Capital One is being sued by the US government’s consumer watchdog agency for “cheating millions of consumers” and not paying more than $2 billion in interest to holders of its high-interest savings accounts.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) accuses Capital One of freezing the interest rates of its flagship “360 Savings” accounts at low levels despite rates rising nationwide and said the bank launched a new account that offered better interest rates without telling “360 Savings” customers. As a result, that decision cost consumers more than $2 billion in lost interest payments.
“The CFPB is suing Capital One for cheating families out of billions of dollars on their savings accounts,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a release. “Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can’t live up to.”
Capital One said in a statement that it’s “deeply disappointed to see the CFPB continue its recent pattern of filing eleventh hour lawsuits ahead of a change in administration.”
“We strongly disagree with their claims and will vigorously defend ourselves in court,” a Capital One spokesperson said, adding that the new account was “marketed widely, including on national television, with the simplest and most transparent terms in the industry.”
At issue is Capital One’s marketing of the “360 Savings” account that used words as “one of the nation’s” “top,” “best,” and “highest” to describe the interest earned from it. However, the CFPB said that from 2019 to mid-2024 the bank “lowered and then froze the ’360 Savings’ account rate to just 0.30%, even as rates increased nationwide.”
Around that time, a new, “360 Performance Savings” account was launched that increased rates from 0.40% in 2022 to 4.35% in January 2024.
The CFPB stated that Capital One “schemed to keep ’360 Savings’ accountholders in their lower-yielding accounts by obscuring ‘360 Performance Savings’’ existence as a distinct product with a higher rate from ‘360 Savings’ accountholders.”
The agency said the lawsuit seeks to stop the bank’s “unlawful conduct, provide redress for harmed consumers, and impose civil money penalties.”
