Walmart is suing to terminate their Capital One credit card agreement.
- The lawsuit says Capital One breached some of the terms of the deal for taking care of customers.
Walmart alleged that Capital One didn’t provide the customer service it was obligated to offer, such as replacing lost cards promptly. It also alleged that Capital One didn’t promptly post some transactions and payments to cardholders’ accounts.
- Capital One says they cured the breaches, consistent with the contract, and this is an excuse to squeeze them for more money.
Walmart’s lawsuit “is an attempt to renegotiate the economic terms of the partnership it agreed to just a few years ago, or end the deal early.”
Co-brand credit card agreements are thick documents that don’t just include language around economic terms. The bank is borrowing the partner’s brand, in order to access their customers, and so there’s language around things like how long it takes customer service to answer the phone.
It’s unusual for a dispute to make it to the courts, where one co-brand partner files a lawsuit against another. While United’s frustrations over having agreed to lower compensation with Chase than rivals were getting spilled into the media in June 2019 United found a lever to renegotiate a longer agreement for more money.
The Capital One – Walmart deal is still relatively new. Word leaked that Walmart was considering dropping Synchrony bank, its partner of 20 years, back in summer 2018. The Capital One Walmart card was announced in summer 2019 and went live in September 2019.
A lawsuit to terminate the deal doesn’t mean that it will be terminated. The two parties can settle the suit, presumably with Capital One paying more to continue the relationship. On the other hand, a lawsuit to terminate hangs over the partnership in the meantime making it more difficult to maximize the value of the deal. Investments in the partnership remain in limbo in the meantime, which is bad for both sides.
This might help explain why Walmart gift cards are suddenly gone from the Capital One Shopping redemption options.
I love my Capital One points however it took them forever to really get into the points business. But with the fantastic lounge(s) and points value for travel they are a major contender now. BUT, they have always been tough to deal with. Waive an annual fee, psshhhht. Get customer service, ehhhh, so so. Transactions post very very slowly and statements take forever to get. And pulling from 3 credit bureaus seems like overkill. I can see where they may have irritated the powers that be at Walmart although I find it hard to see how something like this has risen to the level it has. I would be interested in hearing more as to how this issue came to be.
Capital One in its effort to up its game and attract more affluent card members may view Walmart as kind of lowbrow.
Walmart also has the reputation of squeezing every last penny out of its vendors and suppliers. I’m fairly confident Capital One got a weasel deal from Walmart
This credit card bank, Capital One has already worn out their welcome. Their practices are well known for delaying posting payments to pull late fees. That was the main reason I closed an account with them. One tactic was have the mail in address as far away as possible from the customer. Then when received, slow pro the payment into posting on account. WalMart should stand up for ethical violations like these. Sychrony Bank does somewhat same thing. Walmart has grounds to rebuke the association easily.
If they end the 5% Cashback from shopping online it’s time to lock another Cap 1 card
Capital One does delay payments and then charge late fees. When you call customer service, you feel as if you are speaking with a “Rent a Customer Service Rep.”
As soon as Walmart changed to capital one, I closed my account. Sams still used Sychrony so I have a MC with sams and use it at Walmart
Wow, well I just have Capital One for my Business Credit card and a Capital One Checking Account not tied with Walmart and they have been Fantastic! I love Capital One Not Walmart!
The walmart capital one screwed me I was making payment in store and on app and said I was still behind and just shut off my card now I owe like 800.00 when I never missed a payment and now I’m screwed they took my payments on app it took out my bank account then would send me a late payment statement so I’d go in store make another payment being charged twice as much h plus late fees and Noone will help me I’m. Single mother who just lost her job its so not right
Having to read and process Walmart suing another company for poor customer service is extremely ironic after decades long battles of Walmart providing no semblance of customer service to customers either purchasing or returning goods to their local Walmart. The expectations of not waiting for an extended period of time for a simple transaction to be completed has always seemed fair and reasonable and now appears that Walmart is suing another company for the one thing they themselves could never achieve in the customer service department.
Capital One is trash.
I use Capital One, I actually have three cards with them including the Walmart credit card. I have no issues with my payments being posted, heck with my Walmart card almost all my payments are posted immediately and credits for returns happen in a very timely manner.
My other two Capital One credit cards I still have pretty darn good luck with. One of them though generally takes two to three days to post a payment well the other one is immediate. Points seated into be easily redeemed I’ve had no issues in regards to that. I believe Walmart is just trying to strong arm it’s partners as they do everybody else and I don’t know how they can complain about customer service since they’re one of the worst in the business especially compared to McDonald’s I’d rather go to McDonald’s for customer service and they don’t have any.
I canceled .y walmart when they went to capital one. I have a capital one account never any problem. Now Kohls informed me they are changing to capital one and I hate to close it , I love both cards but not together.