Consumer complaint received 2022-08-17
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: MA
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 the top of our XX/XX/XXXX statement it showed this : New balance : {$2800.00} Minimum payment due : {$30.00} Save on Interest Payment : {$1900.00} Payment due date : XX/XX/XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX we paid {$1900.00}. 

On the XX/XX/XXXX statement, we had {$34.00} interest charged. We called Comenity and they said we should have paid {$1900.00} + {$30.00} to avoid interest charges. They gave us a {$10.00} finance charge reversal ( credit ) but could not reverse the interest charges. I escalated to see if a manager could reverse the full {$34.00}, and she could not. 

I then asked if this would result in future fees, and if we would have interest charges on our XXXX statement. She told me directly, " no, not if you pay your next bill in full. '' She also said everything was " clearly spelled out in the small print below the itemized purchases, on page 2, '' but I was never able to find anything indicating how the " Save on Interest Payment '' was supposed to work. She also could not find it when pressed, or any other consumer-facing documentation that I could see for myself. She agreed the documentation " needed work '' but dismissed our case as an avoidable mistake on our part. 

Moving forward, the XX/XX/XXXX statement showed our Balance as {$3100.00} due on XX/XX/XXXX. So on XX/XX/XXXX we paid {$3200.00}. 

The XX/XX/XXXX statement included interest charges of {$90.00}. I called Comenity and ( after being on hold for over an hour ) they explained that it takes 2 consecutive months of paying in full to avoid further interest charges. I asked to see this in writing, and AGAIN they could not find it anywhere. The customer service rep had to make an internal call ( on hold again ) to make sure that was true because she could not find it written anywhere, either. 

I asked for the call to be escalated, and after being on hold for several minutes, they hung up on me ( whether intentionally or unintentionally, I do not know ). 

So, we have had to pay two interest charges -- both occurring for reasons that are not documented where Comenity customer service can point to, and certainly not in the billing statement where they ought to be. I call that deception, or at least negligence ; but if negligence, I would argue they should have been willing to reverse our charges and fix the issues rather than anger a customer who will move on as soon as possible. 

We've never had any problems like this with any other credit card services, and our credit scores are both very high. We have the funds to handle the full balance every month, so that was not the problem. We only got this card for the rewards and gas discounts at a regional store. 

The unclear concept of the " save on interest payment '' feature appears to be a honeypot for Comenity to make at least 2 months ' worth of interest from good customers who just want to pay their monthly bill. Do they really think they're the only credit card service in town?

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief