Consumer complaint received 2020-04-22
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: AZ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
I am writing regarding my XXXX XXXX account and the severe negative financial impact against our family by Comenity Bank. We were under a deferred interest promotion and additionally I am a XXXX and severely impacted by COVID-19. I have several issues with Comenitys communication in relation to the expiration of this promotional period as well as the response to the issues raised and lack of transparency for the benefit of Comenitys financial gain. 
I would like to start with my initial concern that I have NEVER received any mailed communication from Comenity not even the card or the promotion details in written correspondence ( these items were supposedly returned to sender ) but no additional attempts were made to send this to me. After months I did speak to someone at Comenity and explained that I had seen the flag on my account that my address was incorrect but it was actually correct. The agent said that it was due to the fact that Comenity had received returned mail ; it was never explained what was attempted to be sent to me and the agent did not make any indication that they would resend the actual card, disclosures and promotional details. 
In XX/XX/XXXX I received a call that my account was past due ; I explained it was due to the fact that I couldnt do auto-pay because my credit union has multiple share-IDs tied to the same account number and the money was always pulled from non-accruing account. I made the payment over the phone and was asked about my address again and I explained that I never receive anything from Comenity. Up to this point my expectation was that my address was correct and it was correct on the account, but my understanding was that maybe a stop was in place and never removed due to the returned mail at the beginning of the account opening. 
Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX when I logged in to pay the account balance of {$2800.00} and saw that the balance was significantly higher and upon review of my statement I saw promotional period had expired as {$2100.00} of deferred interest was applied on XX/XX/XXXX. I was deeply concerned because I received XXXX communication regarding the expiration of a promotional period. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I called customer service and explained that I was experiencing a loss of all income due to COVID-19 ; we were still electing to make the payment in full for the balance due on our XXXX   XXXX  account. As I explained that I was looking for an extension of 15 days to pay the balance in full and was subject to a loss of income butI was stonewalled with the exhausting repetition of reciting policy. I requested to speak with 3 levels of supervisors and was met with the identical response. I made a payment of {$2800.00} to satisfy the balance. I made a case saying that I NEVER received disclosures, that I had XXXX income and there were potential UDAP violations and I would report my issues to the CFPB to review the practices of promotional expiration notification. I was amazed as all parties I spoke to only defended Comenitys position with the sole explanation that the E-Statement was the source of the promotional expiration details. I was utterly appalled as I made a case explaining that I work for a bank and have seen the CFPB continually question communication methods and stress availability and transparency of details related to charges. I incurred a {$2000.00} charge with no additional attempts to communicate the expiration of my promotional period. I shared that the E-Statement was embedded, emails included payment details but no indication of period expiring, no written communication, calls or texts regarding the expiration either. I attempted to explain that this was highly questionable because Comenity obviously benefitted greatly and I was significantly harmed. The optics and response appear that Comenity deliberately does the minimum to communicate the end of an expiration period for their own benefit. 
Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX and she was the first supervisor to listen and recite policy or use my election of an E-Statement and their inclusion of the expiration within the E-Statement as a defense. As she listened, she shared that Comenity also extends a grace period to pay a balance of 3 days for the expiration of promotional period ; additionally she added that on XX/XX/XXXX Comenity began extending promotional periods up to 90 days. She submitted a request to have my promotional period extended based on the grace period and extension due to financial hardship due to COVID-19. XXXX made no promises because she said it is out of her control if they will approve the extension. 
I am asking that the promotional period be extended by 30 days to avoid the {$2000.00} in deferred interest, balance of account has been paid as of XX/XX/XXXX. The allowance of the 3 day grace period and availability to extend the promotional period due to COVID-19 should be suffice to remove the deferred interest and extend the promotional period so the balance can be paid in full. 

Additionally, I request that Comenity 's practice and tools for communicating promotional expiration across " ALL '' cards be examined for significant negative consumer impact. The details aren't included within the payment emails that are distributed ( include due date, payment amount and balance ), no additional forms of communication are attempted when on e-statements, e-statement is where dates can be expiration dates can be found, e-statement is embedded within account summary, no separate or promotional expiration specific communication was sent outside of normal payment reminder emails, on payment screen there is no indicator of approaching promotional interest expiration. 

Appears that no process for call center to log or escalate consumer violations or regulatory violation complaints. I made a request to escalate and no action was formalized. There was separate occurrences which were initiated by myself.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation