Unfair business practice is nothing new. Businesses of all sorts try to gain that extra edge by making gynormous charges or, in the case of credit card companies, charging debilitating amounts of interest.

Capital One, however, has done something even MORE worthy of our disgust for credit card companies. Recently, my sister was called and pitched about a credit card and she thought it was reasonable enough, so she applied over the phone for the card.

Some time later, the card arrived and she did not use it, nor did she activate it. It seemed as if she had decided not to use it. In most normal cases, I would expect a new credit card that was not activated to possibly not have gotten to its owner, maybe the person who go it decided not to use it? Who knows, but no activity usually means the account dies.

Close to two weeks after getting her card, my sister gets her first statement – on the statement is a $59.00 membership fee! Yes, that’s right, just for applying to receive a Capital One card over the phone your stuck with a $59.00 membership fee! I imagine they could easily suck my 76 year old Grama into that kind of scam! $59.00 may not seem like much to some, but to someone on a fixed income that is likely half their monthly grocery money!

My sister eventually called and they seemed to have relented on the initial membership fee – but she’ll believe it when she sees it on paper. I thought private ATM fees were bad, this is despicable!