Capital One Isn’t Coming To Visit You, Probably

A few weeks ago, Capital One sent customers a contract update that told them that it could drop by their home or workplace whenever they feel like it, and call them up without disclosing their identity. Capital One must not have predicted the response from customers, since now the company really, really want them to know that debt collectors are not going to stop by for a chat. Unless it’s about your snowmobile.

When reporters contacted them about the new contract, they quickly assured customers that they will not show up at your job if you miss a payment, or call you up with blocked Caller ID to make an upsell. “Capital One does not visit our cardholders, nor do we send debt collectors to their homes or work,” a spokesman assured the LA Times when the original story broke. They reserve the right to stop by our homes and workplaces to repossess vehicles, not for a friendly or unfriendly chat.

You can’t depend on customers to seek out news stories or read beyond the headlines, though, which is why reader Sean wasn’t surprised to see this message when he logged in to his Capital One account.

2014CapitalOneMessage

You may have heard there is language in our customer agreements stating we could potentially make “personal visits” to our customers.

As much as we would like to get to know each of our customers better, we don’t visit our customers at their homes or workplaces to discuss their credit card debt—ever. We never will and apologize if we ever made you think we might.

And if we need to call you—rest assured—we will never claim to be anyone other than Capital One when we make those phone calls.

Finally, we are reviewing our customer agreements to ensure we use language that more clearly represents our intentions. We can do better.

See? They’ll be translating it from “inhuman bank” to English and are sorry that they freaked everyone out. Isn’t that nice?

PREVIOUSLY: Capital One Contract Update Gives Company Ability To Visit You At Home

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.