Consumer complaint received 2020-05-27
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Unexpected increase in interest rate

Complaint:
I opened The Iddeal Card to pay for an engagement ring at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and received a promotional offer for 12 months at no interest for the {$6500.00} balance. I was prepared to pay off the balance as soon as possible and made monthly payments significantly over the {$35.00} min balance but in the event I could not I was told that 29 % interest would start after the 12 months are up. 29 % is crazy high but I took the card knowing that I will be able to pay the card off in the time allowed and each month I was on track with paying off the card with just {$1000.00} due in XXXX of XXXX. All payments were made using the online mobile platform and. I did run into several issues when making a payment online with the website glitching and not processing my payments. In XXXX I made what I thought was my last payment but the next time I checked the online portal I noticed the payment did not process. I called for assistance and was told to reach out to the billing resolution unit in writing. I wrote an email and snail mail letter and patiently waited for a response. When no response came in the mail or email I made a payment in XXXX of XXXX to make sure my account stayed current and I was not charged additional fees. I followed up many times with customer service and each time I spent more than an hour on the phone with no results. The response was always that I need to wait for the dispute department to reach out via snail mail for next steps. Again I made a payment in XXXX of XXXX to make sure no additional fees were applied. At this point I was not sure if the original payment I made would post but I paid the balance off with additional payments thinking that if any over payments are made I would be able to fix the issue with the billing resolution team. At this point the purchase I made was paid off but the credit card company applied {$1000.00} and {$1000.00} in interest fees. I have no idea what these fees are for, I did not agree nor was this explained to me. When I opened the card I was told that interest would start being applied after the promotional 12 months were up not that I would be charged over 1k in interest at once. I would have never agreed. Customer service was absolutely no help each time I called demanding a resolution and to this day I have not heard back to my written request for assistance. I jumped through all the hoops and followed the resolution procedures in place and now it just feels like I'm being robbed. Even after telling customer service I did not get a response back to my dispute they say and do nothing. It's absolutely ridicules how I have been treated as a customer and no other credit card has this kind of service. This is fraud and they should not be allowed to do business. I continued to make monthly payments so that this does not affect my credit. Also, I needed to pay off this balance to get a mortgage but it's not fair that this scam is taking my money each month and have no integrity or decency to speak to me regarding my claim.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation