After many tries to get my credit limit reported, I finally got a letter from Cap One stating that they would not report my limit but only report my high credit. I called a Retention supervisor about the letter and told him what Cap One was doing was illegal. He transferred me to the Executive Offices. I had a productive conversation with a lady there and told her that I was incurring damages b/c of the policy in the form of a primary adverse reason code of "balance too high to credit limit" (which, in my case is significantly due to Cap One's high credit being used as my credit limit byt he scoring model). The adverse reason code, which accounts for 30% of my score, placed me in a lower credit category and subjected me to denials or risk-tiered financing. She countered that I could just produce a statement showing my true limit to potential lenders, but I said that many of mot most lenders depend on automated underwriting, and even if they didn't, I'm still at the mercy of their discrestion, when it comes to tiered financing (especially if they need to make a profit and want to use higher interest rates to do it.). I told her that the policy violated the FCRA re "complete" reporting and that the FTC had already written statements about how unethical it was. I told her that the policy also encouraged consumers to try to max out a card to reflect the true credit limit, or in my case, pay down the balance and not use the card at all. I told her it hurts Cap One's customers in the long run. She thanked me, saying that no one had explained this to her in the depth that I had, and that she would tell her boss - the CEO - what I said. I told her I was still sending her a letter of my complaint and a letter to the FTC with a copy of the letter Cap One sent me. We'll see what happens...
Re: Cap One and limit reportin I forgot to mention that the Executive Offices rep said that she didn't think the policy violated the FCRA, so before I write the FTC, does anyone have any knowledge of what it means to report things to the CRA's in a "complete and accurate" way? In other words, does anyone know whether the FTC has already concluded that what Cap One is doing is legal, even if it is not consumer-friendly? I wonder if Cap One will change it's policy once credit scores are released and more people begin to understand how the model works...
sorry for the typo's Also, sorry for the typo's. I was typing fast. "many of mot most lenders depend on automated underwriting..." should read "many IF NOT most lenders depend on automated underwriting..."
Re: sorry for the typo's I am glad you told Cap 1 just how bad their policy is, I had a similiar conversatio with Citibank regarding this very matter and they were no help whatsoever. Several poeple have filed a complaint with the FTC regarding limit reporting and unforunately have received word from the FTC that this is NOT illegal, how complete/accurate does not apply to this is beyond me. There are serveral topics on this very thing at Bayhouse, you may want to read them. I think you should file a complaint thouhg. maybe if every customer does this with FTC will have to do something. This is completely unfair and how the let these companies legally get away with it just baffles me.
Re: sorry for the typo's Great going Marci! This is something I've been interested in for the last couple months. I'm suprised Capital One was so helpful to you. Maybe I will give them a call too and see what they say. The FTC agrees that reports must be complete (FCRA has numerous mentions to this). The only question is "Is a missing credit limit incomplete?" I think the strongest argument is that a missing credit limit must be considered incomplete since it is a factor in the credit scores sold by the CRA's. I don't see how that can be argued against. The FTC has been silent to me with regards to if they consider this practice being legal (and have basically ignored my two complaints). There is someone from bayhouse that talked to a low level phone rep who adamantly claimed that a missing limit isn't incomplete but gave explanation to her reasoning. I've been trying to get the FTC to post what their position and their reasoning with regrards to this issue on one of the bayhouse.com threads that MomOf3 mentioned but so far no luck: http://www.bayhouse.com/discus/messages/4/1032.html?982217013
Thank you... Momof3 and Erik, Thanks for your replies. I'm sorry to hear that the FTC is not as clear about where they stand on this issue. Maybe, Erik, since they didn't respond to you, they're still arguing internally about it. I will post my letter to Cap One and the FTC on this board, once I compose it. I'm also planning to send a copy via Planetfeedback.com.
Will do one too ! I guess I'll write 2 letter as well... since this issue also concerns me. I guess the more we write, the more they'll think on at least reviewing their policies and taking action.
