfires, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, flooding in Bangladesh). The wealthy, and in particular the extremely wealthy, are disproportionately responsible for mass murder, but take no responsibility and in fact have a sense of entitlement that they earned their position and should be enabled and empowered to partake in grotesquely wasteful and unnecessary travel and to possess multiple large residences, without consequences or accountability. This is abhorrent. There should be no doubt among those who have educated themselves on the matter that the climate crisis is the ultimate issue of our times, and there is much suffering to come.
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