A note about banking giant (Capital One)

Today I want to inform all who will listen about the evils of the banking giant Capital One.  It has been my misfortune to have been one of their previous cardholders.  It makes me sick to my stomach every time I see Alec Baldwin on tv promoting the legalized financial rape of American consumers.  Here I will tell you my story, but I know I am not alone.  I look forward to the day when a class action suit is filed against them because  losing money is the only thing that will get their attention.  Clearly, doing the right thing, or the ethical thing is of no consequence to them.  Both my wife and I used to be Capital One cardholders.  We didn't over extend ourselves or use our cards frivolously so we did not encounter problems with them until a company without permission kept trying to charge one of my cards.  This is how it went, and I know so many of you will relate.  I purchased something online, and as is so often the case now, online companies will try to renew a purchase whether or not you have said that is your intent.  So a company I made a one-time purchase through tried to bill my card again.  When I got the statement I contacted my bank and told them I did not authorize this purchase, but because I had authorized a previous purchase and this company had my card number, Capital One told me that I had to contact the company directly to cancel something I hadn't even signed up for. I asked Capital One, if I contact the company and they don't respond and they won't stop trying to charge my card, what can I do? Capital One said: you can file a complaint with us and we will try to ascertain whether or not the charge is valid, but because you gave them your card number that means you authorized it.  I said I am telling you right now, that I am not authorizing any further charges from this company, and Capital One said, we're sorry but we have to let the charges go through.  I said but I am telling you I do not give permission, and they said that is our policy.  So I said, I would like to close my account. Capital One said no problem, but we have to keep it open for 30 days and if any more charges come through then we will have to keep it open for 30 more days from the date that a charge comes through.  I said, that's extortion! That cannot even be legal?  I am telling you I want to close my account effective immediately, and they said sorry, that is our policy.  So if this unscrupulous company that I made (one) purchase through, would not stop charging my card, then Capital One could force me to continue to be a cardholder with them, unless of course I filed bankruptcy.  Somewhere in the fine print it must have said that they can do this, otherwise there is no legal way that they could. I called every other credit card that I held at the time and they all said when you cancel a credit card it is effective immediately, but Capital One is not on the side of their customers, they only care about how much money they can extort from you.  Of course, if you never have the problem of a company trying to fraudulently charge your card, you might never run into this issue with them, but word to the wise, the mere fact that they have such a policy is reason enough not to do business with them.  Any unscrupulous online vendor who gets your card number and knows about Capital One's policies could take you for some money and cause you lots of drama.   I am today very very careful what I purchase online.  Luckily for me, the company that kept charging my card was reachable after some effort and the charges ceased once I finally got to  talk to someone, but if they hadn't I would I suppose still have that damn credit card and probably would have sued Capital One.  So we canceled our cards and told them how much we hated them and their product and that we would NEVER do business with them again.  To this day, despite repeated DEMANDS, that they stop harassing us, they send us 3 to 7 credit card offers per week and there seems to be nothing we can do to stop them.  I feel bad for the trees that have to get cut down for them to harass me with their paper shit that I don't want, and furthermore, I cannot merely discard for fear that they fall into the wrong hands.  So we have a shred pile that even as I type this is full of Capital One credit card offers.  We have to look out for each other.  Big businesses are only in it for the money.  The only way we can effect their horrible business practices  is to stop giving them our money! I am an avid player of Frontierville on facebook.  It is a Zynga online game, and Zynga has become very big very quickly.  They have recently decided to promote Capital One in two of their games that I know of.  I have written them a letter expressing my anger that they would support by accepting advertising dollars, a company that has hurt so many American consumers and that has some of the worst policies in the banking industry.  It is this promotion by Zynga, who otherwise does many good works around the globe, coupled with the relentless tv ads,  that has inspired this rant. Okay climbing down from soapbox momentarily. sighs...