Consumer complaint received 2023-02-07
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: AL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I've been a member of XXXX for decades and have had a XXXX  credit card for decades. In XXXX, XXXX, XXXX changed to Comenity Capital Bank to issue and service their credit cards. I did trust XXXX so I made the move.The first bill came, due XX/XX/XXXX, and I immediately paid my bill through XXXX online, receipt by XX/XX/XXXX. The next bill comes, with late fees of {$25.00} and interest of {$40.00} added. I check my account and see the check cleared XX/XX/XXXX. I spend time to call XXXX and they agree to take the fees off, say the transition has caused the problem. I pay that bill, due XX/XX/XXXX, receipt by XX/XX/XXXX. The next bill comes, {$25.00} late fee charged, {$4000.00} interest charged. I check my account, check cleared XX/XX/XXXX. I again spend my time calling Comenity to complain and have the late fee and interest credited back. Again it's blamed on the transition. I pay that bill due XX/XX/XXXX receipt by XX/XX/XXXX. Next bill comes, late fee {$25.00} charged, interest {$40.00}. I call again to have the fees credited back. They credit back the late fee but not interest. The Comenity employees tell me it's taking weeks ( one said 3weeks for checks to be processed ). I complain if it's taking that long, why are they charging fees automatically? I was told it was the system. This check, receipt to be XX/XX/XXXX never got cashed. At XXXX, a stop payment was issued and I did pay Comenity over the phone with my debit card. I was told the {$28.00} late fee would be taken off but not the {$44.00} interest. To further complicate matters, on this bill, two fraudulent charges from XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX for {$1500.00} and {$300.00} showed up. I called immediately to dispute the charge and was told the investigation would take 7-10 days for a resolution. Three weeks later I called ; finally asked for fraud department after messing around with someone who didn't have a clue. The man in fraud said it had been done incorrectly, we would have to start over and it would take as long as 90 days to investigate. In the meantime, he would credit my account and issue new cards but the charges would be reinstated if fraud wasn't found. This man did seem to know what he was talking about and gave me some hope it would be done correctly. 

In the meantime, I finally sit down at the computer and check the Better Business Bureau. Imagine my surprise when I see thousands of complaints just like mine : great lengths of time cashing checks, late fees, interest charged, fraudulent charges. I can not believe XXXX would be involved in a scheme like this. 

I finally receive a letter saying the XXXX charges were proven fraudulent and I would not be responsible for them, and any related finance charges or late fees would be corrected. 

Then I receive a letter and check from Comenty saying they " recently received a check marked with " paid in full '' or similar language and/or letter indicating the check is intended as full payment of a debt on your account. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept the check because the amount of the check does not match the full balance owed or agreed upon for your account in our records. '' It appears to be the check issued by XXXX that we put a stop payment on and ended up paying over the phone with Comenity by debit card because they never cashed the XXXX  check. There is nothing on this check indicating paid in full or any such language nor was there a letter. I dont have a clue what that was about. It does prove ; however, that they did get the check after all. 

So I called today, XX/XX/XXXX, only to find out the {$44.00} interest had not been credited back and had to ask for a supervisor to get that credited back. I also found the my last {$930.00} payment check which XXXX as being cashed on XX/XX/XXXX had not been credited to my account. The supervisor is checking into it. 

This has been a nightmare and has wasted hours of my time trying to fix it. Please look into Comenity and their practices. This just shouldnt be happening in the USA.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief