Capital one (Rip off one)

[Empire Strikes Back]

My wife had various store cards etc,now we are trying with get back fees etc.after the shock of working out Lloydes acounts,we thought nothing else would supprise us till we came to read through capital one statments. She told me she had not used the card for years,but i never give up i sent a dpa letter with £10 & id. To my surprise when the statements came she had only spent £11 in may 2000 which put the card a little over her £200 limit,£15 fee was added for over limit, she paid off some money each month seems to be late sometimes so they charged £15 fee. Shes not used the card since.The shock came with the statments we owe (rip off one)£883.06.Interresting bit in nov04 balance of 636.63 statement reads (good will gesture £90)underneath was overlimit charge £20 & under that late payment charge£20.no other gestures were made?in amongst the statments is a pile of papers i would describe as a diary,recording a log of actions carried out eg broken promise, letter sent, phone calls,etc.We used your spreadsheet and calculated they owe us £2395.29 including interest,we sent 1st letter in onweds will keep you updated

[lee6370]

Did i read your post right? have capital one added nearly £2400 of charges to a card with a limit of £200?

[Empire Strikes Back]

Hi lee,thats correct since apr 2000 £1908 + £487.29 interest £2395.29,they havent chased us much,but im now chasing them!

[lee6370]

That has got to be the most outrageous amount of charges I seen so far, some people have had more but not when you consider the original credit limit.

 

That'll be a nice little sum to get back.

[Empire Strikes Back]

Thanks lee, If were succesful the wife can take me out,& a donation towards bank fodders books

[Empire Strikes Back]

Have received a reply from Capital One after sending them a 14 day pay up letter for £1908.00 in charges, Cap One have said :-

"I undertand from your letter, you'd like me to refund all the fees added to your account since it has ben open. Although we've added these fees correctly, I like to help resolve this matter. So,I've refunded your balance of £883.06. This means your balance is now zero and you dont owe us any money."

Can anyone help with what I should reply? Should I accept the £883.06 that has been refunded to my account as part payment and send them a 7 day before action letter for the remainder of the £1908.00.

I also asked them to remove the entry from my credit file as apart from £200.00 the rest has been made up of unlawful charges, they have said they are unable to authorise any amendment as under the terms of their credit licence they have to record a true and accurate picture of the way that the account has been managed and that this was explained in the credit agreement I signed. Any views?

[scotia]

accept their kind offer, and explain to them that if they are unwilling to refund total , that you will be forced to take legal action to reclaim the amount outstanding.

 

As to the default, they must update the records to show the correct amount, and if you can prove that the details on your credit file are incorrect, then they must update these. It might be a harder job to get the default removed totally, but if they are admitting liability then you may be able to push for this.....

 

Maybe someone else can contribute towards the default qeustion as i haven't been in that situation...hope this helps you...

[Empire Strikes Back]

After this mornings mail from Capital One offering a part refund (see previous post),we had a knock on the door from a person with same surname asking if a letter they had received, from buchananclark and wells debt collectors, was ours, after inspection we found it was indeed for my wife, so we gave them a reassurance that we will sort it out.The letter reads;-

"We have received instructions from our above named clients(capital one)to initiate formal dept collection proceedings for the unpaid dept as detailed above(£883.06) Please contact this office immediately in order that we can disscuss a satisfactory settlement to this matter.Unless you make arrangements to settle the account within 72 hours our agent may be instructed to attend your premises to establish your residency and reason for non-payment.You must take this opportunity to settle the matter amicably in order to avoid possible legle action being instigated.Please do not underestimate the seriousness of this matter and attend to this notice immediately."

1. How the hell did buchanenclark and wells get my wifes name under a complete strangers address. Capital One have always addressed statements etc to

our home address, so they surely should have managed to give the debt collectors the correct address. The person to whom the letter was delivered has not got a Capital One Account nor has had dealings with these debt collectors.

 

2. Why did Capital One refund £883.06 to wifes account on 11th April

after instructing the debt collectors to collect the same amount. Do you think the letters may have crossed and we will get a letter of apology from one or the other lol.

 

Has any one else experienced anything like this and what did you do and what was the outcome, would be interested to know? Cant get hold of these debt collectors today as Bank Holiday but will be blasting them out on Tuesday as well as Capital One. We are probably going to accept their part payment of £883.06 but file a claim for the rest as per our previous post.

[bankoff]

I bet the person who received that one was hopping mad. I know I would be.

 

Surely this is a case for compensation for both parties.

 

Giving out your private information to a complete stranger. WHAT NEXT!

[Natasha]

wow thats one hell of a pickle!!

 

I would phone the debt collection angency and tell them that the matter has been settled or better still get capital one to sort it out.

Who was this person that came to your door? how did they find you and how was a letter sent to them?

 

I'm just a bit puzzled

[Natasha]

woooo i havent even thought about the Data protection act they have broken all the rules...... when you call capital one mention that too!!

[Empire Strikes Back]

Hi Natasha Same surname there address was over side of town,cant wait till tuesday will record phone call mite be a few bleeps!

[Natasha]

OH MY GOD!!

 

How can they make such a silly mistake like that?? and the fact that this person knocked on your door step(i'm sure they are really nice) but they could have been an axe murderer!!

[joneshousehold]

But how did they find you? Are you the only ones in the phone book or something. This must surely be a breach of some Act or another! Does it say anything in the paperwork you received from your DPA request about when they referred this to a debt collection agency. Was it before your letter or after? Do the notes say any more about what information was given to the debt collection agency. It is a chore reading the notes but it can be done with the list of notes etc.

When you have done that you need to become 'affronted of a small town' and demand some recompense. I'm sure someone on the forum will tell you the best way to go about it and what legislation to use.

Good luck. Power to the people and all that!

[Empire Strikes Back]

They found us through the Electoral Roll on the internet. We have looked through the notes from Cap 1 and there is absolutely no mention of this debt being passed to a debt collector, therefore we dont know if they instructed the debt collector before or after our DPA or 14 day notice of action letters.

It was very embarrasing, as you can imagine, having a complete stranger turn up at the door with information on your debt, so will be taking this further when both Cap 1 and Debt collector offices open again after the bank holiday. If anyone knows what legislation we can fire at them would be most grateful to learn of it.

[Natasha]

well i believe that they are in breech of the data protection act, they shouldnt be sharing your personal information with anyone without your consent.

 

In my experience, We have to bide by the data protection act at work as we have all of our patients personal details on files and stoed in the computer,we cant leave patient details lying around the clinic, we have to minimise our computer screens to comply with the data protection act and patients even have to sign a patient consent form if they want to view their own personal information.

We are just a medical aesthectic clinic, so i couldnt even dream of the type of security messures that they have to take with regards to handling customer data, what with all the fraud etc!!

[Seminole]

Yes, you need to nip this in the bud otherwise this "debt" will end up flying backwards and forwards to different debt collectors and it will be difficult to stop as noone will take responsibility for it. BCW will write to you or your namesake in increasingly hysterical terms, bigger typefaces and bolder red ink. They will also call you at any time including Sundays and evenings.

 

If I were in your shoes I would call Crap One and tell them about their error and demand that they withdraw the instruction to BCW and confirm this is in writing. I would then make a complaint to the Information Commission about Crap Ones actions. They are responsible for the actions of BCW as BCW are acting as agents for them.

 

I would then pursue the balance of the charges and give serious consideration to an action for defamation if they refuse to remove the default from the file.

[joneshousehold]

I would also ask them to let you know when this debt was passed to debt collector (or ask the debt collector perhaps - or even both). If the approach is after your preliminary letter then I would also seek to treat this as retaliatory action on their part and inform the Information Commissioner accordingly.

 

If you look at the top of each forum page there are a series of 5 announcements and 1 is about threats by banks to close accounts if a claim escalates to the Courts. Whilst this is a different circumstance, if you can find something to suggest your claim prompted the transfer, the Information Commissioner would I believe take a very dim view of the situation. It may not be possible but it is certainly worth a look. Alternatively a complaint to the Ombudsman may be a good idea at a future point. These are just thoughts, you may need to think carefully about it and weigh up the evidence you have.

 

I am not a great believer in conspiracy theories but I do think there are some serious questions we need to pose these organisations. Anyway there is a definate complaint about disclosure and breach of your right to privacy.

 

If you think you have nothing to lose, sometimes it is worth just making them work hard to explain themselves. It will of course be your call.

[dw190]

Capital One have processed privileged data of a sensitive nature to other parties. Data which is disputed and inaccurate.

 

I believe there is a potential breach of the Data Protection Act.

 

You should write to the information commissioner with all the relavent details and request that he/she make a request for Assessment under Section 42 of The Act to Capital One.

 

IIR section 42 states that personal data of a sensitive nature (Debt) should be processed securely. It is obvious by the fact they sent it to the wrong person at a different address that it breaches section 42. Here is the relevent part of the act.

 

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/80029--f.htm#42

[Empire Strikes Back]

Hello all,

Rang BCW today asked why they were sending our mail all over town ,they said they got the address from our credit file ,we knew he was are lying because we had all 3 credit files in front of us with no mention of the other address,when i told him this he then said it was through an agent who he could not disclose,i asked them when they took over the debt and they said it was January and they are only following instructions from crap one for whom they work ,we left it at and told them we would be reporting them to the Information commisioner.Next i rang crap one who were not very helpful either,so have sent them letter before action given them 7 days to pay up or court action and told them were reporting them to information commisioner for disclosing our confidential information to a third party.

[Empire Strikes Back]

Hi all,complained to information commissioner but not had any replys yet,Started on moneyclaim for charges Crap one have acknowledged claim 2 days before deadline,

[Empire Strikes Back]

I am being given a full refund of the charges claimed, this was the first court claim I did and Crap 1 have said that I didnt mention taking off the default in my claim of particulars, but they have said that there is nothing to stop me going for this after I have received the refund. Going to ring the court on Tues to see if I did or didnt put in for the default removal, have taken copies of all the particulars of claim except this one! If I havent put down for the def removal I will tell Crap 1 that I will still be persuing this and maybe they will remove it without further Court action!!

[norvernrob]

Well done on getting your charges back, keep at them to remove the default though, having one on your credit record will costs you a fortune in the long run.

[Empire Strikes Back]

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