Please Help, Capital One have done me over!!!!

[dipstick99]

Ok basically i have received a default on my credit file through no fault of my own. If you read the letter i have prepared below, you will get a grasp of my situation. Any helpful advice would be much appreciated, i have had a mortgage application declined due to this. It is putting so much stress on me and my family. I really need this removed.

 

The letter is as follows:

 

 

Capital One Card Services 


P.O. Box 5283 


Nottingham 


NG2 9HD

(Executive Office, Capital One, 
PO Box 5281, Nottingham, 
NG2 3FA)

 

27/07/10

 

Dear Capital One,

 

I am extremely disappointed with the service I have received from you as a company. I had an account with you from 2006 to 2009, I cancelled my account in early 2009 and paid a final balance of around £34. This was my last payment to Capital One Ltd. Shortly after this I moved home and received no further correspondence from Capital One.

Today I checked my equifax credit history file as I had trouble with a recent mortgage application. My credit history showed a defaulted account with Capital One. It is evident that the account was not cancelled when I was advised that it had been; I was told that the card was no longer active and would no longer be usable. The cancellation was completed via one of your staff from your call centers based outside the UK. Why are your sales teams fluent in English and easy to talk to? As soon as I requested cancellation of my account I was put through to an overseas call centre where the gentleman on the other end of the phone could hardly understand what I was saying.

Now I am faced with the prospect of a defaulted account on my credit history, which is going to affect my life drastically, not to mention my family’s life. All of this stress due to an incompetent member of your staff. The balance on the account was minimal, it still is minimal (£98.88) even though interest has been charged since the day I cancelled; I have no idea what the outgoing payments from the account are even for. I have not seen my credit card since 2009 and I have not thought about Capital One since the day I cancelled my account.

Capital One has drastically reduced my chances of being a successful mortgage applicant – which is going to affect me for the next 6 years. This is why I have taken it upon myself to forward this to the Consumer Credit Ombudsman. This red strike on my credit report was unwarranted and undeserved.

Please can you help me resolve this matter amiably, I just cannot comprehend how this has happened. I have been on the phone all day, I called your call centre, which to be frank was no help at all, so I then contacted debt collection agencies in order to retrieve my account details. I have not received a single phone call from capital one, a single letter: no contact at all since I moved home.

 

 

 

Again i would be so grateful to any advice givers out there.

 

Thanks

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

I'm sorry to say that this won't be cleared up any time soon. As the Credit Reference Agencies are in the banks back pockets, they won't remove any default without Cap1's say so.

 

OK, firstly, stay off the phone unless you are able to record phone calls.

 

I assume when you say the Consumer Credit Ombudsman, you mean the Financial Ombudsman. If so, they won't get involved untill you have exhausted the internal complaints system of Cap1.

 

I would head your letter "Formal Complaint". I have heard that some companies don't treat it as a complaint if it isn't headed as such and by doing that, are not constrained by the 8 week limit to resolve.

 

I would also add to the letter that if they refuse to remove the default that you will serve them with a letter before action and then if they continue to refuse, you will force them to remove the default via the courts.

 

In the meantime, send Cap1 a SAR. this will cost you a tenner but it will get back your account history. If you can whittle down the dates to when you actually called them, you can ask for call transcripts as well.

 

The only "mistake" (and it's not even your fault) is that you didn't give them a forwarding address. I would suspect all the letters to you went to your old address.

 

Send every letter by recorded delivery. Cap1 can be bloody minded so you need to keep an accurate record on cummunication with them should this get to court to show you have tried to resolve your complaint.

 

You are allowed to put a notice of correction on your credit file (up to 200 words) which gives you the chance to put your point across.

 

hope that helps in some way

 

fox