Consumer complaint received 2025-01-01 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Unexpected increase in interest rate
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
RE : Comenity Bank high finance charges. 

Hello, This pertains to my current account with sudden exorbitant amount of accrued finance charges that have recently been applied by Comenity Bank on my XXXX credit card purchases. I called the XXXX Comenity customer service on XX/XX/XXXX to settle the interest free Promo plan for {$71.00}, which was also surprising to me as the purchase items were interest free. However, the customer service representative mentioned that there was another amount of about {$1700.00} that was supposed to be paid on XXXX XXXX which I was not aware of as I did not see it online as being due for payment. The one that I saw online and was able to pay for the XXXX XXXX month, was the regular payment of {$140.00} which I paid on XX/XX/XXXX. 
The Customer Representative mentioned that the XXXX XXXX amount to settle the promotional plan increased the finance charges to {$11000.00}. It also wiped out more than 95 % of all the payments I have been making for the items I bought on a five-year interest free promotional plan from the XXXX store and pushed the total debt amount to {$15000.00} which is more than the total credit limit amount of {$10000.00} I was given by Comenity Bank on the credit card. I was granted the total credit limit of {$10000.00} in XX/XX/XXXX on a five-year interest free promotional plan and as of XX/XX/XXXX, I was left with an available balance of {$4200.00}. So, I was surprised when they applied high finance charges by {$11000.00} increasing my debt to {$15000.00} in XX/XX/XXXX, right after the XXXX store filed for bankruptcy. 
I would like to say that based on my payment record, I have been on time with all the monthly payments on my account and all the due amounts were visible except the {$1700.00} for XX/XX/XXXX, which, given a chance, could have been paid off to avoid these high finance charges which are not warranted. 
Given that there was an interest free five-year promotional plan when the original purchases were made, I am very surprised about these sudden high finance charges from Comenity Bank XXXX I also feel that Comenity Bank renege on their original agreement of keeping the transaction on an interest free basis as I was making timely payments. They also change the original agreement on XX/XX/XXXX, with a new annual percentage interest charges of 35 % which sounds very fraudulent to me. 

Therefore, given the fact that Comenity Bank renege on the original agreement of five-year interest free promotional plan I had with them, I would like for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to assist with the fraudulent behavior from Comenity Bank by removing these sudden high finance charges from my account. I feel that Comenity Bank deceived me into signing up for deferred-interest promotional credit cards without disclosing the true interest rate from the beginning. I tried to resolve the issue with Comenity Bank to no avail. 
Best Regards,

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation