Consumer complaint received 2018-12-04
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NJ)

I opened an XXXX credit account on XX/XX/XXXX for a purchase of {$46.00}. At the time I opted for paperless billing. I assumed, like my other accounts, I would be sent an email indicating when the payment would be due. It was XX/XX/XXXX and I realized I never heard anything from XXXX so I went online and registered for the online account access only to find mind bill was past due and I was charged a late fee of {$27.00}. When I contacted them by phone the representative explained to me that they don't send you anything to let you know when your bill is due if you opt for paperless billing. I explained the situation and they agreed to wave the fee and obviously I asked to go back to paper billing so I would know when my payment was due. I also made a {$30.00} electronic payment to the account. I received the paper bill in XXXX still showing the full balance of {$46.00} due. I assumed I had made a book keeping error and had neglected to make the payment to XXXX so I went ahead and made an electronic payment of {$46.00} that way the account would be paid in full. When I went back and checked my banking statement I found that I did, in fact, make the {$30.00} payment in XXXX so at this point my balance with interest was just {$18.00}. I called and spoke to a representative and asked that they just take the payment of {$18.00} and refund me the {$28.00} I overpaid. He said he took care of it. So I assumed at that point my bill was paid off. I then get the XXXX statement for a bill that was due on XX/XX/XXXX. That had a balance {$38.00}. It was the {$18.00} again plus another {$20.00}. XXXX of fees. So I make another call and spoke another representative who told me the previous person refunded the entire {$46.00} payment and never applied any money to the actual {$18.00} balance. So I paid the {$18.00} at that time on XX/XX/XXXX with the lady on the phone. I then asked her if I finally had a XXXX  balance. She said yes, my balance was XXXX. I received my XXXX statement which indicated I now have a {$45.00} balance. They were still trying to charge me the {$20.00} of fees and added an additional {$25.00} worth of fees. When I called this time I asked to speak to a supervisor. I spoke to XXXX ID # XXXX. He told me that he wouldn't do anything because my payment was late. He took no responsibility for the fact that my bill would have been paid off in XXXX if his employees did their jobs correctly, not to mention the fact that I had no way to know these payments weren't applied correctly until I received my statement rendering it impossible for me to make payments any sooner than I did. I told him this was unacceptable and asked to speak to someone in a higher position than his. He said there was no one above him, and that I could not even file a complaint over the phone I needed to file a dispute on their website, however XXXX XXXX website has no where to file a dispute. I should not have a negative impact on my credit score over a balance of {$46.00} because of XXXX XXXX severe lack of competent customer service.