Consumer complaint received 2025-01-22 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Can't close your account
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: MA

Complaint narrative:
Comenity Bank issued me a XXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX, 2025. The card was used successfully for a purchase, and then they placed a hold on the account, preventing me from using it, claiming they need " identity verification ''. The said the only way to resolve this issue is to email them copies of my drivers licenses, SSN card, and utility bills. I refuse to send sensitive documents over an incredibly secure transmission method like email, but they do not provide an alternative. Therefore, I called to close my account. However, they are denying to close my account, stating that " they need these documents to resolve the hold '' before they close it. To summarize, I want to close the amount because of the bank 's insecure transmission methods, and they are saying I need to use the insecure transmission methods to close the account. Hence, I'm filing this complaint. 

Below is the auto-transcription of the recorded call with the company on XXXX XXXX, 2025. I spoke to three representatives, escalating from one to the next. I start recording after the first representative stated they would not close the account. I can produce the audio recording upon request, as it's too large to upload here. 

TRANSCRIPT ( " You '' refers to myself, XXXX XXXX ) : You Could you repeat that for me? So you're saying to close the account because I don't want to send sensitive documents over email to close the account? You're saying that I need to send those sensitive documents correct? 

Participant Suggest to confirm with you if you want the account to be closed the documents would have to be reviewed so the block can be removed and then the team can go ahead and we're gon na close the account for you You So that's not acceptable. Can you forward me to somebody that can answer my questions in more detail please? Whether that would be a supervisor or manager I don't care. 

Participant All right, so please stay in the line while I go ahead and transfer for you and have a great day and bye-bye You Thanks Participant Hello, is XXXX I still speaking to XXXX? 

You You are Participant Thank you so much for holding we appreciate your patience there the previous representative. They were making me a little bit aware of the situation here. How may I help you today? 

You Yes so just to summarise I opened the XXXX XXXX card probably about a week and a half ago, I used it once and then you put a hold of my account wanting identity verification and the only way I was provided to get that verification was to send copies of my drivers license and SSN through email which I refuse to do and so I called to cancel the card. Your associate told me to cancel the card, I need to send those documents in anyway, and that's not an acceptable resolution for me, so here we are. 

Participant Totally understandable unfortunately we wouldn't be able to close the account with a hold on it now it does say on the letter that was issued to you that if documentation is not received within 30 days in the account could be closed. So we wouldn't actually be able to close it while hold on it, if the documentation is not received for the account, could be closing in the future by the bank You So I don't like the resolution. I should have the ability to close it now so do you have another way to do that for me? And just to let you know as a heads up, I noted to your previous representative as well as the call is being recorded in case I need to file a case of the consumer financial protection bureau just a heads up so I would love to get this resolved before I have to do that. 

Participant Yeah, I totally understand the more you know you were definitely gon na get the situation resolved as well for you, sir but unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to close the account with the hold currently on it You Okay, is there anyone who can? 

Participant If you want to escalate further, I can certainly do so You Please do Participant Okay, one moment, please Participant Thank you for your patience. This is XXXX am I still speaking to XXXX? 

You You are Participant XXXX, the other associate let me know what's going on and how can I further assist with your XXXXXX/XX/XXXX account? 

You Did they make you aware of the issue that I've repeated to the last two associates? 

Participant Yeah, it appears that we have some security concerns and were requesting some documentation and because of that we aren't able to make any changes which includes closing the account You Yeah so can you tell me why that is considering I already used the credit card and the reason I wan na close the account is because your method of submitting documentation is incredibly insecure and so that method documentation submission is not acceptable to me so we're closing the account. And so I would like to close it regardless of if that documentation is submitted or not and so I'm continuing to escalate until someone can either close it or I reach out to the financial bureau, and then I can take this recorded call and submit it to the consumer financial protection bureau and they can correspond on my behalf to close it. So I would love to get a resolution before I have to do that considering while I'm waiting on hold, I'm just actively going through the steps of filing a complaint. So I would like to get that settled before I get to the final step if that's something you can help me with Participant OK well thank you for letting me know that you're recording and for quality purposes this call may be monitored and recorded. We're sorry that you're having so much trouble honestly I know that it's a lot of personal information that we were requesting and I can understand your concern but there won't be a way for us to close this account until we receive the documentation for the order. The other option would be to leave the account as accounts like this will probably to be closed after 90 days. 

You That's great, but if you're not providing me a method to close it on my demand as according to the credit card policy I signed, that states I can do that with no conditions on submitting identity documentation then that's OK I can go ahead and just submit this transcript and either the protection bureau can either get back to you before 90 days or y'all will figure out a way to deal with it without the sensitive documents. So if that's your final resolution if you could give me your name just so I can send that along with all the other information that would be great Participant Yeah, my name is XXXX. I will not give you my last name, but I can give you my employee number You That would be great Participant Yeah, that would be XXXX You Great, and so you're saying this is the final step with the escalation, that this is your resolution correct? 

Participant We won't be able to close this account by your request, correct. 

You Great, that's all I need now thank you very much

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation