Consumer complaint received 2024-05-23
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY (NC)

On XX/XX/XXXX I opened my XXXX XXXX account to purchase phones. At the time I scheduled the automated monthly payment to come out of my account automatically and those payment were made automatically through XX/XX/XXXX. At the time the account stayed active just like any other credit card I have, with no balance and I did not initiate an automatic pay feature cancellation. When I purchased my new device on XX/XX/XXXX, I was asked if I already had a XXXXXXXX XXXX account, which I did and had available credit to buy the new phones. I provided the information and at checkout it stated the monthly payment amounts, I agreed to the charge, and I received my phone. 

Up until XX/XX/XXXX, I thought that my account was being automatically drafted for the monthly payments that XXXX XXXX disclosed when I purchased my phone. They made it sound like, if I already had an account, then nothing would change. Like I shared earlier on this letter, I never changed any feature on my account, so automatic payment was my preferred method of payment, I didn't even have access to my online account. However, I opened a letter from TD Bank, who seems to be the credit issuer for this card, stating that my account was going to be sent to collections. Confused, I called the collections number, and asked my husband to help me with this situation. Through that discussion, we learned that TD Bank had cancelled their auto-pay feature on my account and when I purchased the new phones, despite what I was made to believe when I purchased my new phones, my account was not been automatically paid. The agent stated that there were letters sent to me but the only letter I received was the one I opened and resulted on the phone call I was making to them to resolve the situation. I explained that I opened the TD Bank letter because I found it odd that I kept getting so many of them - I have a TD Bank auto loan and I never open those because my bank sends the payment directly to them through e-bill. But now I was getting more than just 1 a month, so I decided to open it. Afterall, if anything, I would have been expecting a XXXX XXXX letter rather than a TD Bank one, and even then I probably would have thrown it in the trash because my account was setup with auto-pay... or so I thought. 

They asked if I looked at the payments coming out of my account, and I explained that there are 37 payments that come out of my bank account on a monthly basis, and that there is always a balance available to make those payments, so I don't keep track of that. Additionally, most creditors will attempt to collect the debt past the due date by giving me a call, but no one called. It's as if they expected to reach me by sending off-brand letters that I thought were just car loan statements. Additionally, they shared that there were $ XXXX in late fees that the collector could only waive {$40.00}, recommended I made the payment to bring the account current to then call next day to a different number, talk to customer service to see if they would waive more. Although that sounded strange, I had no other choice. The agent helped me get access to my account, then recommended I made the payment with him or online. I asked if I made the payment online if he'd be able to waive the {$40.00}, and he stated that he wouldn't unless he saw the payment posted. I asked if he could just take care of it with me on the phone and then waive the payment- he said he could do that. Why wouldn't just tell me he could waive it if I made the payment on the phone is beyond me - someone should listen to the whole phone call, it is quite eye opening. 

Once I made my payment, my husband informed him that we would go in and schedule the automatic payment shortly after the call. He advised not to do that, since their system was at risk of not being able to processing both the payment he was taking over the phone and the automatic payment scheduling. My husband then highlighted to him that it was insane that the system would XXXXXXXX XXXX something like that, although he wasn't surprised given the fact that the system also cancels the automatic payment as soon as the balance is setup which is contrary to the industry standard. He emphasized that the fact that their processes deviated from what consumers generally experience from credit card companies was causing financial harm to other customers- such as me - where consumers believe they are set to use auto-pay technologies to pay their credit card accounts, but how the process is designed and how the system handles user settings is so vastly different that consumers pay the price. The collector agent stated that he was not surprised since TD Bank technology was in fact very bad and it was not the first time he had seen issues with their processes and technology. 

I now have or will have derogatory marks on my credit report - despite many years of not missing 1 payment and having pristine credit. And there are still $ XXXX in late fees sitting in my account, but as a good citizen and responsible consumer, I went ahead and waited until today to re-setup the auto-pay they unilaterally cancelled on my account. I am willing and able to pay, I have not experienced a financial hardship and all of this could have been prevented if I wasn't deceived to think that the payments would be automatically drafted as a result of completing the purchase, nor that a credit card company would unilaterally cancel the auto-pay on an active account.