Consumer complaint received 2024-02-23
Product: Debt or credit management — Credit repair services
Issue: Didn't provide services promised — 
Company: Bright Capital Inc (TX)

I opened an account with Bright money to use the credit builder program in XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  First of all the credit builder program doesn't require a membership but I was automatically signed up for a membership which charges 3 months at a time. Because of how the company represented the credit builder service it made it seem like the progress made in the credit builder program would be lost if I cancelled the membership, and so I never brought this up to them, but it is deceptive marketing and unfair business practices. I chose the credit builder program because my credit is fairly new, and they offered to provide a balance transfer card if you complete 5 months of on time credit builder payments, which they claimed to report to the credit agenciesXXXX XXXX XXXXnths later I changed my primary funding account to another of my accounts, and support was unwilling or unable to process a payment for that month, I first contacted them about this on XX/XX/XXXX. I have screenshots of the conversations with support that took place in the app and probably XXXX emails back and forth with support trying to get them to process my payment so that I would be on time. Not only did it take until XX/XX/XXXX to get my credit builder payment processed because of some excuse about needing more money in my account than they were trying to withdraw, and another about the entire program being controlled by XXXX XXXX that they can't manually make payments with, some of the support staff abruptly offering to cancel my account in the middle of a conversation, basically threatening to close it if I kept asking them to do what they said they were going to do, and having my recurring membership payment process just fine in the middle of XXXX, I also reached the 5 months mark of payments made into my credit builder account without ever having seen any impact on my credit report, and their offer of a balance transfer card remained an unclickable banner on their app tab dedicated to applying for it once you had reached the 5 months mark. At this point, I decided I was through with this company since it had done nothing for me since the beginning. I cancelled my membership through the app, canceled my credit builder enrollment, and set up a transfer of funds from the credit builder account to my checking account. I then went to delete my primary funding account in the app and found that it was not possible, I also attempted to remove my email address and edit my phone number attached to the account, since it wouldn't let me delete it, and found that that was also impossible on about the XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. Two days later I got an email telling me my credit builder payment was coming up and I messaged support and asked them to delete my bank account information and email address, and was told they couldn't delete my account while the funds were being transferred back to my bank account, and that it would take 3 business days, and then my account would be deleted after that. A few days later on between the seventh and tenth of XXXX I got another email saying that if my credit builder payment was late it would have a negative impact on my credit score and that it was due on the XXXX. This time I tried to call the number on the email which did not even ring, went directly to a voicemail with a voicemail message of someone demanding " hello? '' As if they had answered and couldn't hear you. After calling that number several times I made a fake account so that I could get back into the app with erroneous information so that I could get the real phone number for support. When I got a hold of support I told them that they were going to be in trouble if they continued threatening to report negative marks to my credit because my account has already been closed and they had never returned my funds, but to me the removal of my bank account information and personal information was more important to me, since I was told it had already been deleted, and my old login no longer worked, but she was able to read off my phone number, email address and bank account info on the phone with me. She told me she understood my concern and would elevate the matter, and that I should give it another 3 business days because she saw that there had already been a transfer initiated, and that my account would be deleted after i received the funds. On the XXXX when I still hadn't received any funds transfer and received another email telling me my credit builder payment was late with a link to pay now and threatening to negatively impact my credit score again, i called back and had the same conversation with support, with no noticeable results. This morning I received another threatening email, they never returned my funds, and as far as I'm concerned retain access to my bank account and personal information almost a month after I had asked to be removed from their platform. Ultimately my goal is for them to delete my information before they use it for something illegal, like charging me another subscription fee out of nowhere or negatively impacting my credit report as retaliation for cancelling my service. It would also be nice to have my XXXX $ returned but I'm more concerned about the personal financial information like my social security number and bank account that they can use to damage my credit being deleted. After about the second time I called them this month I went to look at reviews and almost everything that wasn't posted by the company itself told me that many people have had this same or similar issue with this company and months later they will be charged a bunch of money from their bank account or have their subscription reactivated out of nowhere. Based on my interaction with the company and other people 's experiences with their product it seems to me like a phishing scam with some kind of paperwork whitewash and not a real financial product. The fake support phone number was what really stood out as a red flag to me and made me reconsider the possibility that it was just apathy and not intentional misdirection. Since then I've been having the same conversation with their support staff multiple times without any progress being made.