Capital One Broke Verbal Contract

As far as the threat of the lawsuit...well looks good when you write
it doesn't it? But they did not committ fraud you did by not paying
your bills on time and keeping your account current.

And, whether or not you have the conversation recorded (I sure hope
you informed Mr J that he was being recorded)I am sure if you read
your contract with Capital One it does read that they can suspend or
revoke your contract with them at any time.

So let us know how things look after 48hrs.

I guess if someone owed me money, I would say whatever I needed to say
to get money from the deadbeat.
Mr J. should write a post on here complaining about how his company
loaned you money and you broke your contract to pay it on time. You
can record that conversation too if you would like.

GET IT IN WRITING.

If it's not in writing it's heresay and that is most times inadmissble
in court.

Um, if you had the money to pay on the account... why didn't you pay
on the account BEFORE all this happened? I can't get my head around
the fact that you did have 506 dollars to pay on an account that is
obviously delinquent - yet chose not to? What?

Just a couple things here ~ there's a discussion going down thread
about written vs. oral (or verbal) contracts. We don't know if there
are two contracts here or just one. It all turns on whether the terms
for reinstatement of suspended accounts are in the written contract.
If so, there is mostly likely language in the written contract that
any changes can only be in writing. Therefore Mr. J's language to the
contrary would not be a) sufficient to modify the writing and b) would
not be a breach of oral contract. Whether it sounds in quantum meruit
or not is a totally separate issue.

Now, onto fraud. Fraud is a tort and by definition requires the act
of intentionally making a false statement with the intent to deceive.
Thus in order to prevail in an action for fraud (which often must be
proven by a higher standard of clear and convincing evidence) you must
be able to prove that Mr. J did more than just make a mistake. Very
difficult indeed ~ especially in a small claims setting which probably
has limited or no discovery provisions.

It seems to me that you broke a written contract with Capital One when
you did not pay your account in accordance with the terms and
conditions of your account.

I don't know why this just came to me, but Contract Law 101 basically
says that the written contract supersedes oral agreements. So your
printed/written documentation regarding your account would be the
guiding factor.

If you are going to hold a credit card, you should pay the bill in
full, and on time, each month. You shouldn't use a credit card as a
way of creating long term loans - it is not cost effective. You also
shouldn't be going over your limit - that is asking for trouble.
After all, it is called a "limit."

Some tools would say that if you play with a credit card company it is
like playing with snakes. This isn't true, but it is true that you
can get *yourself* into trouble by not following the rules. You think
that coming up with a verbal "contract" is going to influence the
bank? No way, and no how. I am not surprised at all that the bank,
once it got its money, said "see ya!" to you. Your account was in
collections. That doesn't just happen - that was your fault. If you
tried to take more money than I agreed to lend you, I would want to
cease business with you as well.

It doesn't sound like you should be holding a credit card until you
become more responsible. Once you get into a position where you can
avoid testing your limit and pay your credit card balance off each
month, then you should seek to get another card.

The part of your letter I find incredulous is that you want the bank
to refund you money you owned them. Why on earth would they do that?
It was a refund of money that you borrowed from them. You owed it to
them.

It's completely useless and getting rather annoying.

Marshall S.,

All bets were off when you failed to keep your account current.

Aa far as your "verbal contract" it would appear that somebody's been
watching a tad too much Law and Order.

Stop back and let us know how this pans out.

BillR.

In the first paragraph you state that your account was over it's limit
and in the third paragraph you mention that it was in collections.
Credit card companies do not "revoke" accounts that go over their
limit but are in otherwise good standing - - instead they charge an
overlimit fee and demand that the account be paid below it's limit. So
something tells me we're talking about more than being over your limit
- - right?

A collections agent promising someone the world in order to collect
money is the oldest trick in the book.

As far as contracts are concerned (verbal or written) it appears that
you violated the terms of your contract to pay as agreed so that
doesn't exactly put you in the driver's seat on this one. And as far
as their refunding $506.45 to a closed account that was in collections
is concerned - - it's not going to happen.

So, if I understand correctly, you are saying that the only reason you
paid the amount you did, that you owed, was to get your account
re-instated? So, you would have not honored your part of the
contract, to pay as agreed and honor the credit limit unless they took
the action that they did to suspend your account? While Mr. J may not
have been as forthcoming as you would have liked, I don't see where
fraud was committed by him or the company to get your money. You owed
it to them after all.

You also mention it was in collections, which I suspect has more to do
with this then the over limit part.

I would have assumed that you'd be more forgiving with someone who
made you a promise and didn't deliver, given that the only reason he
was in a position to do that is that you made a written contract with
Capital One and broke it. People make mistakes, right?

In any case, "I wouldn't have paid my debt to you if you hadn't been
willing to give me what I wanted" is probably not the best argument to
use when you're trying to convince them to extend you credit. If I
were the person handling this letter for Capital One, I think my
immediate thought would be "I wonder whether this customer is going to
refuse to pay later on unless we lower the interest rate or agree to
accept monthly payments that are less than the minimum."

Your "John made me this promise and I have proof" argument appears to
be the best one you've got. I think your letter would have been
stronger if you'd stuck to it.

the state you live in and the state Capital One is in, I have to ask
if you informed Mr. John that you too were recording the conversation.
I think those laws vary from state to state.

If you did not obtain permission to record it yourself, the
information would be inadmissible and your "verbal contract" would be
null and void.

And I don't know that you can file small claims torts against major
corporations. Furthermore, why would you want to? Their lawyers will
bury you.

But I'm with Red on this one. You may not believe it, but if you were
already over the limit, they did you a favor.

With a card that you used past its limit, I'm thinking the last thing
you need is an open credit card in good standing.