Consumer complaint received 2025-07-29 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
This is in regards to a " XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  '' credit card I have, managed by Comenity ( a subsidiary of Bread Financial ). Comenity claims that an automatic payment for {$330.00} I made from my checking account ( ending in XXXX ) was returned by my bank because it was a " transaction or loan account ''. As a result, they charged me a {$30.00} late fee. However, the account in question is a valid checking account, evidenced by the fact that I successfully made a one-time payment of {$580.00} from the same account to Comenity. Because my bank also has no record of an ACH transaction being attempted for {$330.00} from Comenity, it is likely a technical issue from Comenity. Therefore, I was unfairly charged a late fee and my credit card is now frozen despite doing nothing wrong. Below is a detailed timeline of events. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I set up autopay to automatically pay my statement balance on the due date, which for this month was {$330.00} due on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email that my checking account ( ending in XXXX ) was enrolled. 

On XXXX, I received a reminder that the autopay was scheduled. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the website for the credit card reflected that the payment went through. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email that the payment was returned by my bank ( attached ). I immediately submitted a one-time payment to rectify the issue. I also called Comenity customer service, but the woman I spoke to said that the transaction went through, and she cancelled my one-time payment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the website was updated to show that the payment for {$330.00} from account XXXX was returned. Upon seeing this, I contacted my bank ( XXXX ). My bank said that they had no record of the transaction being attempted. I called Comenity customer service, and the man I spoke to said the payment was returned because it was a " loan account '', which is not true. He also said I was going to be charged a late fee, and to get it reversed I would need to contact Comenity via the secure message center. 

Also on XX/XX/XXXX, I immediately submitted a one-time payment of {$330.00} from a different checking account at a different institution ( ending in XXXX ). I also submitted a one-time payment of {$580.00} from XXXX to pay off the rest of the balance. As of writing this complaint, both of these ACH transactions successfully went through. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I saw on the credit card website that I was charged a {$30.00} late fee due to the returned payment. I contacted Comenity customer service via the secure message portal ( attached ). I also submitted a payment of {$30.00} from account XXXX to avoid any interest/penalties. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a response from Comenity that they would extend a partial refund of {$15.00} as a courtesy, but they claimed that the payment was declined due to the account ( XXXX ) being a " non transaction or loan account '', which is not true. I responded that this is not true, evidenced by the fact that Comenity was able to successfully pull {$580.00} from the same account in question with no issues. Also, I have used account XXXX to pay off my other credit cards from multiple institutions with no issues. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received another response from Comenity that was more or less the same as their message on XX/XX/XXXX. At that point, I informed them that I would be submitting a complaint to the CFPB.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief