Consumer complaint received 2025-09-01 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: Atlanticus Services Corporation
State: UT

Complaint narrative:
Important information that bank was fully aware of : my checking account was hijacked and funds withdrawn below my payment amount. After 3 payments were returned, my bank finally sorted things out. XXXX held onto my payments for weeks after payment cleared because of this reason. Desperate for gasoline, when I still had credit available, I was unable to access the credit until I made the payments again. After realizing what happened, I called and told them. My car out of gas at gas station, I had {$150.00} available credit, XXXX would not let me use my card. After another 10 days went by and still no access to credit I called and explained the situation again. The second call was with a supervisor who seemed to want to help me. He applied the cleared payments to my card and made my credit available. Unfortunately, my bank made a mistake and applied a stop payment setup for a payment to an account that I was not aware of, the stop payment was also applied to a payment made to XXXX. This was after the situation had been cleared, my bank reversed the charge ( this would represent the first time that I could technically be held responsible for the failed payment ( this is due to consumer protection laws ). I offered to provide police report and name of officer that was working my case. Said not necessary. This card is borderline criminal in how they operate, claiming to offer an unsecured card. But only after paying nearly {$100.00} to activate the card, then after activated, they dont make the entire credit line available due to an annual fee. After collecting this money from me, and an additional {$200.00} due to returned payments, they have made a nice easy profit on me. Today I received a letter that my account is being closed due to the returned payments which again, were due to identity theft and fraud on my checking account & a mistake made by my bank. I have a letter from my bank about the mistake they made sending the payment back on the XXXX. I made the payment a few days later once I was informed the payment was sent back. This payment and all future payments will go through without incident. Lastly. Closing my account after taking more than my credit line in misc fees ( credit line capped at {$400.00} ). In total fees alone, I have paid them the entire {$400.00}, essentially making the card a secured card. Lastly, and hypothetically, even if I was fully responsible for the returned payments without a protected event like identity theft, this did not put the bank at any additional risk. Furthermore, with each fee added, I paid the fees and brought my balance below the credit limit. This would not put the bank at any increased risk due to me going over credit limit because the overage is a bank fee of {$41.00} for each returned payment, and I always paid this overage. To close the account due to returned payments is a fallacyXX/XX/XXXXseverely limited my access to the card, even when I had credit available, even when I was in an emergency situation, credit showed as available & yet they refused to let me access it, even after making guaranteed funds payments, the bank claimed they needed 14 days for payment to clear, even though by their own admission the payment was guaranteed and they had their funds but refused to make credit available. This shows they had no risk in maintaining my account. My experience with this sorry excuse of a bank has been the worst I have ever had with a credit card. To punish victims of identity theft is both illegal and is not covered in my contract as a reason for them to cancel the card, severely effecting my credit score and more.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief