Capital One Class Action Says Credit Card Interest is Unfair

A recent class action lawsuit accuses Capital One of forcing their customers to pay unfair credit card interest on transactions that have been paid off.

Plaintiff Susan Dress argues that, like many other credit card companies, Capital One provides their credit card customers with a “grace period” to pay off their balances.

However, Capital One allegedly differs from other credit card providers because the company will reportedly rescind the interest-free grace period if consumers fail to pay off their balance in full in a prior month.

“Capital One’s credit card contracts affirm these common sense understandings, but Capital One’s actual practice does not. Capital One customers who pay off purchases, in full, in a given month are often shocked to find that they are still charged interest on their next month’s bill for those same purchases,” Dress argues in her Capital One class action lawsuit.

This policy is allegedly misleading and at odds with Capital One’s credit card contracts. The credit card agreement between Capital One and their customers reportedly states: “we will not charge you interest on any new transactions […] if you paid the total balance across all Segments of your Account in full by the due date on your Statement each month.”

Based on these statements, Dress claims that she and other reasonable consumers would be correct in assuming that they would not be charged interest for new purchases if those purchases were paid off by the next due date.

Instead, the Capital One class action lawsuit states that the company uses “murky rules only known to itself” to dictate interest policies.

If a consumer makes a $100 purchase and pays $99 of it by the next billing due date, one would expect that this remaining balance would be subject to interest.

However, Capital One charges interest on the remaining balance as well as all future purchases, even if the balance is paid off before the next billing due date, the Capital One class action states.

“But Capital One never informs consumers of this,” Dress claims. “In fact, Capital One affirmatively represents the opposite—that it will not charge interest on new transactions if a consumer pays their statement in full for the month by the due date, and that it will only charge interest on ‘unpaid amounts.’”

The Capital One interest class action lawsuit accuses Capital One of breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of Massachusetts consumer protection laws.

Dress seeks to represent a Class of Capital One credit card account holders who were charged interest on amounts that were paid in full before the due date. She also seeks to represent a subclass of the same consumers in Massachusetts.

The Capital One interest class action lawsuit seeks restitution, actual damages, punitive damages, pre-judgement interest, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Dress and the proposed Class are represented by Patrick J. Sheehan of Whatley Kallas LLP; Nicholas A. Migliaccio and Jason S. Rathod of Migliaccio & Rathod LLP; Jeffrey Kaliel and Sophia Gold of Kaliel PLLC; and Kristi C. Kelly, Andrew J. Guzzo, and Casey S. Nash of Kelly & Crandall PLC.

The Capital One Credit Card Interest Class Action Lawsuit is Dress v. Capital One Bank (USA) NA, Case No. 4:18-cv-40064, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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If you were charged credit card interest months after paying off the balance of your credit card, you may qualify to join this credit card interest class action lawsuit investigation.

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