 Dispute with Capital One over fraudulent transactions - Advice?
Hi all,
This is my first post so I'm sorry if I have put this in the wrong place or there is already information about this topic elsewhere on this site.
In April 08 I realised that transactions totalling £1500 had been added to my credit card account with Capital One. They were made in a strip club in London whilst my partner and I were at home a couple of hundred miles away.
I rang Capital One and told them that I did not authorise these transactions and I was told by them that I had been a victim of fraud. They told me not to worry, that I would not be held responsible for the amounts and that they would close my account and open a new one for me, which they did.
I received my new card and pin a few days later - the pin was exactly the same one I had been using up til that point. I started using my new card as usual but realised a few days later that the disputed charges had been added back onto my new account and I had not been informed. This had also taken my card over my credit limit, incurring me over-limit charges and additional interest.
I rang to complain but was told that it seemed that both my card and pin had been used in London and therefore I would be held responsible. This is impossible as the card was in my possession at the time in question and had been at all times before and since.
I was told to write to their Exectutive office if I didn't like their decision, which i did. They eventually wrote to me to tell me they were standing by their decision and that was the end of the matter.
I wrote to them again to tell them that I was still not happy about the way things had happened, that they had not addressed any of the points in my letter, and that I would not make a payment on the account til it was sorted out. I received a letter several weeks later telling me that they would not enter into any further correspondence about it.
I have written and spoken to various departments and have even offered to pay the entire outstanding balance that I accept I owe them (i.e. the money I actually authorised) in order to close the account and put an end to it. In fact the money is waiting in my bank account as I type. They have refused it.
I am now incurring late payment fees on top of everything else and I am receiving at least 5 or 6 phonecalls from them per day. Everytime they ring I have to explain all over again what has happened so far and always get told the same thing - write to the Exec office or speak to the Fraud dept (both of whom will no longer deal with me). It is so frustrating and I get nowhere every time. My partner has spoken to them as well on my behalf and was told that if we wanted to get the disputed transactions cancelled again we would have to prove that I did not make them AND that chip and pin is not secure. I have no idea how I am supposed to do that. My partner did manage to get them to agree to stop phoning me but this only lasted for a week before they started again worse than before.
I am writing a to the Financial Ombudsman about it but I know that they are a bit of a paper tiger. I am at the end of my tether with the whole thing and don't know what to do next.
I am not going to give in and pay for fraudulent transactions on my account just because Capital One want me to, but I am rapidly losing the heart for this fight.
Any help or advice out there? | 
