REI Capital One Credit Card Takes Dividend

That is totally wrong. Absolute B.S.

Well I went thru the phone chain with Capital One as far as they would let me go. Somebody named “James”. They claimed we were given notice upon closing the account and also that a letter was sent out, but they couldn’t find anyone that took the call to close the account tho said it was recorded? Then said we must have done it online. We moved so probably missed the letter.

Anyway there is no way to redeem the money we earned.

Buyer beware, REI and Capital One can take your money if you aren’t careful.

The REI card used to be issued by US Bank (iirc). At some point in the last couple of years, REI switched to Capital One. I was not paying attention and never activated the Cap 1 card that I guess they sent to me. Then I made a modest REI purchase and just clicked through checkout as normal, not noticing that REI was using a new C1 card they had on file. A few months later I get a late fee notice from C1. I’m like, “WTF? I don’t have a C1 card!” After figuring out what had happened and a few rounds with REI and C1 customer service, I got the late fee taken off, paid the bill, and have not used the C1 card since (and never will).

This kind of sleaze is not by accident. They have an entire floor of Harvard MBAs estimating the number of people who will just pay the fee and move on vs the monetary value of call center time dealing with customers fighting these shenanigans. I have all my credit reports fully locked, so I cannot even understand the means or legality of REI and C1 taking out a new card in my name when I never authorized such action, not to mention they were obviously unable to run a credit check on me.

I’m not impressed.

When C1 took over the Walmart card I had, it was a disaster.  When that card was Wally, I ONLY used it to purchase fuel as you used to get an automatic cents off.  Which Wally did away with, they moved it to a discount on the bill.  Then they sold it to C1.  We got the new card and activated it and cut up the old Wally card.  I set up an online C1 access and within a few days there was over $1000 charged!  Not mine.  No fuel.  I then called them and they gave me the runaround.  I cut up the card as they instructed and they sent a new one.  I got the new one and used it once and there were new charges again.  I called.  I was THEN informed that the “Chip” was used on the first $1000 and since I ADMITTED I had the card, it was MY responsibility.  It went on for months.  Our USAA Bank told me that many companies don’t shut off the automatic “three failed chip reads and we enable the swipe to process”, which is how the cloned cards worked.  I filed a police report in the small Texas town around 50 miles from here where all the charges were done.  I called C1 to give them the PD report number and was told “We don’t do that”.   WHAT!?!?!  I told them I was retired and they could just come after me.  I also told them they are a CREDIT card company and charge that 4 percent for INSURANCE against fraud.  The police contacted me a few months later and had arrested the long term criminal that was doing it.  They had video of the person using the SWIPE and not the chip, they had video of attemps at the chip.

I still have the REI C1 card but have thought to never “have one in your wallet”.  And I have a long-time friend who works for them!

I held my breath when REI became C1.  So far it’s been OK.  I didn’t know about losing rewards but I do remember that I was told that when I informed C1 they could stick their card, the Wally replacement, and cancel the account.

I understand that your credit card rewards disappear when you cancel a card, but what about the part of the dividend due to your REI purchases? Or maybe you didn’t have any REI purchases?

I got all the notices and activated the C1 card. What I didn’t catch was, no more actual dividend. The 1 1/2% is useful only for more REI purchases. I used to  request a check each year, but when I searched for the information, found the small type. No more actual money. I’m currently researching for a better rewards card. And yes as one poster suggested, if you close an account, you likely lose any rewards. I guess it’s not considered a dividend card anymore.

Kelly