Consumer complaint received 2018-07-13
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
During my flight on XX/XX/2018, XXXX XXXX was offering XXXX XXXX   Barclay credit card and I signed up them because it appeared to be a great offer. When I received the card I completed the steps to activate the credit card and I thought that the mileages will be issued automatically. Soon after in one of the promotion emails they sort of offered to reward about 20,000-30,000 miles just for making a {$20.00} purchase at a restaurant and they provided a list of restaurants. I don't eat out a lot, so I just overlooked the offer as a spam and went on with my life. 

At that time what was not clearly indicated was that the credit card as {$95.00} fee accrued upon activation and requires additional activation i.e. eating at a restaurant within a specific period to obtain the total reward of approximately 60,000 miles offered initially during the fight. This was in my view a very deceptive promotion, because they just made it look like the mileages were being offered just for signing up for the card with no strings attached. The only time that I knew that there was an issue is when my credit monitoring service indicated that there was an activity in my account. I immediately made the payment of {$95.00} to close the issue on XX/XX/2018. Then when planning my next trip in XX/XX/2018, I realized that I couldn't use my mileage because XXXX miles were not granted to me because I did not eat at a restaurant ( make a purchase ) to activate. Furthermore, the credit card was not activated ( as they say ) due to security issue. Then I learned that by that they meant I did not set a 4-digit security code and the credit card was suspended because of that soon after I received the card. 

I talked to them at length in XX/XX/2018 ( multiple lengthy calls ) explaining what had happened as outlined above, but they keep transferring me from on department to the other to explain the issue all over again. I have talked to XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and Barclay at length. Finally, I learned that the issue was with Barclay.  Even after asking them to close the credit card because I did not appreciate their misleading promotion, they promised that they'll have someone review the case and see if they can grant me the XXXX miles because of the security hold on their part, which I was not aware of in addition to {$95.00} fee and requirement to purchase to activate card. 

I just received a letter from Barclay stating they are unable to assist with the reward issues. 

In addition to their misleading promotion, they were quick to put damage on my credit score but slow to report resolution. My credit score went from about 850 to XXXX just because of the {$95.00} fee. When I last checked my credit score it also shows that the dept is still open.

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