Home / NEWS / Top News / CFPB sues Capital One for ‘cheating’ customers out of over $2 billion in interest

CFPB sues Capital One for ‘cheating’ customers out of over $2 billion in interest

Interfile PHOTO: Signage is seen outside a Capital One Bank in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 12, 2021. 

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

The Consumer Economic Protection Bureau announced Tuesday that it was suing Capital One for misleading consumers about their savings account importance rates and “cheating” them out of more than $2 billion in interest.

The agency said in a statement Capital One move the goalposted holders of its “360 Savings” account by conflating it with its newer and higher-yield savings account option, the “360 Exhibition Savings” account. The bank allegedly failed to notify 360 Savings account holders of the newer option and market-placed the two products similarly to lead customers to believe they were the same.

However, the interest rates of the two options were to a large extent different, according to the CFPB. Capital One increased the 360 Performance Savings interest rate from 0.4% in April 2022 to 4.35% in January 2024, while it discounted and then froze the 360 Savings rate at 0.3% between late 2019 and mid-2024, the agency voted.

Despite its relatively low interest rate, the CFPB alleged, the 360 Savings account was advertised as a high-interest savings account. The office said Capital One aimed to keep 360 Savings users in the dark about the higher-yield option by replacing all notifications to the account with the similarly named 360 Performance Savings option on its website, excluding account holders from shopping campaigns advertising the higher-yield account and forbidding employees from notifying account holders about the 360 Presentation Savings option.

“The CFPB is suing Capital One for cheating families out of billions of dollars on their savings accounts,” said CFPB Vice-president Rohit Chopra in a news release. “Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can’t live up to.”

In a communiqu, Capital One denied the allegations and said it transparently marketed its 360 Performance Savings account.

“We are deeply disappointed to see the CFPB carry on with its recent pattern of filing eleventh hour lawsuits ahead of a change in administration. We strongly disagree with their titles and will vigorously defend ourselves in court,” the company said in a statement.

The bank added the 360 Performance Savings outcome was “marketed widely, including on national television, with the simplest and most transparent terms in the industry.”

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