Is Capital One Cheating You Too? The Secret You Must Know About Your High-Interest Account

Are you a Capital One savings account customer? If so, you could be losing thousands of dollars a year and should check your accounts immediately. Here’s how to find out if you’re impacted and what to do about it.

Background

As diligent as I am with my money, I recently discovered I was losing thousands of dollars a year in interest. I thought I had a high-interest bank account with Capital One, but it turns out, my interest rate was only 0.30%. Why was it so low? Because apparently several years ago Capital One essentially archived certain legacy accounts – the “360 Savings Accounts”– and instead created a competing product that actually earns high interest. (These new accounts are called a deceptively similar name – the “360 Performance Savings Account” and currently earn 2.15% interest.)

At first upon learning I had only been earning 0.30% interest instead of a competitive rate, I was embarrassed – how could I as a personal finance writer miss this? Then I was angry, not just for myself, but for the millions of consumers who are similarly situated to me. Why was I angry? Because Capital One told us we had high-interest accounts. Further, when Capital One stopped keeping our accounts at high-interest, and instead created a competing product that paid much higher rates, they didn’t email us or automatically opt us in to the new accounts. They just left us to sit out there believing we still held high-interest accounts.

My first step was to try to make it right by reaching out to Capital One and getting them to correct it for all of us – but they refused and even claimed 0.30% is high interest (more on that later). 

So, now fellow consumers, when a company won’t do what is right, you must do what is in your own self-interest.  Here’s how to check to see if you’re getting the correct interest rate with Capital One. And if you aren’t, what to do about it. 

How to See If Capital One is Cheating You by Keeping Your High-Interest Account at a Low Rate

Here are the step by step instructions for how to see if you have one of the low performing “360 Savings Accounts.”

  1. Determine If You are a Capital One (Formerly Known as INGDirect) Bank Account Holder

For years, INGDirect was one of the best high-interest savings accounts available. I remember earning as much as 5% (!)  interest around 2008 with my ING accounts.  Then, around 2012, Capital One acquired these accounts from INGDirect and we all became Capital One customers. (Note: Capital One continued to operate their accounts in the same way ING had – offering competitive rates for the online environment.) Long and short of it, if you used to hold an INGDirect account and never closed your account, you are a Capital One customer. You may also be an affected customer if you opened a “high interest” account with Capital One before 2019.

  1. Determine the Specific Type of Capital One Account You Hold

There are 2 ways to see if you have what I call a “Legacy Account” (aka, the account with low interest.)   First, you can determine your type of account by looking at a recent statement. If any of your statements say “360 Savings” below the name of the account, then you are getting an abasyml interest rate. 

The second way to determine your account type is to click on the “Account Details” section of the App/website (at the bottom of the page when you click on your Account) and this will tell you your current interest rate. If your interest rate is 0.30% (or anything below 2.15% – which is the rate they are offering to all their other account holders) then you need to make changes immediately.

If your statement says “360 Savings” or you are earning 0.30% interest, you have a Legacy Account and are getting a terrible rate. 

Capital One 360
  1. If You Are Getting a Terrible Rate, Switch

If you are a legacy account holder getting one of these awful rates, you need to switch immediately. If you don’t switch, you will continue to get a poor rate instead of a competitive rate. If you like Capital One, you can close your current accounts and open one of their Performance 360 Accounts. (There is no easy way to just switch your account over.) Personally, after my experience with them, I could never recommend them or keep my money with them anymore. 

Instead, I opened an account with Ally Bank because they have historically had competitive rates. I also just read that Elements Financial is at 3.15%, Bask Bank is at 2.75%, and Marcus by Goldman is at 2.15%.  (I have no relationship with any of these banks. You can google “best high interest rate savings account” and make an informed decision.)

I personally am not a rate chaser. Moving money around constantly to try to get the very best rate isn’t a good use of time. But I believe we should all have high-interest accounts. Just find a bank that is known to consistently pay high-interest, and move your money there. 

  1. Sit Back and Relax

Once you’ve moved your money, you should be able to rest assured that you will be getting a rate that at least reasonably keeps up with other accounts in the high interest savings market. But, don’t rest too comfortably (as I know I’ve learned my lesson from this experience); so be sure to check your interest rate at least a few times per year – especially when rates are changing as rapidly as they are now. But hopefully once you make a switch, you should be good to go for a while.

  1. If You’re Really Angry, Contact a Regulator

Personally, I’m really angry at Capital One and believe they violated the law. U.S. banks aren’t allowed to engage in unfair, deceitful, or abusive acts or practices. I believe that by holding out the legacy INGDirect accounts as high-interest accounts and not contacting consumers of the accounts to let us know that we in fact no longer part of their high-interest rate account family (you can’t even find information about the 360 Savings Account on their website), Capital One engaged in deceitful practices. 

They could have sent an email or automatically rolled our accounts into the new 360 Performance Accounts. But instead, they just let us lose money. I contacted the CFPB and the OCC (Capital One’s regulator) and I encourage you to do the same. Yes, banks can change their rates; but if a bank has advertised an account as high-interest, but then no longer pays high interest (and in fact opens a competing product that does pay high-interest), this seems like classic bait and switch. You can write to the CFPB here and the OCC here. If you want, you can simply email them and say “I’m a Capital One customer who thought I held a high-interest account, but was tricked just like outlined in this article.” (And link to this page). 

The Rest of the Story

As promised, now that I’ve told you how to check on and fix your situation, I told you I’d tell you the rest of the story. Here it is.

After discovering this happened with my accounts. I sent a letter to Capital One. See my letter below. 

My Letter to Capital One (edited slightly to remove any personal details)

Mr. Fairbank and Mr. Cooper,  [Note: I emailed their CEO and General Counsel directly by finding their email addresses]

I have been a holder of Capital One 360 Savings accounts (f/k/a ING 360 Savings) since approximately 2006. I currently hold 9 high-interest savings accounts with Capital One totaling over $xxx,xxx. As recently as July, I held over $xxx,xxx of savings in these accounts. [Note to readers, as you know, I was saving money to take a sabbatical. So these accounts held not just emergency savings, vacation money, money planned for investments but also my 100k savings for my sabbatical.]

I set up these accounts with the understanding that they were high-interest savings accounts. They were advertised as high-interest savings accounts at the outset and they continued to be advertised and operated that way. When interest rates went up, the rates went up; when interest rates went down, the rates decreased. It was my understanding from how the accounts were advertised and operated that I would earn a competitive high-yield rate. For example, your website advertises high-interest accounts with statements like: “Put your savings to work with one of the nation’s top savings rates.” (Emphasis added.)

However, recently, after receiving an offer from a competing bank, I checked the interest rate of my Capital One accounts. All of my 360 accounts are currently earning a paltry .30% interest. I was surprised and visited the Capital One website to confirm that Capital One is paying such uncompetitive rates. On the Capital One website, you advertertise a “360 Performance Savings Account” (“New High-Yield Accounts”) earning 1.90% interest. [Note to readers, since early September, the rates have jumped 2.15%.]

My most recent account statement states my accounts are “360 Savings Accounts.” It appears that Capital One is treating legacy 360 High-Yield Savings Accounts (“Legacy High-Yield Accounts”) differently than these New High-Yield Accounts. The features of the New High-Yield Accounts appear to be nearly the same as the Legacy High-Yield Accounts, except for the interest rate. 

I’ve spoken with several other Legacy High-Yield Account holders who are in the same situation as I am.

It would appear that Capital One engaged in deceptive and abusive practices. Specifically, Capital One led Legacy High-Yield Account holders to believe that they were getting competitive interest rates, but did not pay competitive interest rates. Further, Capital One launched a New High-Yield Account product without properly notifying Legacy High-Yield Account holders of the change or automatically rolling them into these accounts. And finally, it would appear that Capital One did this to intentionally deprive consumers with Legacy High-Yield Accounts of the interest they were entitled based on Capital One’s promises and past practices.

Not only did Capital One violate UDAAP, Capital One intentionally harmed consumers who trusted Capital One to protect and preserve their savings. Particularly during high-inflation environments such as this, it is critical that Capital One repair the damage done.

In addition to being a longtime Capital One customer, I am also a personal finance writer.

On behalf of myself as well as all other similarly situated consumers, I request that Capital One (1) either roll over all Legacy High-Yield Accounts to the New High-Yield Accounts automatically or ensure Legacy High-Yield Accounts operate with the same interest rate as New High-Interest Accounts and (2) reimburse all Legacy High-Yield Account holders for the interest to which they’re entitled since Capital One made this change. 

Sincerely,

Me

Capital One’s Reply

Within a week, Capital One replied to me with the below:

Re: Response to September 10, 2022 Email

Dear [Me],

Thank you for your email. We wanted to reach out and provide greater context regarding your questions and concerns about your Capital One 360 Savings accounts. We are committed to being transparent and meeting the needs of our customers.

As you point out in your email, interest rates fluctuate based on market conditions. The rate on youra ccounts has changed many times, both when they were ING savings accounts and since they became Capital One 360 Savings accounts.

We have reviewed your accounts and the applicable interest rates. While the current rate on your accounts is 0.30% APY, the national average for such accounts as of September 7, 2022, is 0.14% APY, which is less than half the rate for Capital One 360 Savings accounts.

Consistent with interest rate fluctuations, the Capital One 360 Savings Account Disclosures do not guarantee a particular interest rate over the life of an account. Instead, they disclose that rates “are variable and may change at any time.” The interest rate for your accounts is always available on the Capital One website and mobile app, and rate changes also appear on each of your monthly account statements. You can find that disclosure if you click on this link:https://www.capitalone.com/bank/disclosures/savings-accounts/online-savings-account/.

Finally, you may maintain your current accounts as an existing customer, or if you would like to open a new 360 Performance Savings account, you can sign up at https://www.capitalone.com/bank/savings-accounts/online-performance-savings-account/. If you have any questions about this process, please call us at 1-800-655-2265. Thank you again for reaching out. If you have any additional questions, please contact us at 1- 877-215-8591, extension [redacted] I’m typically available Monday through Friday, from 9 AM to 5 PM CT.

Sincerely,

Melissa, On Behalf of Capital One®

To Sum Up

While I shouldn’t be surprised with Capital One’s reply, I did have some hope that by looking at this more closely, they would see the harm they were causing to consumers and make some changes. Instead, they doubled down on their actions. They even go so far as to state that 0.30% is a high rate.  Sure, it’s higher than your average savings account. But it’s nowhere close to the other high interest accounts out there (including their own competing product).

It’s unfortunate when companies can’t do the right thing for their customers (or comply with the law). I encourage you to not make the mistake I did of trusting a bank to continue to offer the product you signed up for.  Instead, despite the changes in the regulatory landscape, we all have to constantly read the fine print. 

If you have a Capital One 360 Savings Account, do yourself a favor and move it to a bank with a higher rate. 

Hat tip to Jim at WalletHacks who originally discovered this in 2019 when rates were much lower. He’s the only other writer out there who I can find who has written about this issue.

17 thoughts on “Is Capital One Cheating You Too? The Secret You Must Know About Your High-Interest Account

  • Dita

    Wow, this is so true! I’ve been with Capital one 360 since ING Direct. Longtime customer, and when I read this article I called to see why they’re not competitive with the other High Yield Banks, the response was the 2.15% is for new customers. Well blow me down. I asked why they wouldn’t offer the older savers this rate and they only offering it to new Capital One savers and that I can transfer to a new account. So I decided that I would move my savings out of Capital One only keep credit cards with them.
    Thanks for enlightening us!

  • Jason P

    I got burnt by this too and was quite angry. Just checked my account and thought I was getting 1.5% and now 2.1% with the interest rate increase. This same account did this in the past. I opened the performance but not sure I should keep my money here with these practices deceiving people.

  • Jason P

    I got burnt by this too and was quite angry. Just checked my account and thought I was getting 1.5% and now 2.1% with the interest rate increase. This same account did this in the past. I opened the performance but not sure I should keep my money here with these practices deceiving people. I put in complaints with the agencies. Probably should move all my money out. What a sham.

    • Elizabeth

      Yes, I thought about opening a Performance Account (and I probably would have if they had ever emailed me and offered it or told me I needed to do it to keep my rate. I kept every one of my emails from them. I thought I must have missed an email but I went back and never did. They tried to get me to open a money market account, but never mentioned the Performance Savings!0) But I would just worry that they would do it again with the Performance Account. Seemed safer to move my money to a company that seems more interested in keeping my business.

      • Jason P

        I put in a complaint with cfpb and they responded in a very similar manner as to your letter. Basically they told me I should have been paying attention and also mentioned the bogus interest rates are variable argument and what national rates are as if anyone opens this kind of account to get near national rates in the first place. I wasn’t logging into my account for several months and assume I was getting what I saw advertised. And they don’t recognize the issue isn’t interest rates vary but that they changed the account to fixed rate without telling anyone(although if you logged in and looked you would know if you were on top of what interest rates are doing). I opened the 360 account but only held it for 1 month while putting the complaint in and figuring out where else to go. When the interest payment hit at the end of the month I pulled all my money too and am moving to Cit Bank at 3.25% right now (Capital One has now increased to 3.0%for the 360). But why reward them for doing this nonsense. They know what they are doing and I told them that in my feedback. I guess they don’t care and think they make more money luring new people in and ripping people off who don’t notice their old accounts aren’t getting interest then losing money from customers that move out once they notice.

  • Rae

    thank you for your research and publishing this information. As a 20yr customer of ING / CapOne I am furious about this clear deception to long standing customers. I wouldn’t have discovered this except I recently referred an acquaintance to CapOne that opened at $100K+ account. All while thinking I was getting the advertised rate. Never did I think I needed to audit my account. Shame on CapOne. I’ll be exploring other options.

  • Jinny

    I am a Capital One customer who thought I held a high-interest account, but was tricked just like outlined in this article. I am very angry about the way Capital One does business like this!

  • Ryan Zondervan

    My wife and I just figured out the same thing happened to us. I almost wonder if a class action could be valid; this is the e-mail we received from Capital One on 2/4/2013. Notice the very clear language that EVERYTHING WILL STAY THE SAME:

    ING DIRECT is now Capital One 360. We have a new name, a new look and we’re committed as ever to helping you save time and money. That means all the good stuff you’ve come to love is staying the same, with the same team of great people ready to help.

    Check out how you’ll access Capital One 360, where red’s the new orange:
    Access your accounts at our new home: Sign in at capitalone360.com, where you’ll have the same great experience – only now with our new colors.
    Upgrade your mobile app: You’ll need to launch your current app and upgrade for total mobile access to your Capital One 360 accounts – new name, new icon, same experience. Keep banking on the fly.
    Add us to your address book: Stay in the know by adding our new email to your address book (look up, it’s the address this email was sent from).
    Yes, we’re changing our name and colors – but everything you know and love about us is staying the same. You can take that to the bank, Saver.

    “Everything you know and love about us IS STAYING THE SAME.” Moving customers from a high yield savings account to a low-yield savings account is not the same. On top of that, the product they moved us to IS NOT EVEN AVAILABLE to open as a new account.

  • Kris P

    I discovered this same fraudulent behavior by capital one bank today. I have been a customer since the INGDirect days, from 2004. I lost over ten thousand dollars in interest due to this scam by Capital One.
    I am mad at them and closing my account soon and considering moving to SoFi or AllyBank.

  • A G

    We just found out about this scam by Capital One bank today as well. Like many of you posting here, we have been a customer since the ING Direct days.
    We spoke with customer service about this and escalated to a manager. I requested them to send me information on when this Performance Savings account product was created and what the interest rates have been since inception. They said they will provide this information in 30days thought I doubt I’ll hear back from them.
    They took an action item that they should improve their process to let existing customers know about this new product – again I doubt that will lead to anything since they know customers have been complaining about this for many years now.
    We all have lost thousands of $ of interest at this point – Wonder if there is a class action lawsuit here. This just stinks.

  • Steve

    My wife and I banked with ING Direct > Capital One for many years and experienced the same thing. Capital One reduced the rates on our accounts as market rates decreased in 2020 and 2021 and we assumed wrongly they were increasing them as market rates increased in 2022. It’s embarrassing to say we lost many thousands of dollars interest by not paying attention to what they were doing with the interest rates. They’ve probably made many millions on this scheme by cheating inattentive clients. Capital One has some of the best digital banking tools out there but I’ll never ever deal with them again.

  • Maria Stocks

    Just discovered I too was tricked and have lost thousands of dollars. I just can’t believe it, I am so angry and upset. This was a savings account I’ve been keeping for my elderly parents, when they need help. I opened this account many years prior to getting married and did not contribute to it after so it wouldn’t become community property. Now I’m worried I’m stuck… would moving this money to another account make it community property?!

    There should be a class action lawsuit.. this is disgusting. I would happily participate.

  • Aaron K

    Great article! I am also embarrassed to find that I overlooked this and just figured it out today. My account was also originally an ING high yield savings account that was acquired by Capital One.

  • Jeff

    Further development to this topic of Capital One 360 and specifically the “new” 360 Performance savings account. I realized that in my accounts (2) my Feb 2023 interest paid went down compared to the Jan 2023 value. Since I didn’t remove any money and the APY increased from 3.3% to 3.4% APY (FEB 2023), can anyone think of a reason why my interest paid would drop (by approx. 10%)? Me either. So I called Cap One and now a case is open with supposed resolution with 2-5 business days. Let’s see what the outcome is and please check your accounts to be sure you are being paid what’s advertised, noting that the direction should be increasing on accounts where no money is withdrawn.

  • Jeff

    Short Feb month interest compounded daily. My topic resolved. I still like the spirit of the initial article.

  • Dennis

    Thank you for the article. I have been upset about this for a while. My wife and daughter also have the accounts from when we were with ING direct. For many months I assumed I was getting higher rates, when I realized it was not so I began moving money to Discover bank. I just sent in my complaint but that seems to do nothing, my next move is to make this article famous on social media, please join me and post

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