Consumer complaint received 2019-10-17
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
Comenity, the credit card issuer of XXXX MasterCard,  assessed late fee charge to my account, however I believe it was done without merit. I contacted the Comenity via email and phone contesting that late fee, but bank insisted I still owe the late fee, so I decided to file a complaint against the card issuer practices of assessing the late fees. 

The facts : 1. Billing statement for XX/XX/XXXX displayed balance of {$170.00} with payment due date XX/XX/XXXX. That particular billing statement displayed a Late Fee Warning : If we do not RECEIVE your minimum payment by XX/XX/XXXX you may have to pay up to a {$39.00} late fee. Via on line cervices of my bank, on XX/XX/XXXX I created bill payment for {$170.00}, to be delivered on XX/XX/XXXX, one day before due date.Based on my bank 's bill payment history details, my bank processed my order on XX/XX/XXXX and issued a check for {$170.00}. My Bank mailed the check on XX/XX/XXXX and DELIVERED it to Comenity on XX/XX/XXXX, one day before due date. 

2. Next Billing statement for XX/XX/XXXX displayed {$32.00} as a total fees charged ( {$30.00} late fee plus {$2.00} interest charges on purchases ). That statement displays the following : Transaction Date : XX/XX/XXXX Payment - Thank You, - {$170.00}. XXXX. I was surprised to see the late fee charges because, based on my Bank history, I paid balance of {$170.00} on time, one day before the due date ( XX/XX/XXXX ). 

3. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, via on line Comentity services, I sent email asking to credit {$32.00} to my account. I included the copy of the history of that particular payment from my Bank, proving that my bank DELIVERED the check on time. Within 48 hours I got information that I still owe {$32.00} late fee, because, Comenity POSTED the payment on XX/XX/XXXX. 

4. On XXXX XXXX I followed up and spoke with Comenity Representative, trying to resolve, what I felt, was the issue of unlawful assessment of late fee. This Representative admitted that Comenity POSTED my payment of {$170.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. However, was not able to prove when the payment was RECEIVED. Representative stated that, based on the Comenity standards, POSTING date equals RECEIVING date. I contested that on the ground, that the paper billing statement does not provide the definition of receiving, and, or posting dates. Actually, the term " posting '' is not mentioned at all in the Late payment warning statement. 

5. I paid the {$32.00} late fee charges on XX/XX/XXXX to avoid additional late fee charges. However, I still feel that Comenity practices are very deceitful. I sent Comenity profs from my bank that payment was DELIVERED on time ( one day before the due date ), but still was faced with the late fee/interest charges. 
It appears to me that Comenity did not POSTED my payment on time, after RECEIVING the check on time, on XX/XX/XXXX. That is the reason I feel the late fee assessment is not justified. 

6. I will attach the correspondence I exchanged with Comenity in step 3.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation