Kohl's review: unethical lending practices 35

Hello I just went into Kohl’s for the first time just over 2 weeks ago. While checking out at the service desk I was told if I applied for store credit I would receive a considerable amount off my purchase. I was approved. When prompted we swiped our bank card (obviously because the card was to be mailed 7-10 business days). We got the kohl’s card 2 weeks later and decided to check out the after Thanksgiving sales. When we activated the card it had a charge on it! They didn’t have our permission to make a payment using the new card and we paid using our bank account! After talking to a clueless customer service manager, we paid over the mobile app. It said “payment approved and showed a zero balance “. We spent $10 minimal amount to make sure they were trustworthy. I went to pay the $10 and the old bill that said paid was back on our account! I checked everything and tried two more times to pay online. After calling customer service (I’d rather have explosive diarrhea) they talk in circles and ask you if you want to use the khol’s card to pay your Khol’s card balance 🤪 After 30 minutes of the most frustrating conversation with a customer service representative ever, I was told that I have to take a paper check to the store in person and pay my bill that way. They consider a “bank card” as if it were a “credit card “ and you can’t pay with a credit card. Am I the only one in 2022 that stopped paying with checks when they started scanning them and ripping them up and handing them back to you? I’m so done with Khol’s. I still have 12 days to pay the first charge but honestly I don’t trust this crooked business. They are hoping people never discover the first unapproved charge and are at the highest Apr for the life of the card. And I’m certainly not going to put that bunch on autopay. Don’t let those few bargains get you in debt and ruin your good credit. It’s not worth the headache.

This is a global marketplace and we are all busy people. What sets good companies apart from bad ones is that they care about their customers and their brand image enough to avoid making their process difficult which results in basically preying on people who are not perfect in tracking their bills. Most people out there do not keep a spreadsheet for their bills, yet are able to stay on top of most of their bills enough to not get their credit ruined. Responsible companies have learned that a courtesy phone call goes a long way before reporting a low dollar debt to credit agencies. People have gotten accustomed to this norm. When a credit company such as the one Kohl's is using is not following the same norm, instead, institutes a "zero tolerance" attitude in addition to what I would also characterize as blatant abuse (by not sending out paper statements even if one did not sign up for electronic ones), while actually making a profit from doing it in this fashion, now one can make the argument that they are unethical and possibly breaking laws. I personally have 30 years of perfect credit history and Kohl's got me too. They offered a discount at the register as incentive to sign up for their charge card. They never sent a paper bill, or an electronic one. I lost the temporary card they gave me at the register. From that point on it was impossible to sign up or pay the bill. 6 phone calls later they still were unable to locate my account without the account number even though I provided my social security number which I always try to avoid over the phone. Long story short, it was an unnecessarily difficult and draining process, took me many hours to unravel and by the time I was able to pay my debt, they had reported the delinquency to all three credit bureaus. It will not kill me, I still have good credit and I make enough money that I do not need to borrow anything - but I will forever remember the bad experience and will share it with people if it ever comes up. I also will not do business with Kohl's ever again. Do not care that their credit company is a separate entity, as far as I am concerned, it is the same brand experience.

Kohl's have the worst customer service I have ever experienced. My husband got a Kohl's credit card in an attempt to build his credit rating in this country. He immigrated from Australia 9 years ago and has had to build a credit rating by getting credit cards. He made the mistake of getting a Kohls credit card, because after working hard building his credit rating, they reported him 30 days late. This occurred due to their faulty website. While he was overseas for over a month, he attempted to pay his bill, but the website would not let him make a payment. This I might add has occurred on several other occasions, but was easy to fix by just making a phone call. Being overseas, phone calls to America are astronomical, so he decided to just contact then upon his return to the US expecting them to understand that he had no way of making the payment due to their webpage not working. NEVER GET A KOHLS CARD... My husband's credit rating was in the 700 range, but now has sunk down to the low 600's.. Kohl's also lied to him. They agreed over the phone to remove the late report they made to the credit bureau. He spoke to a lady in the corporate department. He was told to wait 48 hours and this would be take care of. They basically lied to him, because after phoning today, they said it would not be taken care of. Is anyone doing a class action law suite, because this needs to happen.

Like many others, I woke up one morning to find a ding on my otherwise perfect credit report put there by Kohls. In my case, I had forgotten about a $15 purchase due in April. In June, I was applying for a car loan and got a surprise courtesy of Equifax.

Kohls systems and processes are inadequate. They issue email statements that go straight to spam. They make sinister robo calls from an undisclosed number. They write … but only when the damage is done. The customer service agents are helpful – but helpless in actually being able to do anything about the punitive damage they have wreaked. Finally – they write again to give you a haughty lecture on the appropriateness of their unilateral decision to inflict permanent damage.

Kohls could use technology to fix this. They have close working relationships with credit reporting agencies. Surely they could use this to see if you have a good credit history and use this to judge the approprriate action that would prevent misery among their customers and loss of revenues at their stores.

Kohls cannot hide behind Chase. If Kohls has outsourced its credit card to Chase, then it has abdicated responsibility for their own reputation to a third party that has no care or concern for Kohls or its customers. That is a foolish mistake.
Bottom line – a Kohls credit card is not worth the risk to your reputation.

Seems like alot of people dont receive their bills. Maybe Kohls has a problem getting them out in hopes of collecting late fees and then punishing people by reporting it to the credit agencies. I also had a problem with not recieving my bills and did contact them and sent money right away. I have always sent more than the minimum and paid on-line when I did not receive. I know several people who say they dont receive their bill. Is this a regular practice! Hummm
Shame on you Kohls

Khols reports to credit reporting companies faster and quicker then any other card. They report 30 days as soon as it happens, not like other credit cards. Something is wrong with this company. People that pay their bills and late charges are getting reported too quickly. Khols does not make money off of reporting to agencies, they make money off of customers paying payments, late fees and interest. Khols need to do a reality check on what they are doing. They are loosing customers. I will not shop there nor will my friends and family. I bet you most people who have paid their bill a little late have been reported to credit agencies by Khols and do not even know it.

I too got a 30 day derog for a $5.00 bill! The problem is not the late charges or fees or interest...it is getting a 30 day derog on your credit report. Other credit card companies do not do this! Only Khols reports it real fast. I do not think this is good customer relations. My US Bank credit card does not even report derogs unless it is over 90 days. That is good customer relations. I will keep that card. As for Khols, is will never ever shop there again. I spend alot of money on clothes. They miss out on my money because of reporting a 30 day late on a $5.00 bill. It is the only derog I have ever had too. In 5 years it will drop off and Khols will still not have me as a customer. Smart play for Khols.

I just cancelled my Kohl's account. I made a purchase totaling $69.15, and paid it online. A month later, I get a notice saying the bill hadn't been paid. "Okay, " I thought, "I must have forgotten." I paid a second time, complete with interest and fees. I waited after making the payment, to make sure I received a confirmation screen and the payment went through. Now I get another call saying I'm delinquent in my payments which is "highly unusual for me." #!*$ yeah, because I always pay right away. In two months, my $69.15 bill is now $132.90. I paid it, but will never set foot in a Kohl's store again. Why would I? If anyone else stole $63.75 from me, I'd have nothing more to do with them.

I, too, have recently encountered a similar issue, which started in January 2010. I signed up for paperless billing, and I NEVER received the email alerts that I had a bill with an outstanding balance of $8.54. (I surmise that my email hosting service rejected the email as Spam, or they never sent the bill as they claimed.) I had, however, received a letter in the regular mail stating that I was two months late. I rarely use my Kohl's card, so I was not looking out for a missing bill, either. I called immediately to get this resolved, and the interest and late fee were removed. A few months later, I checked my credit reports, and I was shocked to find that this $8.54 was reflecting negatively on my credit. I have numerous account with Chase, which issued the card, and I have NEVER been late on any of their cards, and always pay my balances in full, including balances in the $thousands that I always pay in full. After numerous calls and letters (not only to Kohl's but also to the credit agencies), I asked to have someone from their credit reporting department call me, since this is ridiculous. It's now two weeks later, and I have yet to receive a call. I am about to apply for a mortgage, and I am not at all happy about this reflecting poorly on my credit. If I had received the bill before it was originally due, I would have paid it! My next stop is to contact Chase and Kohl’s headquarters. Wish me luck!

Interesting. I paid mine in full in November. I'd had quite a balance, so was pleased to pay if off. Three weeks later (this past Saturday), they reviewed my account, decided I am no longer credit-worthy, and cut my credit line by 3/4. I found this out when I tried to use it. I checked my credit/credit score and there is nothing on there that's changed. I have to wait for the letter explaining their decision. (They can't send me an email?) Next payday I will be paying the small balance I have from Christmas shopping and closing the card. It's too bad, b/c I love to shop at Kohl's, but without the card, it's not worth it. However, I'm not willing to play games with the credit card arm of this company. The rest of my Christmas shopping will be completed at other stores.

I am a Kohl's Charge Customer and have had NO problem what-so-ever with my card or billing. I don't get e-mails saying my payment is due and I don't get a bill in the mail...I just know when my payment is due. Maybe you should make a list of your bills, when they're due, and how much you owe or are going to pay, like my husband and I do. It makes everything a lot more organized and it's a great reminder. You are responsible for making payments on time and improving your credit includes paying your bills on time. As far as the people that pay on time and see that it doesn't go through within 24 hours, write the confirmation code and authorization code down. I normally write that down, when I paid, and how much. If I don't see that it has gone through within 48 hours, I call them, give them that information, and everything is perfectly fine. There's a solution for everything. Also, don't blame Kohl's if you have problems with your Kohl's Charge. They have nothing to do with it. Pay with cash or a debit if you decide not to use your card or cancel it. Like I said, there's a solution for everything and it's your responsibility to make sure that everything is up to par on your billing and payments. Companies are not going to babysit you. Just an opinion. Don't go yelling at me now. haha. Have a great day everyone.

PS NO, I am NOT a Kohl's employee or anything like that. I work at a hair salon and a modeling school. lol. Just wanted to make that clear.

Mean Company, Did the same thing to me, I signed on the internet for paperless statement, and I never got my billing statement in my email rather I got a call that your payment is due, I paid the whole amount and told the lady that I am not getting statement in email, About two months later I planned to buy a house and came to know that Kohl has reported to the credit bureau and they ruined my credit history. Never go to this cheap and mean store.
BA

Offensive Martinis--may have one too many--read the complaints--many of these people have paid their accounts on or ahead of time--or have tried the online suggestion that Kohl's is so big at pushing for and they are ruining people's credit over this (them and Chase, obviously). Our government should look into these shoddy
practices pronto but they are overwhelmed by so many shoddy practices of big business (the oil fiasco, etc...)
that matters such as these go unattended to. I paid ahead of time at Kohl's and have had nothing but problems because I went into their Lafayette, Louisiana store to pay and the incompetent employees did not know how to process my payment, which had been always on time before that. They tried to screw me with late charges which I had to complain like heck to get removed. Then I get another statement with even more late charges on it and, even though they apologized and acknowledged their errors--they seem unwilling to correct this a second time so now I will hire an attorney who will cost them more than what I owe on their account. And it is all their doing. So maybe some people have reasons to legitmately complain and using bad language on a web site does nothing to enhance your point of view.

Kohl's steals from people through their choice of Chase as their credit handler. They do not deal honorably with
their customers who pay on or ahead of time. Anybody can get screwed over by them. Just beware. I paid ahead of time in-store and they could not process a money order and it has caused months of aggravation and
upset for me because I will not pay for their mistakes, which they openly acknowledge but seem incapable or unwilling to do anything about so I think it is time to have an attorney step in on my behalf and it will cost them more than what my balance is worth, especially if they reported me to a credit bureau for their incompetency.

P.O.'d in Louisiana

I think it really depends on the situation here. I just recently had the same issue -- I bought something the afternoon before my statement closed for that month, and never received an email with my statement (I go for paperless statements). Checked my balance, still was zero -- payment had likely not gone through yet. I assumed it would then be on my next statement, which is what has happened in the past. Just received an email with a new balance, saying that my payment is past due -- they added on a late fee and finance charge. I paid right away to avoid extra penalties. Then, I called customer service and explained what happened, and mentioned that it may have been an issue because my purchase was made so close to the statement date. I also made sure to mention that I have paid every single bill on time and in full with them since I have had a charge card (almost two years now). They were very good about it -- they told me that I would be credited the extra charges and that, since I made my payment less than 30 days late (the payment was due about a week ago) that it would not affect my credit.

If you're accidentally throwing away statements, it does ultimately come back to being more organized. If the company neglects to send you a statement altogether, however, that's on them.

O MY LORD THE BLACK LADY MISSED A PAYMENT! O LORDY LORDY LORD!

A person generally has a minimum of 3 accounts (credit cards, utility or services) that are reported to the big three credit monitoring companies. Seven years, is 84 months x 3 accounts =252. Miss or be late on 1-bill in that timeframe and it equals a 99.6% on time payment history. Great job, but you are responsible for missing that one payment. The penalty, is however is outragous, and I would never lose a customer with that type of payment history.

Flip it around. A price check conducted by the Federal Trade Commission of department stores resulted in a error rate of 9.15% or 90.85% accuracy rate. (http://www.ftc.gov/reports/scanner1/scanners.shtm) . The result of these errors led to “hefty fines” by the FTC. Don't worry, staff cuts, benefit reductions, prices increases with take care of that.

Credit Card companies don’t make money on people who pay on time, they need the balances people carry, late fees, inflated intrest rates or any fee they can come up with to make more money. Kohl's has the right and the ability to change companies who act as a credit agency for them if they choose. You would think Kohls would demand that they conduct thier business with the unifying principals Kohl's projects to the communities and customers it serves.

Two days ago I received a call from Kohl's telling me that I was 60 days late. I paid the bill in full immediately. Usually, I am the sort of person that pays the bill in the month I purchase, and thus never a need to receive a bill. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had not paid the balance in full and would have, had I received a bill. However, I have been inundated, almost every single day, with advertisement and various offers, yet I never received a bill, not one. I called customer service, and they claim that I have received a bill, however, there is nothing in either my email, or spam, or deleted items. This is an issue, I have NEVER been late. I have worked for one of the major credit reporting agencies and am very familiar with disputing items on one's credit report, disputing will not fix this. A class action suite will fix this. And, for all who have been bombarded with advertisements and have not received a bill, I ask that you stand with me on this one. A paperless society is good for our environment, and that is why I decided to opt out of paper bills, however if their Kohl's billing procedures are inadequate and causing consumers unfavorable reporting, something must be done. I will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and I encourage all of you who have had billing issues to do the same. The Federal Trade Commission only acts when there are many complaints. I will also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, they may be able to help.

if your light, gas, phone are late you get a late on your credit history also dont forget stores donot own the cards banks do morgan chase owns the cards used at kohls i notice that you made no mentiion that you cotact kohls companies including banks will remove late fees once on a customer who has not ever been late on payments i know this because it happen to me with a phone fee i ask for a supervisor and he was all happy to do it so i have to ask was this the first or was there another occasion or you were so pissed off you didnt bother with it payed the fee and cancelled the acct

I have also filed a complaint with the FTC for Kohls unlawful billing procedures. The customer service representative took full responsibility for my “late fees” admitting that it was a mistake made by Kohls for not sending me my statement, and that I had in fact, not signed up for online billing. One week later I received notification that Kohls reported this against my credit and my credit score dropped nearly 75 points.

For all of you supporting Kohls does this sound fair to you? Do some research and you will find HUNDREDS of cases exactly like this where people were never informed of delinquent balances and their credit is negatively impacted. A class action lawsuit is soon to follow and then everyone can be forewarned to NEVER open a credit card with Kohls.

I just filed a complaint against Kohl's with the Federal Trade Commission. I recommend that you do this as well.
The more complaints that are filed, the more an attorney will take an interest in this pattern of abuse. Kohl's has proven itself to be a truly unethical company. https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

This is happening to me as we speak. I had perfect credit and am being denied credit and a personal loan. I never received a statement or perhaps threw it away as junk mail. They have wrecked my credit over $28. This once happened several years ago with Macy's and they contacted the credit reporting agencies the day I reported the problem. All three credit reports now say I have a delinquency with Kohl's, although the bill was paid the moment I learned it was outstanding. We're talking $28. I would like to find a lawyer who takes on this type of class action suit. Nothing will happen with an attorney for an individual.

This complaint is silly. You lost your bill, which you're responsible for, which was the cause of this whole mess. You could have called them up, or found one of several ways to check up on how much you owed. Did it not seem strange that you hadn't paid your charge off? While I think the latter part seems a bit ridiculous (on their part), this would have all been avoided if you would have kept track of your bill, however, and you don't seem to take ANY responsibility yourself for enabling the whole mess.

Also, at above, they don't send out any spam (I used to work there, thank GOSH I don't any longer), you signed up for the emails (willingly I might add, as it's never required for anything), and on every email it has a link to disable them being sent. As far as THAT part goes, you could have avoided it, though I agree that it's ludicrous that they would put the charges on as soon as you decided to close the account, and that they're selective on most of their policies.

In my case, I paid the bill online, the site it said that it was accepted, but money hadn't been taken out of my bank even after 3-4 days. Called up the agency, they claimed that no payment was ever made, which seemed to be truthful at the time. About a week later, I got my paycheck to see that the balance I was paying ($54 and some odd cents) were taken out of my checking account, which I assumed was used to pay off my remaining balance.

I checked on my card balance online, and the balance still remains. I'm still being told that the money hadn't been paid, when I have indisputable proof that that EXACT amount was taken out of my account, I've called an attorney about it, but nothing has been set in stone yet.

I just had the same thing happent to me for a $5 delinquency. I have a perfect credit history with all my credit card accounts but was late on a $5 payment because I switched to electronic statements and I missed it in all the spam Kohl's send out. But, the bad report didn't show up on my record until the day I called and asked to close my account. I always use cash or debit when making purchases at Kohl's except when I can get an additional discount with the card. Well, it's not much of a savings when I end up paying a $29 fee for late payment on a $51 purchase. Despite my perfect history, Kohl's Credit refused to reverse the report. I don't think that it is a coincidence that the negative report was posted the same day the account was closed. Frankly, I believe that Kohl's Credit inconsistently applies their reporting policy and I am discussing possible action with my attorney.

For all of you who would argue that it is my responsibility to keep track of my charges and pay the bill, I agree. My error was trying to save paper by receiving electronic statements. I would argue, however, that this is not so much about my failure to pay my bill on time (and, oh by the way, I paid dearly in fees for it) but it is about Kohl's Credit inconsistently applying their policy. It appears to me that it is selectively applied, at least in my case.

You should report this to the BBB. Also; dispute this with the three credit monitoring agencies (Experian, Equifax and Transunion). In my case Kohl's reported this to only 2 agencies, they did not report it to Transunion. Moreover, after 3 months of paying them off, they still have not updated the balance to the credit reporting agencies. They still show that I owe $133.

The Federal Trade Commission website has a very helpful pamphlet on how to properly go about dispute errors on your credit report. Please note that you can always do this yourself and do not have to pay a service to “fix” your credit history.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre21.htm

Good luck to you, please let me know how it goes, I'm doing the same thing, all this takes time, no smoke so far.

Shash, Same thing has happened to me and my credit score has dropped from 775 to 660. I am having sleepless nights and do not know what to do. I have had a spotless credit history and now I am banging my head thinking "why did i even open this account". All this happened when I am just about to buy a house.

Please help ...

Why would users go out of the way to condemn complaints about Kohl's. After all this is a complaint's board. I have proof to make my case, where as all I'm getting - hey pay your bills from various "Kohl's Fans"

wow. i wish i was being paid by kohls because this would be the easiest job in the world. do you really think your statement is logical. if they didnt care about you why would they bother to pay people to do something like this. get real. you were wrong.

If you doubt me see all the comments by kenadie, dolla, jt12 you guys are talking Kohl's up. I would appreciate if Kohl's puts efforts in addressing the problems rather than covering it up by paying you DA's

Looks to me that all the guys posting against are being paid by Kohl's further proving my point. Thanks Kohls.

Again it all comes back to you. You are responsible for your payments. You need to keep track of when the payment is due. You misplaced the bill not Kohl's. How are they to know you put it someplace it wasn't going to be found. Credit card companies send the bill, there is a date on it when the bill is due! They did their job of notifying you when the bill is due, the rest is up to you.

You are right that we should pay our Bills on time, and also correct in saying that the problem is Chase. However, the payment information is sent through Kohls, you log on to Kohl's site to make the payment. So as far as customer is concerned it's all Kohls. In my case, I never received a notification from them that the Bill is due. Never received a snail mail (I had signed for paperless billing). Never received email. Kohls called but never left a voice message. But spoiled my credit history, I cannot get a home loan now. They did call me again after 60 days and I paid the dues along with the late fee within 10 min. Issue here is Kohls failing to notify it's customers, but not failing to notify the credit monitoring companies. You are welcome to use Kohls, but be prepared to be surprised one day or another. Once it happens you can hardly do anything other than coming to these places and venting steam. Do yourself a favor and stay away from Kohl's credit card.

When you open a credit account, the issuer does it with the expectation that you will be paying your bills on time. You say, "I do not belive that someone's credit should be damage by been late on a 15 dlls payment.".. but do you think Kohls would have issued you credit if you had told them in advance that you had a nonchalant attitude about paying your bills, and would be late in making your payments?

Please pay your bills, as not paying your bills has a negative effect on our economy. We all need to be a little bit more responsible in our financial dealings. Some banks offer finance classes for high schoolers, maybe you could attend one of those to get up to speed on how to keep track of your obligations from month to month.

before you ban kohls, you need to understand that the store is separate from the credit company. chase bank bought out kohls credit a few years ago. you should consider banning chase bank rather than the store. also, no one ever said that you had to use your kohls charge to shop there.

I had a similar issue. My payment was due on April, I never received an bill in the mail, or email or over the phone stating the payment is due, and I got an alert from credit history monitoring system that a 30 day overdue is posted on my credit history. This is disastrous as I'm in the middle of buying a home and here comes KOHLS ruining it all for me. I contacted them, they have logged an dispute I will see how it goes.