Thread: FOS - CAP1 AND Me

I am beside myself with anger today the fos have ruled in favor of Cap 1 and does not see that they did anyhting wrong. Just a quick run down of my problems with Cap 1 - Me and my husband have had cap 1 cards for 4 years. Everything ok until we ran into financial difficulties brought on by charges from Lloyds tsb.

We fell behind with the monthly payments, from month one we told Cap 1 of what we were going through. The minute we told them what had happened the phone calls started. We received 10 calls a day for each of us and call ongoing at the weekend. At first we took the calls and went through our situation, each time we were told the payment was not enough and we had to clear the balance in full.

We carried on paying what we could but the calls kept coming. In March I had a major eye operation and was at home recovering. I explained this to capital one and was told - whilst we understand this you have failed to meet the payments and you must pay today.

The calls kept happening - April I rang them I told them enough was enough and felt they had done nothing to help us. They then agreed to suspend action and sent income and expenditure forms. We offered them £50 per month of each card. This was refused - the calls started again.

I decided to then take my case to the FOS - the first call I got was from a lady who told me that 10 calls per day 7 days a week was not harassment and capital one had acted reasonably in trying to re-coup its debt. I was engulfed in anger and told the woman were to get of and asked for another adjudicator. SHe apologised to me and said she would take another look at mine and my husband’s case.

2 months later I got a letter saying she had been dismissed and another adjudicator had been assigned. Greta I thought at last I will get the help I require.

Today a letter arrived - Capital one never harassed me, it is perfectly acceptable for them to ring me 10 times a day and at weekends. Because I refused to speak to them the FOS are saying I is my own fault and I should have dealt with it. They have statements from me in which I have said that an agreement could be made in the morning but by afternoon they would ring again.

The FOS asked Cap 1 to refund all excessive charges and interest charges and Cap 1 refused - so he is not prepared to do anything. No compensation for the harassment, no apology for not helping us arrange something much earlier. IInstead Capital 1 has screwed us and FOS has let us down also. I take responsibilty very seriuosly for the debt I got into, I have done everything I can to pay it back, but there are times when you expect to be given a helping hand by the people you borrow from. They are as much responsible for my debt as I am. adding 23% interest when I was already down ther is not fair.

I have complaints against Lloyds Tsb and GE Money but don't feel I have anywhere to go.

It certainly sounds as if Cap1 haven't carried out their duty to discuss your difficulties with you sympathetically and posistively.

However, are you able to say in what way you have suffered great losses had they discussed a solution with you. What solution would you have been satisfied with - bearing in mind that (unfortunately) they are tntitled to levy their charges - even though they are excessive.

If you can show that there was an acceptable way forward and this was prevented by their refusal to discuss, then you might have a basis for complaint.

I am also very concerned that you are doing things on the phone - and of course you are not recording your calls.

The fos is doing a lot on the phone as well and we are hearing reports of committments being made by the FOS which don't later occur and nothing to prove what was said.

Thank you for your response.

I spoke to Cap1 by phone and I offered them a monthly payment of what I could afford. Capital 1 would never agree to the reduced payments. Never at anytime did they accept what I offerd and dismissed me. I told Capital 1 in a letter that all communication was to be by letter and letter only. They ignored the letters and persisted by phone.

The fos ruled in favor of Cap 1 and have said that my refusal to take the calls only made them call me even more. If I had answerd the calls I would not have received that many on a daily basis. Whish is incorrect because no matter how many calls I would have answered I would not have been able to give Cap 1 what they wanted which was more than I could afford.

The phone records that cap1 sent to the FOS - do show such a large volume of calls - 20% were the wrong number - 40% were unanswered, 20% were answerd by me and 20% were answered by my family and told I was out. But what it doesn't say is how many.

I know I should have recorded them, I never thought it would come to having to prove myself. I have since brought a telephone that has a recording system.

Everyone says the same thing - that they never thought that they wold need the recordings. Then they find that they do need them.

Now here is a message for everyone else:-

What is it with everyone - such Lemmings. Why is that people seem to have the same kind of natural trusting instinct towards their bank that babies have towards their mothers?

Make yourself a victim. Don't record your calls.

I find your comments to be unhelpful at this time. No I never recoded the calls from Cap 1 - but that wasn't the only issue in my posting. You can carry on making me feel stupid but I don't deserve being made to feel that way. I asked for help and advise but got rude and arrogant comments of I told you so. I have now decided that after being a member of this campaign that I no longer want to be a party to it. I am withdrawing my from this group with great sadness and feel very let down.

Hi,

If the fos adjudicator's view is based on information that you consider to be incorrect then I would certainly point this out to them and make it clear that you would like them to review their initial position. I know this seems obvious - but the first letter from an adjudicator sometimes has an unjustified air of finality to it which can discourage people from continuing with their complaints.

You might feel that pursuing the complaint isn't likely to get you anywhere (and you might well be right), but you're quite entitled to take it all the way if you want to. I can't see what harm it would do.

Also, you might want to query the basis on which the adjudicator was prepared to "ask" (but not to instruct) Capital One to refund excessive charges. If he thinks the charges were excessive then why didn't he just tell Capital One to refund them? And if he doesn't think they are excessive then why did he ask for them to be refunded at all?

I received a letter from the fos today stating that cap one were willing to offer me £50 compensation for the harrassment i have suffered.
I was not sure that i should accept the offer but after reading your posts perhaps i have been lucky with my FOS adjudicator and should just say yes? Not sure what other people with more experience of Cap 1 and the FOS think?!

I continued my fight because they offered my husband compensation of £150 but offered me nothing. Our case histroy was identical yet they treated us differently. I had nothing to loose in my going on to take Cap 1 further. I found it heartbreaking at times because you get so angry at the way cap 1 get away with treating you and then the one body that you think are their for us are no better than they are. Its a hard decision to make and I wouldn't say yes or no keep going. £50 is alot of money these days especially when you need it. Laineyx

Thank you Lainey. I think i might accept as getting anything positive from cap one or the fos is a rareity!!