Consumer complaint received 2020-05-27
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Unexpected increase in interest rate
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (CT)

I opened The Iddeal Card to pay for an engagement ring at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and received a promotional offer for 12 months at no interest for the {$6500.00} balance. I was prepared to pay off the balance as soon as possible and made monthly payments significantly over the {$35.00} min balance but in the event I could not I was told that 29 % interest would start after the 12 months are up. 29 % is crazy high but I took the card knowing that I will be able to pay the card off in the time allowed and each month I was on track with paying off the card with just {$1000.00} due in XXXX of XXXX. All payments were made using the online mobile platform and. I did run into several issues when making a payment online with the website glitching and not processing my payments. In XXXX I made what I thought was my last payment but the next time I checked the online portal I noticed the payment did not process. I called for assistance and was told to reach out to the billing resolution unit in writing. I wrote an email and snail mail letter and patiently waited for a response. When no response came in the mail or email I made a payment in XXXX of XXXX to make sure my account stayed current and I was not charged additional fees. I followed up many times with customer service and each time I spent more than an hour on the phone with no results. The response was always that I need to wait for the dispute department to reach out via snail mail for next steps. Again I made a payment in XXXX of XXXX to make sure no additional fees were applied. At this point I was not sure if the original payment I made would post but I paid the balance off with additional payments thinking that if any over payments are made I would be able to fix the issue with the billing resolution team. At this point the purchase I made was paid off but the credit card company applied {$1000.00} and {$1000.00} in interest fees. I have no idea what these fees are for, I did not agree nor was this explained to me. When I opened the card I was told that interest would start being applied after the promotional 12 months were up not that I would be charged over 1k in interest at once. I would have never agreed. Customer service was absolutely no help each time I called demanding a resolution and to this day I have not heard back to my written request for assistance. I jumped through all the hoops and followed the resolution procedures in place and now it just feels like I'm being robbed. Even after telling customer service I did not get a response back to my dispute they say and do nothing. It's absolutely ridicules how I have been treated as a customer and no other credit card has this kind of service. This is fraud and they should not be allowed to do business. I continued to make monthly payments so that this does not affect my credit. Also, I needed to pay off this balance to get a mortgage but it's not fair that this scam is taking my money each month and have no integrity or decency to speak to me regarding my claim.