Consumer complaint received 2022-10-19
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: You never received your bill or did not know a payment was due

Complaint:
On or around XX/XX/2021 I entered into a repayment agreement with Barclay 's US for my JetBlue Mastercard outstanding balance. The repayment agreement included a fixed payment of {$70.00} per month at a 5.9 % interest rate until the principle balance was paid. I agreed to the rate and payment terms and established 'autopay ' with Barclays XXXX 

On or around XX/XX/2021 I contacted Barclays US because of credit misreporting - I discovered that Barclay 's was reporting this account as charged off and in collection status/unpaid. After two weeks of back and forth with Barclay 's, they submitted an updated report to the credit bureaus showing that this was an installment loan and payments were up to date. There were no missed payments and I was current on the installment loan as agreed. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Barclay 's after discovering that the payment for this credit card was not automatically drafting from my checking account. I was told that due to a 'system upgrade ' all auto-payment information was lost and needed to be set up again. I never received notice of any system upgrades, that I needed to reestablish autopay, or that I had missed any payments. I was told that my information would be referred to a supervisor who would contact me. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I was contacted by a supervisor. This supervisor told me that while there was a system upgrade, my payments hadn't been drafting because Barclay 's 'AUTOPAY ' is really a setup of 12 'SCHEDULED TRANSFERS, ' and it is up to the consumer to re-schedule 12 payments each year. Further, I was told that I was now ineligible for the hardship repayment loan I had agreed to, and I lost the low interest rate due to my non-payment of the loan as agreed. I have been charged late fees and this account has once again been reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus. 

I believe this is a violation of the fair debt collection practices act as well as a violation of the fair credit reporting act, and a violation of the unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices act. This creditor establishes a hardship repayment loan for a term of 60 months at a low interest rate, then schedules 12 payments, and expects the consumer to notice and/or reschedule payments after 12 months. Once the consumer misses a payment because they thought their loan was set up for automatic payments, they default on the installment loan, lose the promotional interest rate, incur fees, and are negatively reported to the credit bureaus for an unpaid loan balance. Further, each creditor that I have established a repayment agreement like this with has established autopay and I have not missed any payments since establishing the agreements because in all other cases auto payments from a checking account have been REQUIRED as part of the loan repayment agreement. This creditor is using a bait and switch tactic whereby they KNOW the consumer will default because they make the consumer THINK their repayment agreement payments are drafting from their account indefinitely until the loan is repaid, however this is not the case with this creditor. I further received no notice of ANYTHING to do with late or missed payments. I have requested the creditor reinstate my installment agreement and defer any missed payments to the end of the loan term. The creditor has refused to do so. I am prepared to file a legal complaint and sue this creditor in court for damages as a result of this matter.

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