Consumer complaint received 2024-07-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I have a XXXX XXXX with Comenity Bank. I opened the account just to use to get discounts when shopping at XXXX XXXX XXXX. I rarely use this card- only to shop at the Loft a few times a year. 
XX/XX/XXXX - I had a payment due on XX/XX/year>. I tried repeatedly to log in to my account to pay the bill, however I kept getting messages that my account number & /or username was not recognized. Finally I was able to get into my account and I paid the entire amount due - it was just under {$70.00}. 
Realizing it was now a little after XXXX XXXX  that day, I immediately sent the bank a message through their message center, explaining the trouble and asking for them to please not charge me a late fee since I had attempted to pay the bill in time. 

XX/XX/XXXX - My {$67.00} payment posted XX/XX/XXXX - On XX/XX/XXXX I received a return message from Comenity Bank saying a late fee had not been charged. ( Later I saw that in fact a late fee had been added, however at this time I thought my account was at {$0.00} ) XX/XX/XXXX I was thinking of buying some clothes, so I was getting my account info. That's when I noticed that not only had they indeed charged me a late fee in XXXX, but they had charged me another late fee on XXXX. XXXX. I was frustrated at this point, and sent another message again explaining that I only opened this account for points and asked if I needed to call and speak with someone to close the account. 

XX/XX/XXXX Received a message from bank saying they were going to credit me for the late fee. I thought they meant that was for the XXXX fee. And I wrongly assumed again that my account was at {$0.00}. I should have followed up then, but again, every time I try and log into this account it takes forever. Even though I've added my phone number, once it recognizes my username and password, I still have to log into my email to get a verification code. 

Turns out they had reversed one late fee, but not the other. But since I do not get a paper statement ( even though the website claims I should be getting one ) and had not used the card, I didn't realize I still owed any money since I thought the fee had been taken care of. 

In XXXX- I received a phone call from the bank saying I had a payment due, when I logged in again, I saw that there was yet another late fee added on XX/XX/XXXX. I again messaged explaining the entire root of the problem- and that I had immediately alerted them to my difficulty and asked for forgiveness. 

In messages and in phone calls, I repeatedly explain what happened. And all they do is explain how late fees work. One employee did tell me I could open a " Dispute '' on their website and told me where I would find the place to do that, however there actually is not a way to choose " Dispute '' when messaging with Comenity bank.

They finally closed my account at the beginning of XXXX after I asked for that to happen again. Then I received two notices on XX/XX/XXXX - one saying my account was closed so no late fees could be removed anymore, and another just hours later saying one {$30.00} late fee had been removed. 

At this point, I am so fed up with talking to them. And now they are calling me XXXX times a day at least.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief