Consumer complaint received 2023-10-19
Company: ALLIANT CREDIT UNION
State: DC
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
Note : This is a joint account held with my wife, XXXX XXXX who knows we are filing a complaint with the CFPB. 

On XX/XX/XXXX an un authorized charge appeared on our card ending in XXXX and because of this, we had to close this account number and have the cc company reissue a new card with an account number of XXXX. 

We had an outstanding balance of authorized charges that were not accruing interest, as we always pay this card in full to avoid interest. 

On XX/XX/XXXX the credit card company moved the outstanding balance from the old account to the new account number. However, they did this as a " BALANCE TRANSFER FOR ACCT ENDING IN XXXX '' The amount due for payment due then showed as {$0.00} -so no amount due. This continued for over a week. 

On the payment due date of XX/XX/XXXX I logged into the account to attempt to make a payment. I selected " Pay Now, '' however, the payment page showed no statement balance and no payment due. The only way I could have done a payment would have been to make an additional payment and then find the paper statement to see the statement balance from the XX/XX/XXXX statement and make that payment, however, since I didn't have that information at hand, and since the account was stating that there was no payment due, we did not make a payment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX there was a charge of {$120.00} for " Interest Charge on Purchases '' there was another charge on XX/XX/XXXX of {$27.00} for " LATE FEE '' On XX/XX/XXXX I noticed these two charges and we called the credit card company on XX/XX/XXXX to talk to them about this and that this wasn't right. I asked that they reverse the late fee and the interest charges and that they ensure that there are no interest charges moving forward due to a late payment. The agent I spoke to agreed that this shouldn't be our fault, and that she could see that we had logged on to the account on XX/XX/XXXX as I stated. She spoke to a manager. After speaking to this agent for more than 20mins, she couldn't tell me the statement balance for XXXX and her manager didn't come on the line and she was told to convey that they couldn't do anything for us until we made a payment. I asked how much was due, and they could only tell me the minimum amount due of {$120.00} that was due on XX/XX/XXXX ( I again asserted that their own online payment portal showed XXXX balance due ). I stated that we had always paid this account in full each month to avoid interest and didn't want to pay the minimum amount due, however, they couldn't tell me the XXXX statement balance. I told them that I would find the amount due from the XXXX statement by going online and pulling the paper statement from my account. 

The agent advised that once I made the payment, I could call back and then I could ask them to reverse the Late Fee as well as the Interest, and that I'm allowed up to three waivers of interest each year. 

However, the problem is, that this isn't my fault. Being told we didn't have to make that monthly payment we made investments with that money and will now have to find other sources for this payment that we were told we didn't have to make in XXXX. 

Additionally, other than the agent stating this " isn't your fault '' they have put the onus on us to fix this, and their solution won't make us whole : 1 ) We will have to suddenly make a payment we were told we didn't have to make.

2 ) We will have to reach back out and ask them to reverse the Late Fee and the interest charge ( and any future interest charges on current purchases ), each time having to ask them for this, taking up our valuable time, and with no guarantee to actually reimburse us for charges incurred or to be incurred.

3 ) We will have to use up our courtesy fee waivers even though these aren't our fault.

4 ) We are afraid that this late payment has been sent to the credit bureaus and will adversely affect our credit rating.

We need your help.

Thank you!

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief