Consumer complaint received 2021-09-11
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO (NY)

On XX/XX/XXXX I attempted to pay the outstanding balance on my Visa XXXX credit card with Banco Popular. I had stopped using the card for over a year, and the only charge the card had on its balance was the {$50.00} annual fee associated with the card. Up until that moment, I had always paid my balances online by transferring funds from my XXXX  XXXX XXXX checking account. However, at some point between my last payment on XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, Banco Popular had required me to add my Banco Popular credit card as a 'payee ' on my online account in order to make the payment. I attempted to do so multiple times, but on every attempt the webpage returned an error saying : XXXX XXXX RECORD NOT FOUND. Therefore, my only other option to make a payment was through the phone, since I do not reside in Puerto Rico, where payments can be made in branches and via ATMs. ( The implementation of this change in payment processes without due notice could be in violation of Regulation Z ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Banco Popular three times to try and make the payment. One of which had me on hold for one hour and 14 minutes with no answer. At this point in time, I had recently started a new job, and could not afford to arbitrarily take breaks of over an hour in duration to try and make my payment. Between XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to make the payment both online, and through the phone, and I was still getting the XXXX XXXX RECORD NOT FOUND error on the web portal. In fact, I still receive this error today and can only make my card payments through the phone. When I was finally able to reach a service representative on XX/XX/XXXX and make my payment, the service representative on the phone notified me after I asked that my account was seriously delinquent, and that it would have a negative impact on my credit score. 

On XXXX, my FICO score was reduced 122 points, to a score of XXXX, from the score of XXXX in the prior month. When I investigated my score in detail with XXXX, it was clear that the only problem account on my record was the Visa XXXX credit card I had with Banco Popular, and that the delinquency that impacted my score had been recorded in XXXX ( not in XXXX or XXXX of that year ). 

On XXXX of XXXX, I submitted a formal complaint to Banco Popular, of which they received notice on XX/XX/XXXX, and promised a response within a 30 to 90 day window. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a second letter, reclassifying my complaint from a 'Card Services ' complaint to a 'Credit History ' complaint- effectively restarting the 30 to 90 day window for a response. In early XXXX, I decided to call the bank again to get an update on my complaint. It was only then where I was notified via phone, that my request to repair my credit history had been denied late in XXXX, and that a notification was sent via regular mail. To this day, I have not received a letter from Banco Popular detailing the reasons to dismiss my complaint, and despite requesting a copy of the decision via email in two separate calls, I have not received an email with the decision either. In my last call, Banco Popular 's service representative told me that she had submitted a " request to send the decision via email '' and that the bank would " reach out to me if they could not get a hold of me ''. To this day, nobody from Banco Popular has contact me on this or any other matter.