Consumer complaint received 2020-10-05
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
Hello, I have a matter concerning deceptive practices that I would like your help with. 

In XXXX of XXXX, I called my existing credit card company and requested to close an account I had with them. The rep that I spoke to said that I would need to speak to a manager to close my account, so after spending 10 minutes with her, going on about why she felt I should not close my account, she transferred me to her manager.

This person tried multiple routes to convince me NOT to close my account. I was very set on closing my account since I was streamlining my finances, and wasn't using this account anymore. The manager explained that since I had had the card for a while, closing the account would 'destroy ' my credit history, and that if I kept it open, he would make a note that I didn't intend to use the account, and flag it if there was ANY activity. He assured me there were no fees, and no downside to keeping it open.

The point he raised around my credit seemed like a good one, and since he said there was 'no downside ', I decided to keep it open. I made sure any billing that was linked to that account was stopped, fully paid down my existing balance of about {$700.00} dollars, destroyed my card, and thought I was covered.

Then, last week, I got a notice from a credit monitoring service I use, saying my credit had dropped over 90 points bc I had a bill in collection, and it was with this credit card. I immediately thought this must be some kind of fraud, so I called the credit card company. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called, and a rep there, XXXX, told me that I was past due on my account bc I had an unpaid annual fee. He said that since I hadn't had any charges on the account, but still had an open account, they had assessed a fee to keep the account open. 

I explained the situation from a year back, how the rep told me there was 'no downside ' to keeping the account open and didn't disclose that there was any annual fee. I also explained that no one from the company had tried to contact me - not by mail, email, or phone - despite having all my contact information. I had not even been contacted by collections, but had to call in myself to see what was going on. 

XXXX told me that he couldn't help me, but had submitted my complaint to a manager and I'd hear back within 2 business days with a path to resolving this - 5 business days later, and I still haven't heard anything back from this company. 

When I tried to close this account in XX/XX/XXXX, the company 's rep deceived me in an attempt to get to me to not close my account. The company never contacted me about the past due annual fee to let me resolve this before it went into collections and tanked my credit, and I have attempted to resolve it with them, but no one has responded to my issue. 

Please help me resolve this issue. I would like to purchase a home soon, and losing 90 points on my credit is a very serious situation for me. 

Thank you for your help.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation