Complaint Review: Captiol One Services Inc.

I had spent a little too much of my husbands money and decided to check into a credit counseling agency. We were contacted by a company out of Florida. At the time I sent them all our information, we didn't any credit cards that were past due.

We have two Captiol One credit cards with high balances. Just like everyone else, we were paying a little more than the minimum but we weren't getting anywhere towards our balances.

The agency sent out proposals to all our creditors. There were a total of six with Capitol One having two cards. I called Capitol One to notifiy them of what we were doing and asked for a voluntary close. They said okay and that my account would remain open until there was a zero balance.

I began to get harrassing phone calls to which I told them you'll need to contact CCCS at the following number. ( I then gave them the number.) I continued to these phone calls and finally in February, I found out that Capitol One NEVER received a proposal.

I then got in touch with the counseling service and they began to tell me all these nightmare stories about Capitol One. The proposal that we originally sent was for $144 per month. When we finally got a faxed proposal(which C1 no longer excepts) to them, they sent a letter saying they needed $220.

I called very irritated with both parties. (C1 & CCCS) It was explained to me that back in October 2002 when I joined the CCCS the amount required for excepted proposals was 2%. At this time it's 2.8% and because of the over the limit fees and past due fees, interest charges and yearly membership fees charged to my account the balance was almost $600 more.

I'm sure you're thinking at this time that I should go after the Credit services company. I did try that. This was the outcome. They told me that if they hadn't submitted proposals I would be having this problem with all my creditors. They were right. Capitol One was the only problem.

I called and called and called Capitol One until I finally spoke with someone in client services for debt management. The lady I spoke with(I have her name but it's being left out because she was a help to me.)told me that Capitol One (C1) had received proposals for both of my accounts in November but they had my husband's name on them so they kicked them out.

All this time, they knew that I had submitted a proposal, my account number with my husband's name. At that point I lost my cool. I'm now looking at ruined credit and $1200 more debt between the two C1 accounts. Capitol One refuses to look back at my balance the time of receiving the 1st proposal.

Although I have made a payment bigger than what my minimum payment was before joining the credit service agency, every month since October 2002, they consider me 135 days past due on one of my accounts.

We have contacted a lawyer to see what can be done. The credit counseling agency suggested that we go online and see what kinds of problems others have had. Possibly it will take a class action lawsuit to end all of these problems.

Bobby & Melissa
Kernersville, North Carolina
U.S.A.