Consumer complaint received 2024-04-04
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (PA)

XXXX XXXX Commenity Bank Approximately XX/XX/XXXX, I agreed to a promotional offer at XXXX XXXX for XXXX installments of {$800.00} to avoid interest charges. These payment amounts were automatically generated by Commenity Bank, the issuer of XXXX XXXX XXXX at the time. The information generated appeared to be clear cut, easy to understand and convenient. I agreed to the terms and conditions and received my first bill. It was paid by the XXXX of the month, each month, as an automatically generated date by Commenity Bank with the option of autopay and paperless billing for convenient, eco-friendly method to satisfy my debt. I continued to make payment through the automated system without issue, as agreed, until the last payment withdraw. 

In or around XX/XX/XXXX, I owed my last payment of {$800.00}. I noticed the amount drawn from my checking account was different than the agreed upon amount autogenerated by Commenity Bank at origination. I proceeded to contact them regarding the change. I was told my payment was changed from {$800.00} to a new amount but they could not tell me why. I raised issue that I did not authorize a change in payment amount, moreover, I was disqualified for the promotional offer because I broke the contact terms. There was no clear explanation how or why this occurred. After many transferred calls later, they hung up on me. Despite the atrocious customer service and lack of explanation how the authorized amount changed without my explicit consent, how the auto generated payment plan by Commenity Bank disqualified me from promotion after they changed the payment amount for the last payment which would have settled the debt in full. I continued to make payments in their new auto generated amount in good faith I owed on the balance. 

This appears to be a predatory lending practice in that there was inadequate or false disclosure upon origination. The auto generated payment amounts and due date had intentionally put the due date for the final payment to satisfy the debt and promotional offer after the promotional date deadline. Commenity Bank hid and misrepresented the true costs, risk and appropriateness of a loans terms to satisfy the promotional offer and then changed the loan payment amount in the initial offer without explicit authorization or explanation. 

After the fact, and continued accrual of interest and payments, I was able to finally reach a supervisor at Commenity Bank who was able to review the entire record and informed me the promotional offer expiration date was before the last payment was due and gave no insight why the system would not sync these dates in best practice and explicitly state the difference as to protect the consumer from adverse action or unnecessary complication which only burdens the consumer and utilizes more bank resources. In addition, they were unable to explain why the autopay amount changed without my explicit consent. Despite the loss of the promotional offer, the unauthorized change in amount only prolonged the repayment term and calls in to question the intentionality of doing so. It appears there was intentional misleading built in to the auto generated payment plan to fail a consumer and generate revenue on customers who rely on paperless billing and autopay services.