Capital One - No to stealth charges

Capital One has recently introduced a new way of charging interest for cash withdrawals. Under the new scheme, money you pay to settle a certain month's credit card bill won't be used to repay cash withdrawals if you've used your card since receiving the bill in question. Instead, non cash purchases 'take priority'. This is explained in more details on the BBC news website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3881501.stm

As if this practise isn't bad enough, Capital one customers receive NO notification that they have a cash withdrawal outstanding on their account. This effectively means even a small cash withdrawal can quietly accumulate interest at a rate of 20.5\% without the customer knowing it, even when they receive their credit card bill!

The whole scheme is outrageous. For a giant multi-national to use such an exorbitant scheme to fleece their customers of more money is nothing short of shameful. The fact that a lot of Capital One's customers are those on low incomes and with poor credit ratings adds to the stigma and only serves to undermine several of the statements made on Capital One's website:

"Any charges made on an account are clearly displayed on the customers credit card statement."

"We are committed to putting the customer at the heart of everything that we do."

"....the Corporate Reputation Committee, ensures that our products are fair and in the best interests of our customers."

"As a consumer finance provider, we go to great lengths to make sure that we lend responsibly."

Charging customers what is in effect a 'stealth' payment on cash withdrawals in contrary to every one of these statements, and no matter how legal it may be technically, it is immoral, deceptive and entirely unacceptable.

As Capital One customers, and customers of other credit card companies, we are disgusted by the contempt and arrogance Capital One is showing to it's customers. We call for Capital One to immediately cease this new method of calculating interest and issue an apology to all customers who have been adversely affected by it.