SEATTLE, Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For Christmas
shoppers across the country, the day of reckoning is at hand: those
dreaded January credit-card bills are winding their way to the
mailboxes of disciplined and over-exuberant shoppers alike. For
some, though, banking on the promise of no-interest credit card
offers, those credit-card bills may contain worse news than they
imagine.
According to a consumer-rights law firm, at least one major
credit-card company -- Capital One (NYSE: COF) – has gamed the
system to make those seemingly attractive no-interest credit cards
as expensive as their high-interest competition.
In a consumer-rights class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens
Berman, consumers claim Capital One deceived cardholders who
participated in a transfer balance program. Advertisements for the
program promised that any balance transferred from another creditor
would incur no interest for the first year. At the same time,
consumers believed that any charges to their credit card would not
incur interest if the balance was paid off on time at the end of
each billing period.
However, cardholders claim that Capital One misrepresented the
program. When they paid their credit card bill, Capital One
allegedly diverted payments to pay off the transfer balance, rather
than the normal credit card balance. The next month, according to
the lawsuit, cardholders received a new bill that reflected no
payment to the credit card balance and interest charges exceeding
13 percent on the balance.
Holiday spending this year is predicted to reach almost
$470 billion. All Capital One
cardholders who participated in the company's transfer balance
program are part of a proposed class identified by the lawsuit
filed by consumer protection law firm Hagens Berman at the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The firm wishes to speak with consumers who were forced to pay
high interest rates on credit lines, even if payments were made on
time.
You can contact the Hagens Berman legal team via email at
CapitalOneTB@hbsslaw.com. Consumers can also contact the firm by
calling (206) 623-7292. Additional information is available at
www.hbsslaw.com/capitalonetb.
About Hagens Berman
Seattle-based Hagens
Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is one of the top class-action law firms
in the nation, with offices in Boston, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New
York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1993, we represent
plaintiffs in class actions and multi-state, large-scale litigation
that seek to protect the rights of investors, consumers, workers
and whistleblowers. More information about the firm is available at
www.hbsslaw.com.
Media Contact
Firmani + Associates Inc.
Mark Firmani, 206-443-9357
mark@firmani.com
SOURCE Hagens Berman, LLP