Consumer complaint received 2023-06-04
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Card opened as result of identity theft or fraud

Complaint:
To whom it might concern, The incident happened at XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2023, at the XXXX Banana Republic ( owned by XXXX XXXX ) store. I was checking out, and the manager, whose name was XXXX, asked me if I wanted to join the membership so I could get a discount on my order. I said yes because I thought the discount was good for joining the membership. But I did not know that he was actually applying for a credit card on my behalf. He used the word " store card '' and " membership '' interchangeably and no ordinary reasonable person could have thought that it was actually a credit card I was applying for. More importantly, he never even mentioned the word " credit card. '' I answered some questions, including my current address, my phone number, my annual income, and my social security number. The requirement of annual income and social security number were suspicious to me but it was never mentioned that I was actually applying for a credit card, neither orally by the manager nor in writing on the screen where I answered all the questions. 

When I was ready to swipe my own card to make the purchase, I was told that the items were already paid for. I got really confused and it was then did I realize that the manager applied for a credit on my behalf, and the items were paid by that new credit card. I immediately made the objection to him that I never agreed, neither orally nor in writing, to apply for a credit card. And he never explained to me that I was actually applying for a credit card. He just told me that he was sorry and that I could close the card on Monday. I made it clear to him that I never agreed to apply for a credit card, so there was never a contract for this credit card because of the lack of my consent. But the manager clearly does not have any clue on how a contract works, I see no point in talking to him further on this, so I told him that I did not want the items anymore, and he returned the items. 

I feel like I was defrauded by this manager and the Banana Republic to apply for a Banana Republic credit card without my consent, and this application history is going to negatively affect my credit report and my credit score in the future. 

For the record, to determine if there was a contract made for the credit card, the legal standard applicable here is whether an objective reasonable person would have thought that it was a credit card, not a membership, that he is applying for under similar circumstances. The answer is clearly NO. The manager did not, orally or in writing let me know that I was applying for a credit card, and I did not orally or in writing consent to the application of a credit card. So no objective reasonable person would have thought that he was applying for a credit card, therefore there is never a contract. 

I know about the legal standard because I am a XXXX XXXX who goes to an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and I have an even better understanding of how a contract works and how credit card applications work because XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. And if I could not even reasonably think that I was going into a contract for a credit card application, then with all due respect, there is no way that an ordinary reasonable person could have thought that it is actually a credit card contract they are going into. My point and conclusion here is, if this company and specifically this store is not getting punished for this, they might even defraud more people into getting credit cards they do not even consent to.

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