Capital One is probably best known for its pithy commercials featuring Jennifer Garner asking, “What’s in your wallet.” Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) believes that Capital One has been cheating its customers, thus questioning if consumers should keep Capital One as a credit provider.
Capital One, N.A. is a national bank with more than $480 billion in assets and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF).
The CFPB alleges that Capital One fleeced its customers of over $2 billion in interest as it froze rates paid to individuals while rates rose nationwide – thus keeping the spread for itself. The CFPB states that from late 2019 to mid-2024, Capital One lowered and then froze the 360 Savings account rate to just 0.30%.
The lawsuit claims that Capital One described its 360 Savings account as one of the best available, providing high interest rates to consumers but these statements were not factual. At the same time, Capital One offered a separate product, 360 Performance Savings, that actually provided a better rate – at one point 14X higher than the other 360 account.
The CFPB’s lawsuit aims to “stop the companies’ unlawful conduct, provide redress for harmed consumers, and impose civil money penalties, which would be paid into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.”
