Consumer complaint received 2021-11-12
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: MI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Privacy issues

Complaint:
Comenity Bank - issuer of the XXXX Visa Credit Card - knowingly and deliberately allowed my card to be potentially stolen, and refused to void the potentially stolen number and issue me a new number. Comenity Bank either attempted to aid and abet identity theft, or at least they made no effort to mitigate a known, potential case of identity theft. 

During the month of XX/XX/2021, I tried to use my XXXX Visa card but the transaction was declined. When I called to inquire why, I discovered that my current card was void, and that Comenity Bank had sent me a new card with a new number. The new card had been issued when the XXXX XXXX was transitioned from XXXX XXXX to Comenity. Supposedly, the new card had been sent to me many months previously, but I had never received it. Thus, the account number on my card no longer matched the active account number. 

I informed Comenity Bank XXXX XXXX Visa customer service that I had never received the new card, and that therefore, that card should be considered lost or stolen. It is possible that someone had stolen the card while it was in transit in the mail. 

Therefore, I asked customer service to please void the active account number ( i.e. the number on the card that was sent but never received ) and send me a new one. 

Customer service paused for a few moments and then replied, " I am sorry, but the request has been denied. Please watch your mail for a letter you will be receiving in 8 to 10 business days explaining why. '' So I waited. When I received the letter, it said that my identity could not be verified. 

Therefore, I tried again. I called customer service again and reiterated the problem, namely that my card was lost or stolen, and that I could become a victim of identity theft if the active account number was not voided. Once again, customer service paused for a few moments and then replied, " I am sorry, but the request has been denied. Please watch your mail for a letter you will be receiving in 8 to 10 business days explaining why. '' When I received this letter, it said the same thing as before ; my identity could not be verified, and therefore, I could not be issued a new card. 

I tried a few more times, but the same thing kept happening. 

It became apparent to me that Comenity Bank was either trying to encourage identity theft, or at least, they were making no attempt to discourage it. They knew that my card had been lost or stolen, and they knew that someone might be able to use my card to make purchases in my name, but they refused to do anything about this. 

I still have no idea what they meant when they said that my identity could not be verified. Every time I called, they asked me for identifying information such as my Social Security number, etc. ( They also asked me my account number, but I told them that I didn't know my account number, since I had never received a card with the new number. ) I answered every question they asked me. And when I asked for a new card to be issued, they merely paused for a moment before replying that the request was denied ; they never said, " Oh, before we can process that request, we must ask you the following questions... '' Finally, I realized I had no choice but to close the account. So I called and asked for the account to be closed. Within moments, the customer service representative replied that my request was accepted and that the account was closed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation