duh, don't give your email address to your bank.

If they obtain your email from another source, you can force them to stop sending you junk.

Hi all; I think ALL credit cars suck! Especially Capital one,I will not give them the energy I have to elaborate on this bunch of crooks.I have been fighting cancer and I need my energy. I will say some of these folks are right send these guys that send you junk snail mail, their junk right back, these card companys will end up just like the mortgage companys have in time, I myself have no need for their stupid high rate cards, Capital one are the worst people to charge late fees for late payments,( that by the way were never late at all) out right fraud on their part, so I canceled my card with them, and also one with two other card companys, if it ruins my credit so be it, it is very liberating to not receive that bunch of junk mail. I have also turned capital one over to the FTC and the Michigan Attorney Generals Office because of their constant late charges and I have never been late in making payment to them in all of the years I have had the card. Also they raise my rate and I truly beleive it was because I was sick and they had to put me on a hardship rate for a while. Good luck to anyone involved with this company in time you will need it .

Stop using them as a customer and they lose the excuse to harass you. I bet they will stop if you tell them that.

The only way to STOP these is to stop using the card.

Then, after 2 months of zero balance, send the VP of marketing a written letter which states:

I have one of your credit cards. I do not use it anymore. You will not make any more money off of me.

My balance is zero. The reason is you send email spam which you contend is 'directly' account related but is clearly marketing. You refused to allow me to opt out of it. I will not close my account so as not to affect my credit score.

I figured you might want to know.

There are no "god oaths" to hold any public office in the USA. The "so help me god" line is added by the people taking the oath, it's not part of the oath.

And you do not help your credit by having a bunch of cards.

Worst credit card company ever. I dropped them 5 years ago. Never had a single regret. If I wasn't young and didn't need to have a decent credit score for buying a house someday, I'd just get rid of all but one card. I hate dealing with banks because as much as they want you to believe they are working for you, who are they trying to kid? They're just trying to line their own pockets.

What I'd really like to know is how I could have a savings account at any one of these banks and receive 1% of interest (if I'm lucky, it'll be 1.5%) annually, and yet, if you're carrying a balance, they can charge you up to 40% interest? As a savings customer, where's my cut? Aren't they trying to serve me and make me financially secure? Yeah, right. What a dream!

Thank God I don't carry balances anymore. Gettng into a bit of trouble once was enough; it took forever to get out. But, I learned a valuable lesson.

BTW, the one card I keep: Citi Dividend Platinum. I use it to pay for virtually everything, but I pay it off _every_ month. They give me 1% - 2% cash back on all purchases (inluding things like cable TV) and I routinely get up to $300 back, per year. Not bad! But you have to be careful; it can be a dangerous game playing with banks--know the rules!

I have never bothered to read a blog list similar to this one before. I have a credit card, but I have never received spam and such. They never bother me. However, I ponder the thought trains of many who have written responses to this list. The USA was conceived as a Secular Federal Republic. It is now a Religious Replublic. Run by Chritians who stole the secular part, and had the religious courts of the country turn the country into a Theocracy. We as a country are no better than any Islamic country. When you deal with credit cards you are dealing with kind honest wonderful cheery Christians, whom, because of dishonest Abe Lincoln, swear god oaths to be members of the Senate, or a Congress person. To become a member of the Supreme Court, you must take at least, three god oaths. So why don't you either stop using creit cards, or remember you are dealing win these kind loving Christians who operate most of your banks, which were shown to be houses built on sand and lies.
Better still, you can become like me, an Atheist, who does not need a credit card, or even a telephone, or even a cell phone. I commuinicate on the web, with an electronic Modem that plugs into an electrical outlet. To an outsider like me, it is actually funny seeing good honest kind charming Christians, fighting good kind honest charming Christians. It proves religion as the myth it is, and always has been and always will be. Cheers. Charlie Horse.

When any of these companies send you snail mail spam with a return envelope, simply stuff all of their packaging into that envelope and send it back. Many times I actually send other spam that I have received as well. If they want to waste my time I can waste theirs back and support the Postal Service while doing so.

I too was hit by these email and snail mail by capital one, I however took a different approach and for every email I returned 100 to the company. wrote a little email program to notifiy them that I did not wish to keep receiving email or snail mail. I was a prior customer to Capital One,however, once the emails and us mail kept coming, I canceled my account. I guess the did not like getting all the mail i was giving them, so after about 3 months it finally stopped.

Anyone who has ever dealt with Capitol One knows they are a slight step above the sub-prime credit card market, and would stoop to any level to raise fees, and jack up their clients.

The system truly needs to be changed. You must use credit to have a good credit rating, but in turn, the credit giving agencies are allowed to play fast and loose with their customer's? Rediculous!

I use sneakemail.com to avoid spam. I create a different "proxy" email address for each business I interact with, which then forwards incoming mail to my real email address. If I start receiving spam, A) I know where it came from and B) I can simply disconnect the proxy email address and leave my real email address alone. There is also a way to leave the proxy email address active, but tell it not to forward incoming mail to your real email address, handy for businesses that you need to interact with that send a lot of marketing emails you can't opt-out of. Hope this helps!

If you're that anal about your email inbox, learn how to reroute unwanted emails to the trash bin or delete them on arrival. You can do this for credit card companies, charities, ex-friends, family members and anyone else who ticks you off! (But I do agree that Capital One is a bad company to do business with - we cancelled an account because of questionable policies.)

Once upon a time a company like Capital One could dismiss a complaint from a "Joe Blow", knowing that it would go no further. Now they should consider the viral market effect, knowing that thousands if not millions may read about their dismissive attitude on the Internet. Blogs are the new "power tool".

I asked Wells Fargo to stop sending me those cute little credit-card checks. It took more than a year and several telephone calls, but they DID stop and continue (5 years later) to honor my request. Same with their opt-out for sales pitches. When I recived one in the mail - or heard one during a telephone - I called and voiced my wishes EVERY TIME. It worked. The last time I spoke with Customer Service about monthly service charges, we read you computer screen aloud and shared that it indicated NO MARKETING to me. Thank you, Wells Fargo. I've stayed with them for 20+ years (especially so that it looks good on my credit report).

I don't get all this whining. If you get snail mail you don't want just shred it or burn it and that's the end of it. On e-mail just block it. It takes 10 seconds or less.

One poster states that returning pre-paid envelopes with junk contents will result in a refund to the junk-mailer AND pass that cost onto we other postal customers. I always return the envelopes _empty_ and jot a personal note on the _outside_ specific to the sender (e.g., PLEASE STOP SENDING ME YOUR OFFERS FOR A CREDIT CARD). Surely, they can't get a refund from the Post Office for receiving my "letter", written on their pre-paid envelope!

even better never had a credit card and don't want one
makes life a lot easier

Absolutely no customer service skills and they call themselves a business. I dropped Cap One as well.

I'm sticking with my credit union.

For those who are receiving offers from Capital One, Discover, and anyone else, those "pre-approved" offers and checks and such, contact the 3 credit bureaus - you can place a block on your credit report that stops these companies from checking your report, something they do before send each offer to you.

I got a complete copy of all of my credit reports about 2 years ago and it shows who checks your credit - there are 2 categories; 1 is companies that you have given permission to check and those companies are listed so that anyone who checks your credit sees them. The 2nd is a list that only you see of companies who have run a limited credit check without permission (legally allowed) in order to send you these fine pre-approval offers. BUT, you can instruct the credit bureaus that you will not allow your credit to be checked for these purposes and that all credit checks must be approved by you in writing.

Once we did that, our junk mail dropped to nearly nothing. I used to get offers from Capital One once a month minimum, even though they were on our bankruptcy several years ago! Now, I haven't heard from them in over 2 years.

Also, for the person who was not going to cancel their Capital One card for fear of it reflecting badly on their credit report, remember that you can put a statement of 100 words on anything on your credit report, explaining why you did what you did. It would show those that check your report from now on that you closed the account because Capital One are a bunch of idiots rather than because you had a problem with your finances.

For those who were going to pay off their bill but keep their account open, this does not necessarily reflect well on your credit. No activity is not only sometimes reported on your credit, but the CC companies will still charge you annual fees, membership fees, and whatnot. Or they may decide that because you are not using it, they should close it just in case you're going broke - and YOu closing it looks better than THEM closing it. Over and above this, some companies now include a non-use fee - they actually will charge you for not carrying a balance, then charge you interest on that charge! Read that fine print.

You CAN stop some of this madness. You can run one credit report per year free from each of the credit bureaus. With that report in hand, you can call their 1-800 number and the bureaus will be happy to try and help you with any problems with any creditors if they can. Then take your business to a credit union where they will treat you like a customer and not a milk cow.

For a long time, I had a pile of thin heavy chunks of metal that fit perfectly into those "No Postage Necessary" envelopes they send with credit card offers. They have to pay the postage on those things. I don't know how much money I cost them, but it sure made my day!

Capitol None. Ahhh what a crappy card. First Union, now Wells Fargo credit card. I had the card about 3 months before I ditched it. Too much crap not enough service. Citi just canceled my always paid on time card, after jacking my interest up from 7% to 22%. What nice people. I hope they choke on thier bailout bucks.

Not sure why everyone else is having problems, but I simply called every bank whose card I hold and told them I wanted nothing but monthly statements. After 3 months, they've all honored my request.
Just a little fun for unsolicited calls: I am male and when a male telemarketer calls, I say, "You sound cute! Do you have a boyfriend? I'm really very lonely." When a female calls, I say, "Are you married? Where are you? Can I buy you a drink after work? I don't like fat girls...are you fat?"
It's fun and it ALWAYS makes me feel better!

Chase makes customers use their own secure email for anything dealing with Chase, no exceptions. Anything else would be spam. I never liked Capital One since they screwed me on a rate increase they caused. I explained to them that it was their fault so they removed the late charges, but told me the rate couldn't be changed in the system, it was automatic. And would reduce after so many 'good' payments. Wouldn't know if thats true, paid it off, cut it up, and never dealt with them again.

Canceled my Cap One card for this very reason over a year ago....

Yeah I would dump the card too. Seriously. They actually defended spending useless amounts of time and money running spam servers. LOL

What a crock. I would probably start by taking any buisness reply envelopes from them and sending them coupons for various things. as they too are valuable offers and even worth 1/20th of a cent each! free money.. how could a credit card company turn that down?! LOL

No one in my family will use Capital One. I quit using my Capital One card in 2005 when they would not let me change my mailing address to a PO Box. For a while I got around it by dropping the "PO" but they caught it after a few months and demanded that I change it to a physical address. I was living in a rental in a sketchy neighborhood without a secured mailbox that the landlord would not upgrade. I couldn't afford to do it myself so I had to change my mailing address to my parents' address 50 miles away because they had a secured mailbox. I would drop them if I wasn't planning to buy a house. With how little I use it ($40 once every six months) I'm sure they'll close it soon anyway. Since when I do use it I pay it off right away, it doesn't really matter to me that they're raising my rate from less than 8% to 22% while Wells Fargo is raising my credit limit and leaving my 7% rate alone. The next time I need a new card I'll be going to my credit union.

JP Morgan Chase is just as bad. I will be paying off my Chase accounts in the next month and then will just leave them open. I have never been late, always pay more than the minimum and never bounced a check. They chose to raise my rates because they could. I was transfered to three different people and no one could tell me why.

I dropped Capitol One a long time ago. The only remnant that I have to tolerate now is their obnoxious commercials.

Hopefully more and more Capital One customers will express their dissatisfaction with Capital One's deteriorating treatment of their customers by walking away from them. I did after 15 years as a loyal, always-paid-on-time customer.

I have to agree with teh multitude of responses that have given the advice to set up a seperate e-mail address. Even with free servcies like Hotmail, you can link together multiple accounts and only have to log in once to check them. I have done this, and have three seperate accounts, one for family and friends, one that I use specifically when I am doing any online transactions, and one for banking and other personal business. This allows me to seggregate what is being received where. We are not going to stop credit card companies from sending us spam or junk mail, we can only control how we respond. We can respond like children and "retaliate" by cutting up cardboard and sending back to them, thereby making someone, who is out there working for a living just like we are, have a terrible day, or we can all act like adults and treat the credit card companies as the children. What do you do when a child acts inappropriately, you ignore it and go on with your life.

I feel the same way about telemarketers, here is some person out working, not living off the system, do we really need to be rude? All you have to do is polietly say, "I don't accept solicitation phone calls at this number." and they will say "goodbye", maybe give you a number to call if you ahve questions and hang up. We don't have to treat each other like crap just becuase we don't like the companies they work for...

All of the junk mail and spam I received by snail mail I shred and use it for mulch in the garden.

Know what ticks me off about Capital One mostly, but some other cards as well? I have a PO Box for mailing purposes. Every week, there are at least four or five credit card offers sitting in my PO Box, with my PO Box address stamped onto each letter..... but when I open the form, it clearly states that they want a street address in order to process a form..... PO BOXES ARE NOT VALID ADDRESSES... Oh, I get it. My PO Box address is good enough to send your large amounts of marketing propoganda hoping SOMEONE will fill out a form, but not good enough to send the actual statement to.

Actually, Stop Ignorance - you need to rethink your thoughts. Credit card companies are increasing rates feverishly right now because the future legislation will actually protect the consumer in ways that may inhibit rate increases on pre-existing account balances. And, also - not sure why you felt the need to be so heated and combative about the issue to this one comment??

Join Gmail, mark Capital None as spam and be done with their trash.

Here's a better plan: Pay off your card every month with money already set aside in a Capital One online account. That's what I do. But instead of paying interest on their card, they pay me; interest on the money market and rewards to boot. It's a good deal. I recycle their snail mail and filter as read their email, but they pay me ~1% for my time. Best hourly rate going right now.

you can set your own mail filters to toss anything you like. please do so. anything you don't like in the snail mail can be nicely shredded and put under the cat litter. you can also remember who the self-important and arrogant outfits are, and pay those cards off first, then cycle ten-buck meals on them monthly so they have credit tied up against non-paying customers but don't have a good reason to close your credit line, which can mess up your FICO-type score under new rules. that's called Beating The Huns On Their Own Battlefield.

interesting credit card stuff and i agree with most, but i usually just hit "delete"! works for me.

The solution is simple. Get a disposable e-mail address to give out. Don't give out your main
e-mail address. (Hotmail, gmail, etc.)

That way your e-mail remains private and
when spam becomes too much you stop using the
e-mail address.

It's not just Capital One sadly. I get these "convenience checks" from Discover several times a MONTH, even though I have asked them to stop sending them. And every time I get them, I have to be careful to destroy them, because they are a dumpster diver's dream. The amount of paper alone that is being wasted is shameful, never mind the fact that these companies care nothing about actually servicing the people who keep them in business in the first place.

I also think banks should not have the right to send you a debit card unless you request it. That kind of stuff going through mail irks me. If I needed one I would go to the bank and get one.

This is slightly off-topic, as it does not relate to e-mail spam, but it does pertain to Capital One. I closed my Capital One credit card account yesterday because Capital One took my money and now will not give it back. In short, Capital One mistakenly (?)withdrew the amount of an online payment twice from my checking account. (I did not make two online payments.) I immediately called Capital One and was told that an ACH credit back into my checking account would take five (5) business days (although, an ACH transfer can take as little as two (2) hours). I patiently waited the requisite five (5) business days (even calling on Business Day 3 to get an assurance that the ACH had been queued up), but when there was no credit in my checking account on Business Day Five (yesterday), I called Capital One yet again. I was then told that it would take another seventy-two (72) hours to process the ACH transfer (after the original five (5) business days has passed), although the money should have been in my account yesterday. I asked that my account be closed then and there. Today, my money still isn't in my account, and I was told today by yet another Account Manager that it would take another 24-48 hours to process a refund check for the credit, plus another 7-10 days for mailing. She refused to escalate my issue any further or to transfer me to Capital One's Law Department (I did manage to get her first name and Agent ID Number). I really liked Capital One because they don't charge a foreign transaction fee, and I had a relatively substantial credit line with them, but nothing is worth outright conversion of one's funds. Incidentally, I always paid my balance in full every month, and charged substantial amounts, so Capital One regularly got it's 2%-3% from processing fees. They weren't taking a loss on me, by any means. Perhaps Capital One is trying to squeeze out all of the "deadbeats." I, too, would like to know the alternative to Capital One that Kevin found.

The fact that Capitol-One sent me 5 "offers" per week ... 3 on a slow week ... told me to be suspicious. For a while I kept all these in a very LARGE box that paper towel rolls came in. Then I had to give up doing that. It was taking simply too much space. Then WaMu started the same thing. I had to laugh when WaMu continued doing it even after they went sneakers-up! As fopr me, now? I have a little one that I use on something little once a year and I have a debit cart from my bank ... and I save up for anything expensive and skip subsidizing the greedy money-boys. A friend of mine works for Bank of America and it pains me to see the great lengths she goes to to try and cover their little transgressions. I don't use BOFA even though I have known her for over 40 years. She and her husband have a huge house ... and someone else can pay for it. Just not me.

Tell Capital One to go to hell and close your account if they don't stop. I'll bet this gets their attention.

"What's in MY wallet?" NOT YOUR GAF CREDIT CARD! (If you can figure out what GAF stands for, then you can be in my club...I don't raise interest rates!)

I paid off all my credit cards a couple years ago and closed the accounts. It's such a relief not having to worry about all this nonsense anymore!

Fire Capital One and go somewhere else, like a local bank where they will honor your wishes.

Since when is a number so important. I refuse to be a slave to these card companies which is what you are. You can finance anything with enough money down so for my purposes I do that. Credits cards are nothing but instruments of slavery and we all need to break free of the control the banks place on our lives. So delete the spam. shred the paper checks and any other snail mail letters of offer and ignore the banks all together. We are not a number, live free and vote incumbents out of office.

Why in hell does the bank think that it can TELL customers that they have to "receive" offers, etc., even if customers don't want them? Banks work for us. Or so it used to be. They existed because of the business that we gave them. Now they act like we're charity cases - that they're doing US a favor by deigning to do business with us. Too bad that we can't inundate banks with unwanted email, telling them that our "right" to do so is implied by virtue of our doing business with them.

Dump your cards.Amazing how junk mail and emails stop coming when you do.

Create junk email folder for all bank mail. very simple solution. Also cancel card and close account wean yourself off credit. Save the 67.00 monthly interest fee in 12 months= $804.00 in 5 years $4020.00. Complete this process for all 3 of the cards you carry and in five years you have $20,100.00 to place in a CD and in a few years you will have enough cash to buy via cash. Let the miniorities use credit cards and be debt slaves,

Using credit cards is like smoking cigarettes; they lure you in and proceed to make your life miserable. I quit both and my life is much less stressful AND I have more money. Why be a slave to corporate greed only looking to use and abuse you?

Why does everyone talk about the lower credit score due to cancelling a credit card as a negative thing?

If you have good credit, someone WILL loan you money; if you have no credit, someone MIGHT loan you money; if you have bad credit, NOONE will loan you money.

Having bad credit is the best of all possible worlds.

Id like everyone to save every unsolicited bank mailing. Then, all in the same week, stuff them with each others spam and mail them. If they get a million useless pieces of mail all in one week it may put them off a bit.

Everybody wants to blame the credit reform bill for the hike in rates, especially the righties out there, but truth be told, the reason for rate hike isn't "to pay for those who don't" nor retaliation against what should have been law from day one, but rather to sate the money-hunger of shareholders, and of course, pay for all the junk-mail sent back in pre-paid envelopes, e-mail "marketing schemes" (or "services" if you prefer).

I am quite please to say my bank does not bother me with this kind of junk, though I have, on many occasions flatly refused to give an e-mail address.
The only people who have my e-mail address are those I have given it to personally.

By the way, in Gmail, Outlook or just about any other email client, you can set up specific rules to either block mail, delete mail or respond with rude rebuffs to mail with any particular sender or domain in the address...

We just need legislation that all companies, but especially credit card companies, that put you or your account at risk through solicitations, are responsible for treble damages from any identity thief using said instruments to steal someone's identity.

Further legislation is needed treating refusals to opt-out and further solicitations as stalking on the part of the CEO's, and giving Attorney Generals the right to arrest them, their boards and managers for such.

as far as I'm concerned these folks who get so upset about a simple email providing a potentially beneficial service are a bunch of anal retentive whiners who probably aren't very nice people to anyone. That's generalizing of course but I send out a company newsletter 100% to customers made up 100% of beneficial tips and instructions on how get the most from the service they purchase from us and every newsletter we get rude requests to be removed and to a person the requesters I've dealt with have been haughty and self-righteous.
If Kevin had gotten an offer that suited his needs at the time he would not be complaining. And for others, it doubtless was an opportunity for them. Capitol One is better off without Kevin and I'm glad they stayed firm in their stance - they scored a point with me.

I worked at Capital One in Glen Allen, VA for years and years. They really like to pat themselves on the shoulder when it comes to spamming us via email and/or paper mail.

I was told to be quiet when I mentioned the amount of paper they waste.

Also, they don't do drug tests, so enjoy having your personal information handled by heroin addicts (hi stephanie!) and pot heads (hey Kai).

Well doesn't anyone know that you can put a block them from your email ,from within your e-mailboxWhich will stop them from reaching your email in the first place.Also Capital One sucks I hope they go down in flames.

I get two verizon fios letters every oher week and have for over a year. I don't want them and I told them to stop mailing me, but they won't. It's a waste of their money and my time.

This will be lost in the signal:noise ratio on these comments, but it should be said that sending back Return Postage envelopes with anything other than the intended contents doesn't actually cost the recipient. Per postal regulations, they don't pay the postage on those. You can send a brick back, which would be lots of postage, but they just have to take it to the post office, and the charge comes right back off. All you're doing, when you do that kind of thing, is costing the Post Office money, which means you're raising the cost of postage for everyone. You're not actually hurting the company that sent you the junk mail. Not directly anyway.

RE: Senior Chief - Grow up and get your facts straight. Most of the new credit card rules don't go into effect until Feb 2010 and none of them have anything to do with your rate going up. Your rate went up because you were well below the average rate for a credit card and, as in all cases like yours no matter what company you are with your rate will go up. Credit cards are not profitable at 6.9% once you factor in all the costs associated with each card. By the way we can thank the new credit card rules on the government's idea that they have to protect ignorant people like yourself from themselves. The next time you want to spew ignorant rhetoric like your post here please just back away from the keyboard.

Considering that criminals extensively use e-mail spamming to imitate banks/credit companies, it is extremely poor judgement for any bank to use e-mail as a way to contact customers. My bank advertises that they NEVER send e-mails to customers for this very reason. Banks that do this are out of touch with reality and are insensitive to their "customers." On the other hand, there is the option to "blacklist" companies you don't want e-mail from. They will continue to send the e-mails, but you will never see them or have to delete them.

Companies who send out mass e-mails have the capability to see exactly who opens those e-mails. If the masses would just blacklist or delete, the fools would eventually realize from those e-mail marketing reports that this method is a bummer as far as return on investment. They aren't looking for a high rate of "opens" but more for those who fall for the "enticing offer." Those are the people who will help offset the costs of these annoying marketing scams. But yes, they are scumbags for not allowing an opt out. Nobody should have to put up with garbage like that.

As for the checks in the mail--is it worth your time and excessive aggravation spent if someone rumages through your trash and fraudulently runs up your balance?

Right, mental note. Never do business with capital one

Considering that criminals extensively use e-mail spamming to imitate banks/credit companies, it is extremely poor judgement for any bank to use e-mail as a way to contact customers. My bank advertises that they NEVER send e-mails to customers for this very reason. Banks that do this are out of touch with reality and are insensitive to their "customers." On the other hand, there is the option to "blacklist" companies you don't want e-mail from. They will continue to send the e-mails, but you will never see them or have to delete them.

Companies who send out mass e-mails have the capability to see exactly who opens those e-mails. If the masses would just blacklist or delete, the fools would eventually realize from those e-mail marketing reports that this method is a bummer as far as return on investment. They aren't looking for a high rate of "opens" but more for those who fall for the "enticing offer." Those are the people who will help offset the costs of these annoying marketing scams. But yes, they are scumbags for not allowing an opt out. Nobody should have to put up with garbage like that.

As for the checks in the mail--is it worth your time and excessive aggravation spent if someone rumages through your trash and fraudulently runs up your balance?

A word about Spam-
The term spam has moved from Hormel's "pork shoulder and Ham" product to unwanted commercial email messages to the nowadays meaning of all unwanted or multiple email messages. The problem is the laws are only intended to address those email messages of a commercial nature or pronographic nature that do not comply with the very specific rules.

The spam laws are not designed to penalize people because you no longer want to recieve their messages.

As a client of a bank there are federal regulations about notifications that must be followed and there is no opt out.

If you dont want to recieve the messages move your business to another bank, hide your money in your mattress or provide the bank a different email address. But remember, if an issue arises and you try to claim that you were not notified, you would be lying and thus you are responsibile for the charges or increased fees or whatever else the bank was trying to notify you of.

I was a very happy CApital One card holder until the rate increase a little over a year ago. I called then and was told "because we can, it's not personal or a reflection on your credit". I stopped using the card but didn't close it. The latest notice was the last straw. THey are trying to recover their losses from the paying customers. The account will be closed on 8/2 when the latest rate increase goes into effect.

Canceling your credit cards will NOT negatively affect your credit score. What will affect your credit score is not having any credit cards. You need to maintain a history of making payments and good fiscal management, of which canceling unused accounts is ONE way.

I sypathize with Kevin. However, it is going to have to be him and not Capital One, that decides what is spam and what is not. It costs Capital One almost nothing to send these missives out, as opposed to having to do a direct mailing.

My suggestion would be what I do. Email filters. Spam Filters, whatever you want to call them. I will bet you even money, Kevin, that the spam you get from Capital One has some sort of subject line that is DIFFERENT from your statement.

Almost every email program in the world allows you to block emails based on From, To, Subject and even the contents of the Body.

I would go back, if you haven't, already deleted it, and apply a filter to it, to prevent further spam from Capital One.

I believe it is the RECIPIENT that gets to decide what is spam and what is not, not the SENDER.

With phone solicitors: I ask lots of questions and pretend I am really interested, then tell them I have to break for the bathroom. I come back 15-20 minutes later and tell them "I am glad that I got that out of me, but while I was in there I lost interest. Good day."

I have a CAP 1 card. And it runs at 1% interest. Yup...1 %.....
They may have raised the rate for new transactions to 17%, but there won't be any new transactions. I'll just continue to pay the balance with 1% interest.

If you want the free checks canceled, then cancel them; they have to by law. Try reading the material instead of acting like a complete moron on blogs like this. RTFM

I too have received the "we are raising your interest rate to %".

Rather than complain, I contacted the issuer; stated that I did not accept the rate increase and would not be using the card in the future. (Of course, I have to pay off the balance; I'm not Chrysler.)

I did not cancel the card as that affects my credit rating. (On this particular card, I have a 10+ year record of on-time payments)

The issuer is required by law to freeze the rate provided the card is not used after the notification date.

Let them carry an active $0.00 balance account for a few years. If necessary I'll by a 10 pack of DVD's and pay the balance in a few days ;keeping the card alive.

...opting out of the credit rat race ...

FedUp389

to be fair, i asked capital-one to lower my interest rate. i was paying 25%. this was 3 weeks before the senate bill passed.

they agreed to lower my rate to 4.9% for the next six months. i asked the same of bank of america and they told me to get lost.

thus, bank of america has been getting four-figure payments from me each week. i won't cancel the card because that will hurt my credit score, but i want bank of america to know that if they can't give me a break after getting all that free money from tarp, the fed, and their aig payoff, then i'm not going to give them any more money than i have to.

my bofa card will be paid off at this rate by the middle of july. and if they close that account even though i'm not charging thousands of dollars on the card anymore, i'll sue.

capital-one has many problems. but bank of america (laying off many american workers and transferring those jobs to india) is for the birds.

James of Kentucky has the right attitude. Let them do it. Create an e-mail account with any that allows Outlook as e-mail (client) interface. Change your online [e-mail] profile with any financial "partner". Set the "Junk mail" rules and live your life. Capital One, Two or Three will always be. So, understanding that for the cheatters in Washington the cheatters in Banking are more important than the Payers for their salaries, you can save your day with what YOU have.

If you have requested that a company stop sending you emails, then forward the email over to spam@uce.gov. I have been doing this for some time now and I have been noticing a drastic drop in spam emails. If Goverment gets involved and makes the company spend money on verification that it is not spam, then I bet you will see a change in the way that it does business.

I do all my banking through a credit union. I haave a visa and a debit card, I never recieve any spam from them. I get one e-mail a month with my account statement. The rates are reasonable,the staff is friendly and on more than one occasion when we were out of town, we were able to transact a loan over the phone and sign the papers when we returned home.

I to fill pre paid envelopes with junk mail I usually cut up cardboard boxes too as they are heavier and they have to pay by the ounce needless to say we get very little junk mail anymore.

As for the do not call list it is a joke, Some auto warranty company calls at least once a week I have asked them not to call, told them I was on the do not call list, called the state attorney general to complain and registered complaints on line, nothing has ever been done, So now I tell them I am busy, leave a phone number and I well call them back.

Whst really irks me is that they are now allowed to use my cell phone number. I write my congressman every time they call me on my cell phone. Granted I have only recieved a few calls to date, but when I am paying by the minute it makes me mad. It should be a law that they have to provide or at least display their number when they call you so you can have someone to complain to. Seems our freedoms are getting fewer, we should be able to enjoy the freedon of privacy. I also have a collection agency calling for someone I have never heard of, I have told them repeatedly that this person does not and has never lived at this address, yet they persist.

Credit Card companies, like cell phone companies, will do more to attract new customers than they will to retain their existing customers, because they know the AVERAGE consumer thinks it's too much trouble to switch; not me.

I got a good idea. Let's all start paying the $125 a year for fraud monitoring on Equifax. Then we leave all of that spam and transfer checks laying around. Once our identity is stolen we report it right away and the credit card company still gets stuck with all of the bill. That will teach them to quit being so liberal with this stuff.

Would it be against the law to put a small piece of dog crap in one of those prepaid envelopes and send back to cap.one, in response to the ballance transfer check offer?

I will never do business with them again. I closed my account in 2005. I received a yearly maintaince fee in Jan 2008 which went unpaid because I did not have an account. 20 hours on the phone, 15 phone transfers, one to fraud because this account was opened under suspicious means (they opened it). To top it all off a large ding on my credit report. BEWARE.

Capital One sent me no payment envelopes. Where should I send my payment? I asked their robot voicemail and go no helpful information. I went to their website and got FAQ with NO ADDRESS FOR PAYMENT.

They did not of course return my calls or emails...until I was four months in "default for nonpayment", at which my my "guaranteed" 9% rate was jacked up to 23%.

These guys are crimnals and should be in jail, without a phone or computer.

Hello to all, I usually do not comment on articles or other's comments to these articles, but in this case, I needed to give my opinion. 1st, how hard is it for you to walk to your shredder and shred the the correspondence since all credit card companies send mail? 2nd, how hard is it to hit the delete button? I can think of many more unpleasant and strenuous activities to complain about other than things that are barely annoying or inconvenient.

Blah, blah, blah. Boo-hoo, whine, whine, boo-hoo. Blah, blah, blah. Whine, boo-hoo, whine. Spoiled Americans make me sick; worried about spam, etc. What about your own neighbors who are hungry or sick and can't get health care? Take your energy and do some random act of kindness. It will counter balance the evil karma of Capitol One!

credit cards of all co. will be a big gainer very soon we have a Dem.control goverment who letting the socialist president. look at his doing control auto san banks tell co owners have much money they can earn well WELCOM TO RUSSIA CUBA AN MUCH OF SOUTH AMERICA the right vote make better credit cards co.

Mailwasher is a program that works great. It will allow you to "bounce" unwated emails and show the your email account is closed. Just google it. One of the better things from the web.

Open a "junk" email account for crap like this. Easy peasy.

Also, for the posters who stuff the prepaid envelopes with various junk: That marketing stuff is paid for with profits off interest rates, fees, etc... So, in essence, if you have a Cap One account and get the junk that you send back in the prepaid envelope, you're paying for it. Maybe they'd keep the interest rates down if they didn't get so much junk back! Doubt it, but food for thought. Another ugly circle!

Don't just drop your credit card into a drawer if you don't want to use it! If your credit report shows a lot of credit cards -- whether you use them or not -- your credit score drops. If you don't want a credit card, cancel it.

I had an American Express Card for a few years and a month ago I received a letter stating my acccount had been closed due to inactivity. So because I hadn't used my card, they closed my account. I tried to talk to them, but they would not re-open my account. I'm sorry I don't use it unless I have to. Real nice to penalize the people who are responsible!

This sounds like a good item for your local TV consumer protection reporter. Try to find the station that broadcasts the most Capitol One ads. The emphasis would be on a TARP bank wasting taxpayer money, and violating federal SPAM regulations.
Also, as a note to cash-only posts, beware of closing all your credit cards. It actually lowers your credit score, which can be bad for mortgage or car loan applications.

I got the card companies to stop sending junk mail by not paying them.

"

****HOW TO STOP PHYSICAL SPAM****

Whenever I get spam via snail mail, it usually comes with a pre-paid postage. I take that pre-paid envelope, stuff it with something (either spam from another company or just a message, or it can be empty) and then mail it back to them. Now not only are they paying to spam me, they're now paying for me to spam them back. If everyone did this, they would stop doing mass mailings via snail mail"

This is NOT true. What will happen is that the companies will just raise fees to continue their marketing campaigns. We will ALL pay if you do this. The way to stop it is to completely stop buying their products. If they spam you, get rid of that credit card.

"John" should start marking all of his Capital One emails as 'junk.' Depending upon how his junk email filter works, it might eventually lead to the deletion of all emails from Capital One's domain before they even make it into his inbox.

With regard to suggestions to simply filter emails into a spam or junk folder: I would say it's not actually about having the spam in my inbox or not, it's about whether I want to do business with a company that won't answer a simple request like "stop spamming my inbox" to my satisfaction. I shouldn't *have* to set up spam blocking filters against a company of whose *I am the customer*! If my business relationship with you is contingent on my willingness to let you harass me with sales pitches - I'd prefer to cancel my card and find a different company, too. It's a matter of principle.

to chris from new york city!!!!the alternative credit card is called CASH !!!!!! no interest, no late payment fees

****HOW TO STOP PHYSICAL SPAM****

Whenever I get spam via snail mail, it usually comes with a pre-paid postage. I take that pre-paid envelope, stuff it with something (either spam from another company or just a message, or it can be empty) and then mail it back to them. Now not only are they paying to spam me, they're now paying for me to spam them back. If everyone did this, they would stop doing mass mailings via snail mail

I have had a Capital One card for over 10 years with a sweet 6.9% APR. Just received a letter from them stating that my APR will be going up to 15.9 on August 2, 2009(thanks to the Senate's Credit Card Bill.) Most people who advise dropping or cancelling the card overlook the unwarranted hit your credit report will take because of that action. It's one more example of those who have been responsible with their credit paying for those who have not.

I called Capital One and requested they stop sending balance transfer checks.They did it...no problem.Now I am happy.These are the rules I follow in regard to my credit cards.
1.If I don't have the money...I don't need it.
2.Set up bills I pay with the card for a few days after the billing cycle.Then I get to use their money for 30 days free.
3.I never carry a balance.
4.I get online bill notification.I close thje e-mail account and log on to their secure server to pay the bill.
5.delete special offers without opening.
No problem....life is good.

again, just like with the "international transaction fee" article, credit unions solve this. not only do i NEVER get emails from my CU about "offers", i don't get them in the mail, either. that's the beauty - it's either a banner on their site after you log in, or you have to go into the branch office to see it.

quit crying and exercise your freedom of choice people!

Every once in a while I change my email. I tell everyone that I care about, and the rest get flushed.