Consumer complaint received 2024-04-05
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (VT)

Being without dental insurance and needing a crown for a broken tooth, I signed up for " XXXX '' coverage via the dental office. This coverage is more like a loan through Comenity Bank than actual dental benefits, but I figured that would be all right. 

I missed making my first payment as I hadn't checked my physical mail box. That's on me. When they called then, I admitted my mistake and made payment via my regular bank, XXXX. XXXX 's process is to send a physical check to companies who do not do internet payments with them. I set up my payments to match the minimum on the bill and also so the payment would arrive by the XXXX of each month. 

I made these payments : XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; cashed XX/XX/XXXX My initial payment, to cover the prior months ' payment, plus the XXXX amount due. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; cashed XX/XX/XXXX My first automatic payment. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; cashed XX/XX/XXXX An additional payment I made. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; cashed XX/XX/XXXX Automatic payment made at a higher amount as I noticed the minimum had increased. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; cashed XX/XX/XXXX Automatic payment. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; not yet cashed Additional payment. 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX ; not yet cashed Additional payment. 

I noticed on XXXX XXXXComenity Bank 's most recent statement that I'd been charged a " Late Fee '' despite the fact that I had made an additional payment in XXXX and should technically be ahead payment-wise, so I called them on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX and spoke with a service representative named XXXX. 

According to XXXX, the additional {$250.00} payment made in XXXX was put against the XXXX statement as it came in during the XXXX cycle. I had already made a XXXX payment of {$50.00}, which they had cashed. Rather than, as other credit cards do, credit my account with the {$250.00} payment and XXXX  out the amount due for XXXX, they didn't appy anything at all to what was due in XXXX. Instead, they charged a {$40.00} " Late Fee '' on XX/XX/XXXX as the payment they cashed on XX/XX/XXXX wasn't an entire minimum payment due in XXXX. 

This is a confusing series of events and I believe they handle payments this way in order to constantly get borrowers " behind '' on payments so that they can charge " Late Fees '' each month. 

XXXX said she was only authorized to credit me {$15.00} back of the {$40.00} Late Fee. Again, this leaves the company pocketing extra money when it's clear I had paid twice in XXXX to put myself ahead of schedule with them. 

In addition to this mishandling of my additional XXXX payment, this company has continually called me, starting at XXXX, using a variety of phone numbers as though to catch me. I generally don't answer unknown numbers, but as I have applied for a few jobs recently, I've answered the calls. Even when I told them the first couple of times I was ahead on payments, they continued to call and " offer '' to let me make a payment over the phone with them. BUT, I already have payments set up through my bank and I refuse to give them any of my banking information directly. 

I feel, as a person over XXXX of age, that Comenity First is using unreasonable tactics to coerce payment from an XXXX  person. Fortunately, I am still of sound mind. 

As soon as my final two payments from XXXX clear with Comenity, I am going to transfer all the remaining balance to a different credit card to get away from them.