Capital One should be ashamed of its fine print bullying tactics
CapitalOne.com
Let's be absolutely clear about this: No credit card company can barge into your home uninvited and demand payment for a debt. In fact, a company can't even call you, once you tell it to stop. The vile, reprehensible contract that Capital One is apparently sending out to consumers is nothing more than fine print bullying. It's probably not illegal, but it has to stop.
Consumer reporter David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times did us all a favor this weekend by exposing Capital One's new cardholder agreement terms. According to Lazarus, the terms say the firm may "contact you in any manner we choose," including a visit "at your home and at your place of employment."
Forget "What's in Your Wallet?" We need to start asking "Who's Coming for Dinner?"
This isn't unconstitutional or even illegal. Think of Cap One as a vacuum cleaner salesman. Anyone who wants can try to knock on your front door. In fact, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that door-to-door solicitation is basically a form of protected commercial free speech. Municipalities often have rules designed to curtail solicitation, but it's generally unclear how these rules would hold up to a challenge in federal court.
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(It's interesting to note that other nations have taken an alternative tactic. In Australia, residents can put up "Do Not Knock" signs, and shoo away sales people, who face stiff penalties for ignoring them. On the other hand, American door to door professionals will tell you folks with "no soliciting" signs on the front door make the best targets, as they are identifying themselves as bad at saying no.)
Of course, just because someone knocks doesn't mean you have to answer. As is your right with the phone, you can just let them knock, or you can tell whoever it is to leave and never come back. Returning, or refusing to leave, would probably constitute criminal trespass.
Rules governing solicitation on commercial property (that is, at your place of employment) are a little less clear. But suffice to say it's very hard for large businesses, such as malls, to kick out solicitors.
In other words, Capital One is simply writing down the rights it already has in this new agreement, with the obvious intention of being able to bully customers later, should they need to.
More important, however, are consumers' rights regarding debt collection, which are made abundantly clear in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. No one -- Capital One or anyone else -- can call you and demand payment during unusual hours. If you tell collectors to stop calling, they have to stop calling, or you can win a pretty easy judgment against them for $1,000 per violation. Cap One may reserve the right to knock on your door. You reserve the right to slam the door on them, and to sue them.
How shameful that a group of lawyers inside Cap One has decided to threaten home or place of employment visits. This is abuse of the practice of law. If I were a Cap One cardholder, I'd be inclined to close my card, even knowing that will hurt my credit score. Which reminds me: From the file of things that make my eyeballs feel like they will bleed, what kind of free market do we live in where a customer who decides they no longer want to deal with a corporation is penalized for firing that company?
One last outrage: Cap One reserves the right to trick telephone Caller ID when it contacts you, so it can trick you into answering the phone, a technique called spoofing. You know who engages in spoofing? Criminal hackers. So Cap One is now a group of hackers. Again, this isn't illegal, as long as Cap One isn't intentionally identifying impersonating someone you know. Still, when you are doing what computer criminals do, isn't that a sign you shouldn't be doing it?
For much more on your rights under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, visit the FTC's user-friendly website.