Consumer complaint received 2022-04-25
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: PA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
XXXX ; I am being charged late fees for unadjusted late fees, and am expected to pay something I am not responsible for due to misinformation by a XXXX XXXX  representative. 
I have an XXXX XXXX XXXX that I enrolled in during XXXX of XXXX. I have been on time with my payments and generally have a good credit score history. On XX/XX/XXXX, I lost my wallet and with it, lost my ID documents and credit and debit cards. I requested a replacement for my XXXX XXXX XXXX, along with replacements for all my other lost documents, and took one week to closely monitor any transactions on my accounts. My XXXX XXXX XXXX payment is due on the XXXX of each month, but that week between the monitoring of accounts, freezing my bank accounts, and stressing about losing important documents ( including immigration documents ), I did not make my payment on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. I realized on the morning of Monday, XX/XX/XXXX that I was late with my payment and immediately called customer service for my XXXX XXXX XXXX. I made my payment and asked whether I could have the late fees removed since I had been on time with my payments and I was only 1 business day delayed with my payment. The representative I spoke with let me know the full late fee would be credited to my account in my next statement ( XXXX ) and reassured me that I did not have to worry about the situation. I confirmed at various points throughout our conversation that with my payment that day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I did not have to worry about paying any late fees and that the next month statement would reflect that. The representative assured me that this was true : I would not be responsible for paying any of the late fees and my next statement would bring my account current. Basically, all late fees would be fully credited to my account. Throughout the month of XXXX and XXXX I made no further purchases on my XXXX XXXX XXXX, and based on my conversation with the Ultamate Rewards XXXX representative, I understood that I would not be paying any additional fees for my XX/XX/XXXX statement due date. On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX I received an email notification that my payment for XX/XX/XXXX would be {$67.00}. I was immediately alarmed because I had made no purchases at XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX, and thought this amount might have been unapproved transactions from the physical XXXX XXXX XXXX I lost in my wallet in XXXX. I logged onto my XXXX XXXX XXXX account and saw that this statement amount actually came from late fees. The late fees ( {$32.00} ) were not removed from my payment in XXXX, as the XXXX Representative said that they would, and it showed up as a transaction for my XXXX statement. Because I had not made a payment for my XXXX XXXX  XXXX in XXXX, late fees were added to my XXXX statement, bringing the total statement balance to {$67.00}. When I realized this, I immediately called customer service for my XXXX XXXX XXXX. That same day, Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke to XXXX in customer service. I explained my situation and she said she could not credit me for the XXXX statement late fees but she would credit the late fees for my XXXX statement. She said I could place a dispute so that they could review the phone call from XX/XX/XXXX and if the representative did provide me the wrong information ( claiming to remove all late fees and that I was not responsible for paying them ) then XXXX XXXX  would credit the XXXX late fees as well. I told her I agreed to go ahead with the dispute and was confident the truth would be in my favor. She said a representative would get back in touch with me to let me know the outcome, and I requested that I also get a copy of the phone call back in XXXX to confirm that the credit card company was doing its due diligence to investigate my dispute. On Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a phone call from XXXX XXXX  and I believed it was in regards to my dispute claim. The representative, XXXX, was calling to collect my payment for my XXXX statement. I explained the situation and she connected me to XXXX. I explained the situation again, and expressed my disappointment with this situation. I let her know I should not be made financially responsible for a representative 's misinformation about late fees, and that I would not be making the payment for XXXX because I was not responsible for that statement balance since 1. ) I had not made a purchase since XXXX, XXXX. ) I did my part to communicate with my bank about my initial delayed payment in XXXX, and 3. ) I had been informed by the XXXX XXXX  representative in XXXX that I was not responsible for paying any late fees from that point forward. XXXX explained that the records on my account showed that my dispute had been resolved and that the phone call in XXXX was not found and so could not be reviewed, therefore I was responsible for paying my XXXX statement balance. This is another issue, it wasn't until I was connected to XXXX that I was informed that there had been a resolution to my dispute, and had I not, would there have been even more charges to my account due to XXXX XXXX  's miscommunication? I once again explained to XXXX my exasperation with this situation and asked to be connected with someone higher up, because there was no way I should be penalized for someone else 's mistake. I was connected to XXXX, a Senior Account Specialist, who said there was nothing else to do and that XXXX XXXX  would not credit this late fee, regardless of what the XXXX XXXX  representative said during my XXXX call. I am extremely disappointed with the lack of understanding, communication, and overall professionalism from XXXX XXXX. As I repeatedly stated during my various calls with XXXX XXXX  representatives, {$67.00} may not be much money to some people, and it might not even make a dent in this credit card company 's losses, but it is a significant amount for me and I refuse to pay for something that seems quite honestly like a credit card company scam : charging late fees on top of late fees after dishonest statements from a XXXX XXXX  representative. The last thing I want is to have my credit score ( which I have so carefully built over the past 5 or 6 years ) negatively affected after this situation and on top of that, to have to pay something I don't believe I am responsible to have been charged in the first place. Credit card companies should be held to the same standards of accuracy and honesty as credit card clients, and should be held responsible for misinforming their clients.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief