Large Scale Central

How Capital One Applies OUR Bailout Money

General Discussion
#1

Capital One Financial Corp. received $3.56 billion in taxpayer funds, supposedly meant to encourage financial firms to lend more money. Shortly after getting the bailout money Capital One purchased what is said to be a “healthy bank” for $520 million. Capital One says that they used proceeds from the sale of stock to investors, and not the Treasury investment, for the acquisition of Chevy Chase Savings Bank.

Now comes that part where they apply the bailout money: I have a Capital One credit card. I have a very high credit score and a perfect payment history, usually paid in full each month. In today’s mail I received notice that:
The Capital One card’s interest rate is henceforth changed from the current 5.9% to 17.9%!

Does anyone else find this kind of behavior to be outrageous? How much can our government get away with stealing from everyone of us, all the while giving it to their financial friends?

Looks like the crooks running the banking and finance system are continuing to line us up and bend us over, but now they are financed and protected by our so-called government!

(Not so) Happy RRing,

Jerry

#2

Yes I do.
Your credit must be better than mine. After reading your post, I checked today’s mail. They are raising mine to 22.9%
I am going to tell them to shove their @#$%$ card up their a**.
Ralph

#3

Jerry your doing better then me. I got the same letter as Ralph with the 22.9 rate. I called them and asked how they could do that and take bailout money.
The person had no answer for me. I then asked if there rate to pay back the bailout money was at 22.9. again no answer. After a few no questions the person said if I don’t tlike the rate I can cancel the card.

Hummm ok. Cancel it I said. Love this part. I was told to please hold, that someone other then this person does the canceling.

I hung up at that point. other wise I might have gotten mad.

#4

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/gilded/banking.html

#5
Geoff George said:
Jerry your doing better then me. I got the same letter as Ralph with the 22.9 rate. I called them and asked how they could do that and take bailout money. The person had no answer for me. I then asked if there rate to pay back the bailout money was at 22.9. again no answer. After a few no questions the person said if I don't tlike the rate I can cancel the card.

Hummm ok. Cancel it I said. Love this part. I was told to please hold, that someone other then this person does the canceling.

I hung up at that point. other wise I might have gotten mad.


That dupe on the other end does not work for Capitol one, or any other financial center.
They are those damn “customer no-service” service centers that haven’t a clue.
I curse the day companies “out sourced” their customer service to a call center.

#6

I got that letter also, I recently paid off my Capital One card, only need to transfer one automatic payment to another card then GOOD RIDDENCE!

They obviously DO NOT want my business with loan shark interest rates like that.

#7

Clearly Capitol One is looking to unload some customers. Send copies of these letters to your local congresspeople and local media. Remember all that talk about oversight? Make 'em live up to it. I’ll be pitching the story to our desk today, too.

As for call center usefulness, United Airlines is taking it one step further–eliminating their customer service call centers. They claim that on-line complaints can be more detailed, and easier to remedy. A cynical person might think that would translate to “keeps those without internet access quiet, wastes the time of those who do, and is infinitely easier (and cheaper) to ignore.”

Who? Me? Cynical?

Later,

K

#8

Mike:

I read your “Utopian Banking Scheme” essay. I find the idea intriguing. If, as you write, we really believe in our monetary system, the proposal would really make sense. I’m certain some will scream that it is tantamount to socialism, communism, or some other ‘evil’ system, but it still all comes back to our faith in our money.

Your proposed system would have no opportunity for our Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and assorted ‘financial managers’ to rob our treasury and citizens as they are currently doing. That unfortunately makes the type of radical financial reform you propose a non-starter. As I see it, there is only one reason most of these people run for office: FOLLOW THE MONEY.

On the original topic:

I’m currently trying to research how much Capital One and its owners and managers have given federal politicians in financial contributions, but not much luck so far. It seems that both the donors and the recipients are quite adept at hiding these facts. I can almost guarantee that Capital One didn’t get a $3.56 billion dollar gift of my tax money without paying for it somehow.

I didn’t it mention earlier, but Capital One has said they didn’t want the federal bailout money. I guess this another terrible case of the Department of Treasury arriving at the bank with an armored truck full of money and forcing the bank employees to take the cash at gun point. This kind of crime seems to be rampant, with several banks now being the victims. As I reported earlier, Wells Fargo was one of the first.

On Edit: As Kevin suggested, I have sent emails to both Senator Feinstein and Congressman Thompson, but don’t really anything expect other than a ‘thank you for your concern’ reply. That’s because they too are being politically and financially empowered by the current unabated robbery of the treasury and citizens that is taking place in our country.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#9

The phrase, “First against the wall when the revolution came,” comes to mind.

Douglas Adams was a genius.

#10

Mike.
I have been suggesting using the PO’s as branches for a National Banking scheme for years.

Although the horses seem to have bolted, I still believe it might work if the Governments who have “given” monies to the banks to bail them out, recalled those monies and reapplied them as described above.

Whilst they are at it, the Governments should also implement a Tobin Tax on ALL financial transactions to replace all the other taxes.

#11

A little update:

Interesting that the websites where Capital One’s outrageous actions are being discussed today point out that if you take up Capital One’s offer to cancel your card, they will report it to the credit score agencies as deviating from your contract, thus further hurting their previously good paying customers. Most of the folks posting also say they have (had?) high credit scores and have always paid on time. The increase in interest rate seems to be somewhat arbitrary, with the new number ranging between 17.9% and 29.7%.

Since there are conflicting dates on the notice, I called to find out when the increase is actually taking effect. The (obviously) Indian woman I was connected to didn’t understand or speak english well enough to understand and respond to that question. I asked for someone who actually spoke english and was put on hold for several minutes, then the line changed to a quick busy tone. I assume the trans-ocean cable must have been cut or . . .

I still do not understand how these thieves got $3.56 billion of our tax money and then are allowed to screw us and our economy. There are lots of folks posting that they simply will be forced into default. Capital One has a record of pursuing folks to the end of the earth to collect. Assuming they pursue everyone who defaults on their outrageous interest rates, they will wind up owning a share of America that makes the $3.56 billion in government provided ‘seed money’ look like chump change.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#12
Jerry Bowers said:
A little update:

Interesting that the websites where Capital One’s outrageous actions are being discussed today point out that if you take up Capital One’s offer to cancel your card, they will report it to the credit score agencies as deviating from your contract, thus further hurting their previously good paying customers.

Jerry


IF this is true…it should be illegal.
But I have my doubts. I don’t know how canceling a card can be considered deviating from your contract.
They can be ruthless.
They once posted a charge to my daughters card 6 months after she canceled the card. Then reported it to the credit bureaus as unpaid without ever sending a bill. Despite the fact they are by law not allowed to post a charge after 45 days.
They refused to remove the derogitory information. All my daughter could do was post a response to the credit bureaus.
Ralph

#13

Hehehe I happen to work fer an outsourced collections department…its loads of fun…then again…I’m not harassing folks who financed a "77 pinto to drive back and forth to work…I get…a finacical genious…who upon finding out their wife is 2 months pregnant goes out and buys a $53,000 vehicle…with a $1000 a month payment…then when the wife is off work fer about 6 weeks while the kid is born decides he can;t make the payments and wants a hardship…Sigh…the blade cuts both directions…ya gotta remeber fer every one of y’all financial responsible, ethical, credit concientious folks there are 75 total morons…and guess who has to pay for it? Incidentally I’m getting ready to pay off and cut up my very last credit card…

#14

And Tony, what does it get you? Nothing!

Jerry, that scheme of mine has been proposed in similar forms at different times in American history. The most famous was the Populist Party, which proposed something similar in 1890. If you were to implement that plan, the first effect would be significant inflation, but then it would settle down.

It’s not a communist or socialist plan, because it preserves private enterprise and individual ownership. It’s an anti-capitalist plan though, because it would decrease the value of owning money. It would still be good to be rich, because you could buy more stuff, but you could not profit by lending the money–at least not as easily–because the govt. would be lending the money at no profit

There was a bit on the radio recently about American express offering customers $300 to cancel their accounts. They want to get rid of people who don’t run a balance each month. I thin Kevin’s right, Capital 1 has just found a sleazier way of doing the same thing.

If we as a people thought it through we’d be outraged–we are giving money our to banks so they can lend it back to us at interest. It’s insane.

I’ve been consistently disappointed in Obama for not thinking outside the economic box regarding the bank/credit card issue. His leading advisors are wall street insiders and even with the best intentions, they serve the interests of people like themselves.

We’re gong to end up nationalizing th large banks, and probably soon, but we’ll pretend we’re not, so they can continue to lend us our money at a profit

#15
Ralph Berg said:
Jerry Bowers said:
A little update:

Interesting that the websites where Capital One’s outrageous actions are being discussed today point out that if you take up Capital One’s offer to cancel your card, they will report it to the credit score agencies as deviating from your contract, thus further hurting their previously good paying customers.

Jerry


IF this is true…it should be illegal.
But I have my doubts. I don’t know how canceling a card can be considered deviating from your contract.
They can be ruthless.
They once posted a charge to my daughters card 6 months after she canceled the card. Then reported it to the credit bureaus as unpaid without ever sending a bill. Despite the fact they are by law not allowed to post a charge after 45 days.
They refused to remove the derogitory information. All my daughter could do was post a response to the credit bureaus.
Ralph

By the way…this was a charge for less than $3.00, which she paid after finding the delinquency on her credit report.
Capital One can kiss my a**
Ralph

#16
mike omalley said:
[i][/i] There was a bit on the radio recently about American express offering customers $300 to cancel their accounts. They want to get rid of people who don't run a balance each month. I thin Kevin's right, Capital 1 has just found a sleazier way of doing the same thing.[i][/i]
Gee, Citibank didn't offer me any bonus. They just sent a letter saying they were closing my account due to infrequent activity. True, I rarely used it except when the would give ma a $10 credit to go buy something on the card, but it was nice to have a line for emergencies.

A few months earlier American Express made some change that I can’t remember that pissed me off, so I canceled that one too.

Perhaps Capital One should change thier slogan to [b]WHO’s[/b] In Your Wallet :smiley:

#17

What I do not understand is the bailout as it applies to existing bank shareholders. Right now, most of the big banks would have crashed, but for buyout funds or should that be bailout funds. This would leave share value at close to zilch. Republicans oppose nationialising the banks and it seems that most of the surviving banks will have a large percentage ‘government ownership’.

The stimulus package will revitalise the economy, stimulating bank revenue and shareholder interest. Thus a shareholder now owning bank shares worth nothing, may reap a bonanza return at the taxpayer’s expense. Is this windfall ethical? Should any windfall attract a considerable income tax bill? Why should private shareholders benefit from a taxpayer induced and funded windfall? The banks should be nationalised and then offloaded, once the economy recoveres to recoup the bailout costs.

Critics will comment, “OK but who is going to buy the banks when the economy recovers?” We know that the financial sector cannot control themselves and being locked out of the market for so long, they will be eager to make a return, albeit with less competition in the market, as not all banks will recover. The outcome will be tighter reins on the financial sector and more hands-on scrutiny, rather than the honesty policy existing prior the collapse. This will alienate the free enterprise economy, but right now we are lucky to have any economy at all.

#18
Tim Brien said:
Right now, most of the big banks would have crashed, but for buyout funds or should that be bailout funds.
This apparently isn't true.

On January 16,2009 CitiBank wrote in an announcement that they are splitting the company into two or more units, thus adding lots of senior management, overhead and attendant costs:

“Realignment will put dedicated management teams in place at each operating unit”

That should at least double their multi-million dollar per year salary plus bonus crowd.

–and–

“A search for a strong manager with operational experience and capital markets knowledge is currently underway to head Citi Holdings.”

That has to be a $10 to 30 million / year job description if there ever was one.

They further wrote this BS as their reason for the reorganization:

“Given the economic and market environment, we have decided to accelerate the implementation of our strategy to focus on our core businesses. This will help in our ongoing efforts to reduce our balance sheet and simplify our organization, which will enable us to better serve our clients and customers in both businesses without disruption. In light of the opportunities we see in the market today, we believe this new structure will provide a wide range of options going forward to continue strengthening our core franchise.”

Which translate into ‘we think we have found another way to rape our customers and the economy.’

Then they announced:

“Citi recognizes that major legal vehicle restructuring changes like this will require regulatory approvals and the resolution of tax and other issues. But Citi will manage the company consistent with this structure starting immediately, and management reporting will reflect this structure starting with the second quarter of this year.”

Translated, that says they are going to start operating their ‘new’ scheme regardless of regulator’s approval. So much for the added oversight many people are asking for. These people aren’t even going to obey the current rules.

Here is how desperate their financial plight is:

“We anticipate that Citicorp will have assets of approximately $1.1 trillion and will be approximately 65 percent deposit funded”.

No mention of whether this $1,100,000,000,000 includes the $48 billion in cash and the over $300 billion in cash guarantees they have gotten so far from the U.S. Treasury. And now Obama’s tax evading Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wants the U.S. Government to buy Citi. I can only assume Geithner and friends will have a significant personal financial gain from such a buyout.

I don’t see one thing in this BS announcement that indicates that Citi and its subsidaries are anything but healthy. They just seem to be reorganizing in order to squeeze more money out of more people and the U.S. Treasury.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#19

Jerry,
it seems the ‘crooks’ profit whether the market booms or busts.

#20

This might have been addressed in the previous threads.
According to a newspaper report I read today, Capitol 1 and maybe some other card issuers are trying to get rid of their users who pay on time the entire balance every month. They don’t make any money on these customers.
They want the ones who make minimum or don’t pay off their balances.
So if you pay the balance every month, keep the card. That will piss them off more than canceling.