Victoria Secret switched to paperless w/o consent and then didn't send any paper or emails bills. Was charged late fee's and reported to credit agency
Complaint
Steph
Country: United States
I've been an account holder for 8+ years and never late and always paid my balance in full. Some time in the past few months my Victoria Secret credit card (WFNNB) was changed to paperless statements with out my consent. I never received any paper or paperless bills. I got a call one day saying that I was past due 2 months and immediately paid the bill in full. I then came to find out that they also reported it to the 3 credit agencies after my loan agent told me that I had a negative mark. I immediately contacted V.S. to remove the late payments, charges and the negative credit report. They removed the late payments and charges but referred me to their mailing address since no one on the phone could get it removed and there was no department that I could be transferred to! I sent a letter to them and received the vaguest letter I've ever read in my life. Basically stating that they investigated the information and the account is accurate as currently reported on your credit file. This doesn't even answer the good will letter to remove the negative credit report.
I shouldn't be responsible for something that wasn't my fault in the first place. Changing to paperless statements with out my consent and never receiving any notification that their was a bill. They removed the late fee and finance charges but refuse to remove the negative credit for a loyal customer that was never late and paid on time. This has to be illegal and WFNNB is committing fraud.
I feel so emotional right now. Being a loyal and good customer user to mean something. Guess they rather loose a good customer over a issue that was not even my fault.
I urge everyone who was a WFNNB (Victoria Secret, Express, or any other department store that uses WFNNB) to immediately cancel their cards and just stick with your regular VISA, MasterCard, AMEX or even Discover. At least these big banks still understand the meaning of a loyal customer and customer service!
I'm going to continue to social network, blog, twitter, facebook, BBB, FTC, credit agencies, news channel, and whatever method I can get the word out that WFNNB is committing fraud!
I shouldn't be responsible for something that wasn't my fault in the first place. Changing to paperless statements with out my consent and never receiving any notification that their was a bill. They removed the late fee and finance charges but refuse to remove the negative credit for a loyal customer that was never late and paid on time. This has to be illegal and WFNNB is committing fraud.
I feel so emotional right now. Being a loyal and good customer user to mean something. Guess they rather loose a good customer over a issue that was not even my fault.
I urge everyone who was a WFNNB (Victoria Secret, Express, or any other department store that uses WFNNB) to immediately cancel their cards and just stick with your regular VISA, MasterCard, AMEX or even Discover. At least these big banks still understand the meaning of a loyal customer and customer service!
I'm going to continue to social network, blog, twitter, facebook, BBB, FTC, credit agencies, news channel, and whatever method I can get the word out that WFNNB is committing fraud!
Comments
By switching you to "paperless" without your authorization, they failed to comply with FCBA, which technically means that under federal law, the penalty amounts are not legally owed, their billing for them is illegal, and their negative reporting to your credit report is false. Their removal of the late payment charges is their admission that they messed up their billing, failed to comply with FCBA, billed you in error, and by law had to correct it.
That is your lever.
Dispute the negative information on your credit reports through each CRA so that if WFNNB verifies it rather than removing it, they can be held liable for violating FCRA. Send your dispute to the CRAs via certified mail, return receipt requested, so you have proof of your dispute.
If they "verify" through the CRAs, also send a letter to WFNNB, to their legal department, notifying them that they were in violation of FCBA for failing to send out statements as required by law, and that they have erroneously verified their negative reporting arising from their violation of FCBA. Demand that they remove their negative reporting. Send that letter certified, return receipt requested as well, and add "CC: FTC, OCC" at the bottom.
File complaints with FTC, and with OCC (the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), for violation of FCBA and FCRA. You can file OCC complaints at www.occ.gov.
If a mortgage is at stake, then your damages may be substantial. Get an attorney, since they are basically ignoring you, and they are far more likely to take this seriously if they get a letter from your attorney. You might try www.naca.net
In the future do NOT use store cards for any purpose. You end up dealing with banks like WFNNB, who basically assume their customers can only get store credit on uncompetitive terms and as you found are willing to trash your credit to see that it stays that way. It's actually to their financial advantage that you be locked into using only their credit. Store credit (at typically 24%, which is absurd) is only useful for first establishing credit.
Establish banking and credit relationships with your own banks, in case you need them on your side in a merchant dispute. Your terms are also more likely to be competitive.
Hopefully the reversal of fees and late charges has some leverage with this matter. I truly appreciate the information you provided. I won't let them get away with fraud!
All they do is send some electronic message to their client, WFNNB, (a "data furnisher", DF, or maybe "D*** F***s", in CRA terms) indicating that a particular reported tradeline is being disputed by some consumer, classified as some type of dispute coded into 2 characters.
With at least 2 of the CRAs, this coding is carried out by third world clerks probably making less than your lunch money per day, unless you get labeled as a "VIP" like a celebrity, politician, judge, or attorney, in which case they have VIP departments to fix problems. Such is the hypocrisy of maintaining "maximum possible accuracy" of credit reports.
The data furnisher, WFNNB, receives this message, and is supposed to conduct a "reasonable investigation", and either remove it, correct it, or certify back to the CRA that it is "accurate". If they fail to respond within 30 days, the CRA is supposed to just remove it, so that is why you want proof of receipt by the CRA, to force removal if there is no response.
Until you have disputed through the CRA, and the DF has "verified" it, they aren't even liable for errors under FCRA. If you were to sue for violations of FCRA without a CRA dispute, your case would just be thrown out of court. Basically, the system is set up to allow lots of deniability for all the inside players, supposedly because until you dispute, they couldn't have known there was a "mistake" and can't be sure whose "mistake" it was, so they get to just fix it with no one liable.
Get a copy of your 3 CRA credit reports, make a copy of the page showing the negative reporting, and dispute as "Not Late". That is all the CRA will pass on, and matches what you already disputed back to WFNNB. WFNNB will probably dumbly parrot back what they already did, except now they can be held liable for their reporting. You might include in your letter that WFNNB violated FCBA by failing to send statements in violantion of law, but that won't make any difference to the CRA clerks, it's just to pressure WFNNB's legal department as it would show up in front of a judge as part of your paper trail should the matter go to court.
Do not do an "on line" dispute, send it IN WRITING, certified return receipt requested, to each CRA, and keep copies of everything, along with the certified receipts and return confirmation cards or USPS online delivery confirmation.
You now have your records of your dispute over their screw-up in failing to send statements in violation of FCBA, your statements showing the reversal of the interest and late fees consistent with correcting the FCBA violation, and documentation from the CRA probably claiming it's "late" anyway.
That is the paper trail you take to an attorney, along with documentation of screwing up your mortgage financing and the associated financial costs, both out of pocket, and forward interest carrying or opportunity costs. If your mortgage was rejected, get a letter from your banker or mortgage broker indicating that this black mark was the cause.
Your attorney letter would probably be to their legal department, who interests are in "risk mitigation" and minimizing losses to the firm, not arguing over the finer points of credit reporting in front of a judge, with your attorney possibly being paid by them the longer they take to settle.
Your communications so far has been with idiot drones who really don't give a damn, but what would you then do if you were now in this position? There is really nothing in it for them to hold out. It's already obvious they trashed any future business with you, so there isn't even that as leverage. Best to just settle as cheaply and quickly as possible.
In the future, manage your credit relationships. Move up to more competent financial partners who have integrity. Some lenders you just don't want or need. They aren't worth it.
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/06 ... au-to-fix-error
Note that although the consumer disputed the erroneous entry with TU, and TU passed it on to the DF, who "verified" the erroneous information, TU then basically ignored the consumers documentation of the DF's error.
However, under FCRA, the DF was then potentially liable. The dispute with documentation sent directly to the DF finally shook loose a correction of the error. The next step would have been a lawsuit, with the DF facing liability under FCRA due to the CRA dispute, and proveably notified of the dispute through the consumer's direct dispute with them.
I just experienced the same thing. I'm about to apply for a mortgage and it came to my attention that my West Elm credit card was past due. I never received any paper statements. I never signed up for online statements and never received notice that my online statements were available. (My emails are saved for a year, even if they do go into spam or junk mailboxes, so I'm sure they never sent me anything.) There was no notice whatsoever. This is another clear example of predatory lending. I'll be cutting up all store credit cards, especially if they're owned by WFNNB. Thanks for the additional guidelines offered above.
Mark
File a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, reporting that this bank is not properly and timely crediting your credit card payments and is charging erroneous late fees. Include in your complaint that you verified your payent was processed with their store manager.
OCC regulates nationally chartered banks. Maybe if they think the issue will come up in their next audit, they will respond.
You can file a complaint at www.occ.gov
A late charge is one thing, but if it's not delinquent by 30 days past the due date, it's not technically late as reported on credit reports, since the CRAs only report late payments as 30, 60, 90 days, etc.
Safer to send your minimum payment on the account now, making sure it arrives timely and within 30 days of the prior statement due date. Mail your payment certified so you can verify delivery to their dropbox through the USPS website. That way, if they now claim it's late, you have independent USPS verification for your OCC complaint that they are improperly crediting payments (for the second time now).
Then also proceed with your dispute sent to their dispute address (NOT their payment address) again mailed certifed, followed by the OCC complaint if they don't fix it and back out all charges.
Keep copies of all records, certified receipts, and USPS.com delivery verifications.
Some of the largest have used early payment cutoff times, so that payments received on the due date might still be "late". Citi got sued in a class action lawsuit over that, and shifted its cutoff time later.
Others have used due dates on Sunday, when there is no mail delivery, in effect cutting into the grace period while making it more likely for consumers to just miss the actual effective due date based on the last mail delivery that would post as on time.
Many banks direct payments to a P.O. box or "drop box", which is picked up and processed later at another facility, possibly by a subcontractor. They are all supposed to be posting payments as "on time" based on delivery date and time at the address they direct you to mail to, regardless of whether it takes several days to actually process the mail. The account balance might only reflect the payment several days later when the check is processed, but any late fees must be assessed based on when they RECEIVED your payment envelope at the address they directed you to send it to. they don't get to foward it by slow boat to China, then charge you a "late fee" for opening the envelope a month late.
One bank, Providian, known for signing up lots of subprime customers, got sued for various predatory practices against its customers, including signing them up for "credit protection" without their permission. They also had reports from ex-employees that they were shredding payment checks, presumably to increase "late fees" for "payments lost in the mail". Those lawsuits, and other allegations involving manipulation of financial reports, eventually forced their sell off of their credit card operation to WAMU, later merged into Chase.
There are processes for "rescoring" corrected credit reports for mortgage purposes, using reports corrected with the removal of erroneous information that is verified in the process. In addition, the CRAs have departments for expediting corrections of errors when mortgages are involved.
Your mortgage broker should know how to request this.