Consumer complaint received 2024-09-28
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NV)

Hello! 

I have had to contact about this card before and I am contacting about it again. I will more than likely also be closing my card with this company due to the continuous issues I've been having. I am experiencing a hardship financially, hence me having to complain again. 

In chronological order, I placed a payment of {$9.00} on my Victoria 's Secret card with Comenity on XX/XX/XXXX, using my XXXX XXXX  account that ends in XXXX. I received an email from Comenity on XX/XX/XXXX that the date this was processed was on XX/XX/XXXX. Meaning it had been received and taken from my account. I have had an agent tell me in the past that for some reason comenity takes a good 3-4 days to process. Because of this, I made sure that my XXXX XXXX  account ALWAYS had MORE than the {$9.00} in it to avoid any payment issues. 

Fast forward to today, I did not receive ANY kind of email, text message or ANYTHING from Comenity that the payment did NOT go through. I gave my email and phone number and I always get notified when I MAKE payments and they are processed, but Comenity did not say ANYTHING AT ALL about the payment not going through and getting returned. 

Not only that, but the return did not show until XXXX DAYS LATER. The XXXX days later being ON MY DUE DATE! I happened to log into the account today XX/XX/XXXX to see that not only was the payment returned, but they had also charged me a return check fee. 

( I have also attached screenshots of my bank account and it's balance from XXXX. The account ALWAYS had more than enough money in it the entire time. ) I called VS/Comenity on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX PST and the call lasted XXXX minutes. I spoke with the agent to explain to her that the money was always in the account and that I was charged the fee as well. She explained that there wasn't anything she could do about the fee, but maybe try calling another number, ( XXXX ). I emphasized to her that the money was IN the account so why was it returned? She basically just told me to call that number as I'd be sent to speak to a different department. 

I called the number the same day at XXXX. This number was essentially the same number as I did not speak to anyone in a specific department and was just lead through the loop to speak to the same level of an agent as the last agent was. 

I explained the situation to the agent to which he had me verify my bank account, only to find out the literal very last digit was wrong for the bank account number. They had XXXX, when the account ends in XXXX. I told the agent, that makes sense, thank you. 

I corrected it and proceeded to ask what could be done about the late fee that I am going to get charged, as there was literally no time for me to fix the mistake because Comenity didn't even charge me the return check fee UNTIL my due date. I also didn't get ANY NOTIFICATION AT ALL in ANY WAY that the payment didn't process! The literal only way I knew/found out was by literally signing into the account! 

I also reminded him, that he could clearly see I am trying to be responsible with the card and paid DAYS EARLY/in advance. He claimed that because the company " already issued me credits '' there was nothing they could do and couldn't issue me anymore. I told him that the only reason I got " issued any credits '' was because I had to complain to the CFPB because Victoria 's Secret refused to fix an issue that the agent over the phone told me they would fix. It is not as if I asked them for the credit, they had to do it/fix it because the CFPB told them to/fixed the error/problem. 

I am becoming frequently disgruntled with having this credit card and it seems issues with them are becoming more frequent. While I do understand the error in putting in the bank, why did it take me having to actually log into my own account to see the problem? I didn't even receive any " payment due on XX/XX/XXXX '' emails either. It was as if the only way I was going to know it didn't get paid was going to be to sign into the account and the only reason I was going to know WHY the payment didn't go through was by calling an agent! 

And the first time I called, the agent didn't even tell me what the issue was or tell me that the bank account number was wrong either! It is frustrating to clearly be trying to pay EARLY just to end up not only getting charged the return check fee, but now also a late fee solely because the company doesn't give any kind of notification when payments fail. I understand the bank number being wrong was a mistake, but the fact that the company said nothing, gave no notification, no warning, no " your payment did not go through '' emails, makes it seem as though they do it on purpose so I end up charged a fee that I can't do anything about. 

Had I gotten an email or text the day that the payment didn't go through or that they charged me the fee ( XX/XX/XXXX ), that still would've been enough time for me to correct the situation and make the payment on time. 

Regardless of the outcome of this situation, I will be closing this credit card as soon as I can. I got the card to help me fix my credit but, it seems like it's only going to make my credit worse. I have a GREAT record/credit history with VS/Comenity and the fact that they continue to do this and can't " issue credits '' is very greedy and them not giving any notifications of any charges or returned payments is very sneaky and fraudulent. I will be closing this card as soon as I possibly can. I have a card with GREAT standing with them, with ONLY 10 % of the card 's available credit used. Then they charge me a return fee AND a late fee, dropping the card usage down to more than 20 %. 

I don't know how a payment of {$9.00} is turning into a payment of over {$43.00}. Regardless of " courtesy credits '' or not, I have taken as best care as I could of this card even with me going through a financial hardship. This is not about courtesy credits, this is about a company being sneaky, not notifying consumers and charging fees that they refuse to waive for no reasons other than " they don't want to. '' Feel free as well to request listening to the phone calls, as I don't have access to them and can't request them. I am tired of this card. As I said repeatedly on the phone, the money was there in the account. This is not a case of " I didn't have the money and the payment returned ''. I attached a photo of my bank account balance all throughout the days that comenity would've been processing the payment. The money was always there. I literally CAN NOT AFFORD FEES.