Consumer complaint received 2020-08-24
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: AZ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
InXX/XX/XXXX we contacted them in regards to Covid as we were not sure what our financial situation would be. The gentlemen told me to call back after we were late. I called them back the day after our payment was due. 
I was " told '' that we would be put on a COVID Hardship program. They told us that that we would still accrue interest and that we would have to sign up for automatic payments. We were also told that the late fee that we were charged would be removed since we were entering into this program. 
We were enrolled in auto pay and I hadn't gone on our account since this started. Then last week I received a text letting me know that our payment was late. As we were curious on why or how this could happen because we were on auto pay ; I logged in to our account and found even more interesting information which made us extremely angry. 
I contacted their customer service line and was transferred to a department that could help me. This gentlemen told me that they shouldn't have put me on this program and that this was not correct. We were only credited {$15.00} for the first month that they told us to be late for and told us they would credit that late fee. Then we had been charged a late fee for each and every month from that point forward until now. I asked for them to explain this to me as they were the ones withdrawing our money from our account before the due date. I was told it was because we were paying less than the minimum amount. This is also incorrect. Our minimum payment is {$120.00} and we were paying {$130.00}. We would have been better to have just been late a month while we figured things out with being furloughed due to Covid. This man said that the person helping us should have told us ; which they did not. He said he would transfer me to another department to get me on the correct plan. 
I was transferred and right away the man on the other end said, " I can't help you, you will have to have your husband call back. '' I told him that my husband had already called in and had already told them they could speak with me and that I had full authority for decisions on this account. He said, nope, it doesn't affect your credit and I can't speak with you. I said, yes it does it appears on my credit as well. He continued to argue with me and told me that I was only frustrated because I didn't know the law. I laughed and told him he was rude. He said no I was just frustrated and he wasn't rude. 
In the end, this man was rude. Little does he know, I most likely know more about law than he does, I am also a double XXXX XXXX XXXX holder and I have enough knowledge to have made him feel incompetent but I felt that this was a position of power for him and he was trying to hold that over me. 
I refuse to deal with people that think and act like a bully over a telephone line. 
In the end I think this practice is unethical. I think that if someone is trying to get help and needs help and the company has programs set up for such ; that they should help them and work with them. Especially during these uncertain times. We weren't in this position because of anything that was our fault.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief