Consumer complaint received 2023-08-07
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: OR
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022 I sent Comenity a payment of {$99.00} towards my XXXX XXXX via my bill payment service. Comenity never cashed the check nor credited it to my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I noticed this and called Comenity to notify them that they had lost my payment, see if I should send a replacement payment, and ask for the late fee to be removed. 

The Comenity representative that I spoke to said that I should resend the payment. When I expressed concern about the payment arriving in time, Comenity stated that they would put a note in my account that a replacement was being sent and I would not be charged a late fee. 

When I asked for the late fee to be removed, the representative said they were unable to do so until Comenity had done an investigation. I asked about late fees for that and Comenity stated that I would not be charged late fees during the investigation. 
XX/XX/XXXX, my XXXX XXXX service mailed the replacement payment. I also stop using the card until I can decide whether or not to close it. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I realize Comenity has never contacted me about their investigation. I call to find the status of the investigation to find that Comenity has closed the investigation without making any attempt to communicate with me, while stacking multiple late fees despite explicitly stating to me they would not do so. Comenity refuses to tell me what they were investigating, why they never contacted me and also refuses to remove the late fees. 

After repeated protests Comenity tells me to send documentation of the payment through their web portal. I do so. Following this Comenity spends weeks refusing to answer questions, making factual errors, and requesting that I send additional account information even though I am using Comenitys secure messaging center. I am also told to contact various other departments by phone, who also refuse to help. 

This continues until I receive mail stating my account was closed. When I ask Comenity why my account is closed, Comenity removes my access to the messaging system and my account records. 

This brings us to the present day. 


Comenity flaws that are not specifically relevant to this complaint : Comenity takes forever to process payments. Of the last five payments I sent, Comenity took 12 days, 19 days, 11 days, 10 days, and 13 days to credit my account. Other physical checks sent by my bill payment service are being cashed within 4 days of mailing. 

Comenity pushing customers to use a web portal and then shutting off access seems like an intentional attempt to deprive customers of their own account information.

Comenity was sending a monthly email notification of statement availability but stopped for no apparent reason in XX/XX/2022. 

Comenity sent a document stating that my account had been closed at my request. I did not at any time request my account be closed. When I sent a message via Comenitys secure messaging center asking why my account had been closed, Comenity made a reply, triggering a notification, and then turned off my access to so I am unable to read the message.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation