Consumer complaint received 2020-02-07
Company: BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
State: TX
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:
See attachments for more detail. I am requesting my {$140.00} Annual Fee ( charged on XX/XX/20 ) on my closed card be removed, as I was told repeatedly by Banco Popular phone CSRs was the policy both before and after applying for the card. Banco Popular should be investigated by the CFPB for the way they slam customers for Annual Fees when their phone CSRs say one thing, but then customers are "  trapped '' once it posts because they refuse to follow their own rules, won't communicate, and won't remove errant Annual Fees when requested. 


B.P. has a standard policy of allowing card cancellation within 60 days of the Annual Fee posting. I called prior to applying to verify. After applying and receiving the card, I realized during first month the reward program tied to the card was marketed as better than reality, so the card did not have the value advertised. Therefore, rather than continue to use and pay the Annual Fee I sent in a request to both cancel the card ( well within the 60 days ) and remove the fee. B.P. cancelled the card, but did not remove the fee as requested. I called a CSR to inquire, and although he agreed, I was then transferred to another department who now claimed the 60 days was only for renewals of the Annual Fee and that it was specified as such in the terms. This is an absolute falsehood there is nothing in the terms that indicated Annual Fees are treated differently, as they are intended for continued usage of the card for the upcoming year regardless of whether its the first or a subsequent one! 


Further, calling and emailing indicates consistently that B.P. has a generic uniform 60 day period to cancel the card after the Annual Fee posts. However, none of these people are empowered with completing a closure/refund request. Instead, when physically mailing or emailing B.P. to complete the request, those departments suddenly refuse to honor what B.P. has told the customer verbally and instead they claim its prohibited in the terms ( which it is not )! This appears to be a scheme to fleece customers. Any recorded call log related to my B.P. credit card will confirm my claim. My repeated emails to XXXX to get this resolved ( starting on XX/XX/XXXX) have been ignored. 


What is clear in the Terms is the Annual Fee is for an annual use of the card. Whats also apparent is that B.P. multiple times said they will refund this if done within 60 days of the posting, which I did, since obviously the card is being cancelled instead of being used for the upcoming year so the reason for the fee is no longer valid based on the timing of cancellation. If B.P. wanted to enact a separate official policy for how it  handles the first Annual Fee vs. renewal Annual Fees, it could have but it has clearly NOT done this yet. Therefore, I expect my fee to be refunded under the standard policy I have been repeatedly told applies, and which I was requesting as part of my card cancellation that B.P. agreed to.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief