Consumer complaint received 2018-08-14
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I applied online for an XXXX reward credit card XX/XX/XXXX, which XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX services. I was notified immediately online that the application was accepted and I should expect my credit card soon. The card arrived XX/XX/XXXX, I activated it but could not make a purchase. I called customer service and was informed that on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX  XXXX closed the account and the reason was ; " Number of recent inquiries on your credit report. '' The credit was based on a report from XXXX which at the time of my request for credit, I had a credit score of XXXX, which is considered exceptional. After applying for credit with XXXX XXXX and the subsequent closure of the account, my score dropped to XXXX. I can only attribute the denial of credit by XXXX as the cause of the drop in my credit score. 

I have no outstanding bills, all my credit cards accounts are fully paid every month and have been accidentally late maybe 2 or 3 times in the last 5 years because of errors in initial auto-payment setup and posting by credit card companies XXXX XXXX based their initial credit approval on credit reports they obtained XX/XX/XXXX. Why deny the credit 7 days later? 
XXXX  did't tell me why the terms of the account were made less favorable 7 days later even though my credit score still remained excellent. 

XXXX XXXX could have lowered my credit limit and still retained a new excellent XXXX credit score customer, instead they chose to grant credit for 7 days then closed thre account and denied me credit altogether! 

I communicated with XXXX by web interface using a secure message center and sent a PDF letter of reconsideration to XXXX XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX. I received the following answer : " We've received your information and it's currently being reviewed. For future disputes if you would like to be protected under the Fair Credit Billing Act your dispute would need to be in writing. Please refer to the back of your statement for additional information. Please be assured that we will work diligently to resolve your issue. Upon completion of our investigation, we will notify you of our findings. While we investigate whether or not there has been an error, we will not try to collect the amount in question or report you as delinquent on that amount. We appreciate your patience while we are conducting our investigation. '' The answer mentions the Fair Credit Billing Act, but the issue has noting to do with billing!

The answer mentions that a dispute would need to be in writing. I disputed nothing having to do with billing and the message had an attached PDF file. 
The answer mentions that the information is being reviewed, but nothing about how long the review process would take. 
Of course during their investigation they will not try to collect the amount or report a delinquency. There was no transaction dispute and nothing to collect or report. 
The email reply lacked the " human '' touch and appears as if it was a " canned '' reply to any first contact email. 
The next secure message on XX/XX/XXXX informed me that the dispute was closed and to follow the directions in their first notice. 

On a recorded line I spoke to a Bank Card supervisor named XXXX XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX where XXXX provided the following mailing address for my correspondence : XXXX XXXX XXXX  Credit Bureau Disputes XXXX XXXX XXXX, OH XXXX I mailed the same PDF file reconsideration letter to XXXX   to the above XX/XX/XXXX. 

The final chain of message from XXXX from the secure message center arrived XX/XX/XXXX acknowledging receipt of my ODF file for reconsideration. 

I received the same notices by US mail about the XX/XX/XXXX. One of the notices states that they have my claim and are " currently researching it '', then it request that I allow 90 days to complete the investigation. 
What could possibly take 90 days to investigate. The information is all online, quickly accessible and I still have an excellent credit score of XXXX from XXXX XXXX. So what's there to investigate? 

During my lifetime, of all the credit card companies I have ever applied for credit, there is never been another company that has denied me credit after accessing my credit reports, except for XXXX   XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX  XXXX XXXX  also closed one of their prior account somewhere late XXXX or early XXXX and now again in mid XXXX. 

I had an excellent credit score of XXXX as of XX/XX/XXXX. I believe, that because I am from a certain ethnic diversity that XXXX XXXX XXXX does not welcome, after XXXX investigated the information they received from my credit reports, I was discriminated and prejudiced and was denied any and all credit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation