ASA Adjudication on Capital One Bank (Europe) plc

Ad

A banner ad showed the Capital One logo at the top, above on-screen text that stated "You don't need to jump through hoops to get a credit card”, then “Last year we accepted a customer every minute … From £100 to £2,500 … Easy to apply” and then, below a picture of the Capital One card, “Click to Apply … 1 minute response guarantee".

Issue

The complainant objected that the ad was misleading because he was expecting a response within the time guaranteed in the ad, which would confirm whether his application had been accepted or rejected.  However, when he clicked through and entered his details, he received an on screen message that said he would have a response to his application in seven days.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Capital One Bank Europe plc (Capital One) said they would not repeat the claim "Last year we accepted a customer every minute".  However, they stated the claim "1 minute response guarantee" was central to their messaging plan and did not believe it was misleading.  They said that "response" did not mean "decision" and pointed out that all applicants received a response within one minute.  They said the response could be an immediate lending decision, but an immediate decision was not always possible, because the applicant might have provided insufficient information.  They said that in those cases the applicant received an auto-response notifying them that their application was under consideration and they would subsequently be informed, or asked to provide supplementary information.  They said they had used the claim for five years and had had no previous complaints, and felt most UK consumers would not be confused by the claim.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that some applicants received a lending decision within one minute, but that more applicants than not were shown an on screen holding message.  We considered the combined use of the claims "Last year we accepted a customer every minute" and "1 minute response guarantee" was likely to lead applicants to understand they would receive a lending decision, accepting or rejecting their application, within 60 seconds.

Because we considered that applicants were likely to expect a lending decision within one minute, and because the majority of applicants did not receive a lending decision within that time, we concluded the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)