Consumer complaint received 2026-05-17 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I am filing this complaint regarding a Dell financing/store credit account because I believe the account servicing practices were confusing, misleading, and unfair to consumers attempting to responsibly manage and pay down their balances. The original financed purchase was approximately {$1700.00}. Throughout the life of the account, I made multiple substantial payments, including repeated {$150.00} payments. Despite these payments, the account continued generating late fees, finance charges, paper statement fees, and other charges in a manner that made meaningful balance reduction difficult and confusing. The primary issue involves repeated XXXX enrollment failures and an extremely confusing payment/account management system. I enrolled in XXXX on this account at least three separate times. Because I believed XXXX was active, I did not continuously monitor the account. Despite this, the account repeatedly generated late fees as though no XXXX arrangement existed. The account history includes multiple late fees, including : * {$30.00} late fee ( XX/XX/XXXX ) * {$41.00} late fee ( XX/XX/XXXX ) * {$39.00} late fee ( XX/XX/XXXX ) * {$31.00} late fee ( XX/XX/XXXX ) At no point did I intentionally stop paying the account. I continued making payments and believed XXXX was active. An additional major issue was the confusing structure of the Dell financing/payment system itself. The financing was associated with XXXX, which reasonably led me to believe that payments and account management would occur directly through my XXXX customer account. However, the financing and payment servicing appeared to operate through a separate system and interface. I experienced repeated difficulty : * locating the correct payment portal, * identifying where payments were actually supposed to be made, * confirming whether XXXX enrollment was active, * and determining whether payments were properly scheduled. The separation between the XXXX customer account and the financing/payment servicing system created substantial confusion and made routine account management unnecessarily difficult. As a consumer, the overall structure appeared designed in a way that increased the likelihood of missed payments, late fees, finance charges, and customer confusion. Another concerning issue was the repeated XXXX XXXX XXXX assessed on the account. The account repeatedly imposed {$3.00} minimum interest charges even when the actual accrued interest XXXX have been substantially lower. This practice felt excessive and punitive, especially while I was actively making payments toward the balance. The account also repeatedly imposed paper statement fees of approximately {$2.00} per month. While these charges XXXX technically be disclosed somewhere in the agreement, they contributed to a pattern of excessive add-on fees unrelated to the original financed purchase. I am also concerned about the structure of the promotional/deferred interest financing itself. The account appeared structured in a way that could easily mislead ordinary consumers into believing they were successfully paying down promotional financing while fees and finance charges continued accumulating in the background. I only realized how little progress had been made toward paying off the account when the promotional period was nearing expiration. At that point, I became concerned that retroactive or deferred interest charges could potentially be imposed despite my repeated payments and attempts to use XXXX. Because I no longer trusted the account servicing practices, I ultimately paid the account off in full simply to avoid further fees, penalties, and confusion. I am requesting : * a full review of the account history, * a review of all XXXX enrollment activity, * an explanation as to why late fees continued despite repeated XXXX enrollment attempts, * a review of all late fees and finance charges assessed after XXXX enrollment attempts, * and a review of whether the account servicing and payment structure complied with consumer protection standards regarding clarity, transparency, and fairness. I believe the account structure and servicing practices created unnecessary confusion and materially increased the likelihood of consumers incurring avoidable late fees, finance charges, and penalties while attempting to responsibly manage their accounts.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation