topic Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity) in Credit Cards

Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 02:49:12 GMT

Stay away from the Total Rewards Visa Card backed by Comenity Bank!!

I had a card with them for 5 years that had a $15,000 available credit. I never made a late payment - never even had a late payment on any account with any credit/bill during the past 10 years.

I carried a balance of more than $10,000 for the past couple years due to now-ex-wife spending. I was preparing to go on a trip and paid the balance off to use the card. Without any warning or communication, Comenity immediately changed my available credit to $1000.

I am now unable to take the family vacation I had planned because of Comenity. I called in and the primary operator connected me to a "Total Rewards Supervisor" who basically indicated that any change in my account activity and/or or monthly automatically - my account details could be altered and that he receives a few calls like mine every week.

DO NOT TRUST COMENTIY TO TREAT YOU FAIRLY OR OPENLY COMMUNICATE THEIR INTENTIONS. THEY ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH and I will take every possible opportunity to persuade every person that I know (personally and professionally) to stop doing business with Comenity. And I will take every free moment I have - where any person or organization has frustrated me - and I will use that time/energy to continue my crusade to deliver a financial impact to Comenity Bank - and Caesars has not only lost a credit card client - but a customer as well. By partnering with Comenity Caesars shares the guilt and I will include them in my crusade. I assure both organizations that I will cost them income and/or profits that are magnitudes greater than any amounts they have earned from me in the past as a client and I will not stop this crusade until I feel confident that together they have been impacted 100x the amount they impacted me today ($15,000,000).

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Meanmchine — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 02:49:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I carried a balance of more than $10,000 for the past couple years due to now-ex-wife spending.

You carry a $10k balance to a casino for two years and you complain that they CLD you? This is your fault and no one elses

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

NoAnchoviesPlease — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 02:50:30 GMT

To be fair to srmcglothlin , Comenity Bank is not a casino, and Caesars Entertainment probably didn't get asked about the CLD decision.

That being said, balance chasing is not all that surprising... I learned that the hard way years ago with BofA and Citi. I would definitely not count on the TR VISA for travel other than to Caesars properties.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

taxi818 — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 02:51:19 GMT

I agree with him. They are scum. It’s not the balance that’s the problem. He paid his interest fees. It’s that they wait until the balance is paid off then cld. After they no longer earning big bucks. The did cld on mine as well. But I only had about $1500 balance. From 5k to 2k. I think it’s more to do with their lack of funds.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 03:11:19 GMT

Did you open any new accounts lately? I wonder if this is just another version of their total account shutdown when you start mixing in more Visa cards or if they just got spooked by so many new accounts in a short period. I had the SCT on the Total Rewards Visa and I was able to enjoy it for one swipe and got shut down. All I had was Wayfair and TR with them at the time, but they didn't like my mini app spree so both were closed by them. I still got my vouchers and Platinum status for a year. Lesson learned for me, no more Comenity for me. (I still get SCTs on William Sonoma for their Visa, but fool me once..)

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 03:29:30 GMT

Note taken. I bit on the Sportman's Guide BT offer. Got it down to $1,250. Hopefully they don't hit me with an AA for that. Never have a statement balance of more than $125 on my Total Rewards.

If being a low spender would close down all CCs I wouldn't have any at all. I simply know my life has much less stress in it when I am not constantly thinking about loads of debt.

As far as casinos go, I don't think it is fair they give you a plastic card and monitor your movement. They know when you check into your room, when and what you eat and how much you are spending on video gambling. But if you so much as count cards they think you are cheating. The whole enterprise feels like an oppressive environment to me.

Comenity is the only one making a little money on me on this co-branded card, although I pay in full every month unless doing a year long, interest free BT. The swipes is the little money Comenity is making on me.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

ecxpa — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 03:32:53 GMT

It seems that this is something Comenity does from time to time......they CLD a lot of people for a while then it's back to normal for a while. They CLD'd my TR visa then had me to re-apply and gave me a larger credit line. I still don't feel comfortable with them.

Sorry to hear about you not being able to take your vacation.....but then if you have to put your vacation on a high interest CC maybe it's not time for a vacation.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 08:32:06 GMT

Comenity does not like big movements.

Opening tons of new accounts

Lots of inqs

SCT abuse followed by cold apping for an actual branded visa or mastercard

Huge spend increases or payoffs

All of this spooks them.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 07:02:47 GMT

To mean machine. I carried a $10k balance from a low interest balance transfer promo. I didn't gamble and lose $10k. I pod it off with a bonus I received from work with the intention to use the card for vacation travel and then pay off the balance with the remainder of my bonus. I'm updet because I lost $15k cash flow right before going on vacation.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 01:36:11 GMT

But if you can’t afford to take a vacation without being able to pay it off in a month that’s not what a credit card is for. It’s safe to build up the more prime cards for cash flow. They are the safer ones for that sort of thing. I’m sorry you weren’t able to take that vacation. That’s a real bummer. But maybe it’s for the best. If you needed the credit card to do it, you really couldn’t afford it....

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

UncleB — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 07:04:48 GMT

Just a friendly reminder to please remember to keep your posts FSR (Friendly, Supportive, and Respectful) per the TOS of this website.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Forum-Etiquette/m-p/2797115

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

happypill — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 08:13:56 GMT

What happened to you is known here at the MyFICO forums as balance chasing. Pretty much every lender will take this type of action if they feel they are at risk. I'd say it is a fortunate mistake that you came to these forums to complain but might actually learn something about how credit card issuers work that could help you in the future.

There are a number of things that negatively impact your credit. People like to focus on inquiries but thes have relatively small impact. Obviously missing payments and defaulting are huge factors, but they are not the only things. After missing payments, maxing out cards and available credit are among the riskiest bahaviors from the persepctive of the lender. This is appears to be the first gap in your knowledge because you focus on the fact that you never missed any payments (good), but gloss over the fact that you had really high utilization for a really long time (risky).

The second thing you seem to be confused about is that they should have communicated with you before decreasing your credit limit. That is something that lenders (all lenders, not just commenity) will never do. If they spot risky behavior, the last thing they want to do is to alert a borrower that they look risky - that would just prompt a borrower who actually is at risk to max out their limits. What lenders actually do is balance chase, reduce limits and/or close accounts to minimize their risk. All lenders do this, though each will become skittish about different activities.

Based on your story, I'm going to guess that you have little to no other available credit; so either this Total Rewards card is your only card, or if you have other cards they are already maxed out. This means that your utilization has been through the roof for a really long time. If you do in fact have other cards, what you really need to worry about is your other lenders taking action against you at the first opportunity. And let's be honest, if you need to max out all of your available credit for a vacation, they are probably saving you from yourself.

Here's some general credit advice that's pretty common around these forums. Never miss a payment and pay in full every month if you can. If you're not able to do that keep your utilization below 10% on each card if possible and if you're not able to do that then under 30%. Diversify your accounts with many different lenders.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

taxi818 — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 12:41:56 GMT

I guess no one read the part where he said his ex wife maxed out his cards. He carried high balance but paid monthly. So when he got his bonus. He made a 10k payment. Then boom. Cld just like that. I think I would just have paid like 30% of balance and kept the cash. If I had carried balance for that long. No reason to rush to pay it off st this point.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

ecxpa — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 16:51:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To mean machine. I carried a $10k balance from a low interest balance transfer promo. I didn't gamble and lose $10k. I pod it off with a bonus I received from work with the intention to use the card for vacation travel and then pay off the balance with the remainder of my bonus. I'm updet because I lost $15k cash flow right before going on vacation.

At this point you may just want to review some of the posts here and elsewhere about balance chasing for furture reference. Also carrying credit card balances can be devastating especially if they are large. Work on your profile and get cards that give you a 0% offer for the times you do carry a balance which I do from time to time but these are on cards with a 0% promo...........not a low interest promo. Using a credit card as cash flow is not what they were intended for even though some do use them as such. Work on getting a line of credit for situations where you need to access funds........even then it shoud be short term.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 21:39:00 GMT

I agree! Do not do business with these people. They have no customer relations at all. You will never get a finance charge removed for any reason whatsoever. They are the worst to deal with. Move on there are friendlier business out there.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 21:39:58 GMT

Please let me know if there are any other places on the web to complain about this company.

Thanks,

Danny

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

kdm31091 — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 21:45:36 GMT

Unfortunately, while you can complain, there really isn't much that can/will be done. Creditors are free to assess risk and adjust limits or close accounts at any time. They will cite this clause when you complain. Carrying a large balance for a long period, whether due to your own spending or not, signals risk to lenders and this "balance chasing" isn't uncommon.

I agree though in general Comenity isn't the best and certainly they aren't known for being flexible or accomodating, so I wouldn't waste too much effort trying to argue with them. Move on to better lenders and products (IMO the TR Visa is nothing special anyway).

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

NoAnchoviesPlease — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 21:58:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I agree! Do not do business with these people. They have no customer relations at all. You will never get a finance charge removed for any reason whatsoever. They are the worst to deal with. Move on there are friendlier business out there.

You may want to note that most (if not all) credit card companies charge finance charges, and very few will remove them without a good reason--those who do will usually do it automatically (i.e. if you pay on the statement processing date).

Every single bank and credit card company on the planet has plenty of people who will say they suck, they're evil, they're "the worst to deal with," etc.

And any credit card issuer can, and has the right under the contract you signed to get the card to, increase or decrease your credit limit and cash advance limit, close your account, place limits, refuse charges, charge interest and fees as disclosed in their T&C, etc. Few banks or even credit unions will pursue "friendliness" over financial stability and even profits. If you find one who does, let people know.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

taxi818 — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:53:39 GMT

Wow. The hard cold truth. Take it ez.

Re: Total Rewards VISA (Comenity)

pipeguy — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 01:21:35 GMT

This thread is an interesting read, especially since Comenity actually did a CLD rather than flat out closed the card. There are a lot (!) of threads on MyFico concerning the ease of getting Comenity cards through the "cart trick" and almost as many of Comenity shutting accounts down typically with the excuse of "too many inquiries" which in many cases is total nonsense (I'd rather use a stronger word) including in my case.

Rather than paste a copy of my TR history and unjustified closure again (no high carried usage, no missed payments, after 21 months of use), I'll just say lenders like Comenity and Barclays are not like most lenders (much more skittish than most) - you have a choice as to who you do business with. I refuse to be treated as "guilty" without cause and refuse to do business with skittish card issuers, my choice and I'm happy with that choice.