Breadfinancial

I never heard of Bread Financial until getting a "you're in default on a loan" letter from them in the mail. A thief used my name and good credit to take out a loan and buy over $1000 in equipment from Nikon.

I get that lenders walk a fine line between making their applications too onerous and making it too easy to open a fraudulent account. However, you would think they could have (1) mailed me something when the account was opened, (2) verified that the phone number used matched a known number in my credit report, (3) verified that the email address used matched a known email for me. Or (4), "other" verification. Any one of these things would have been an improvement.

I'm still cleaning up the mess made when a criminal stole my identity and Bread allowed it to happen with their toothless identity verification. So it's safe to say I'm not a Bread fan.

I've had two Comenity/Bread/American Express Cash Back and Bread/Amex Rewards credit cards (touted by them as wonderfully benefitted) for about four months, obtained within a few months from one another. Aside from Bread's many website glitches and outages, the more important issue was their assumption that there was fraud on my fraud-less, undisputed accounts; therefore, after many transactions, my cards were locked. After four phone calls to them, and two snail mail letters from them asking for my response, my rectifying efforts were futile. I was informed of ongoing, days-long investigations, prompted by Bread.

After getting nowhere, I cancelled Account #1. Then days afterward, I cancelled Account #2, which underwent the same scenario as Account #1. They didn't trust my repeated verbal verifications enough to stop investigating a victimless, non-crime, yet they trusted that it was me canceling the accounts. My online access remained normal (and still is), and they trusted me enough to send me emails and bills. The tables turned. I don't trust THEM! They wanted me to snail mail them documented ID proof of a sensitive nature. I refused. The rep said he understood why, due to potential ID theft. That unnecessary risk would have been all mine.

On Account #2, Bread cheated me out of $50 cash back. I was $17 short of earning it, and then the card was locked. I suspect that Bread used such tactics to deny my earned cash rewards; or, they don't like customers like me who pay them in full every month. They're cited 'potential security concerns' or 'irregular transactions,' as excuses to cheat me of usage and cash back. I told the rep that if there are security concerns, it's at their end. As for 'irregular transactions,' I'd already asked them early on to note the type of spending that would be recorded on my accounts.

I've complained to American Express (who unwisely partnered with them), to the Ohio Attorney General, and to Federal agencies about Bread. I've also posted my complaints on multiple consumer sites. A plethora of complaints and '1' ratings are posted on most of the latter. Those ratings are justifiably deserved.