Comenity Bank is mostly known for servicing credit cards for stores and other outlets, not for their own branded cards, or retail bank locations. As you will see from the list below, they are the bank behind more than 100 other companies.
Your options for dealing with credit cards serviced by Comenity will often mirror what you can do to settle debts with Synchrony Bank. Both of these banks tend to approach helping their card holders struggling financially by offering hardship plans and settling debt for less than what is owed the same way. Even their external collection policies and procedures are similar.
Before I jump in to how and why you can settle with Comenity for less than the balance you owe, I want to point out that they offer lower monthly payments, which are a good idea if your account is not overly late yet.
Ask Comenity About Hardship Plans
Like most credit card issuers, Comenity offers hardship payment plans to their account holders. If you find it difficult to keep up with your monthly payments to Comenity, and are barely late with payments (less than 60 days), you may be able to get your minimum payments reduced.
Hardship payment plans with Comenity may only be offered to you for a temporary period, like 3 to 12 months.
While some banks are great at offering hardship plans for sixty months, like Chase payment plans, Comenity is a bit more reserved in this regard.
If you read my hardship plan article series you know that you typically have to answer many monthly income and expense questions to find out what type of plan you qualify for, and how low your interest rate can be reduced (some go to zero percent for the full 60 month repayment plan). This is likely something you will have to do with Comenity too.
Answering all those questions is not a problem when all you want is a reduced interest rate and lower monthly payments temporarily, or long term. But answering all those questions is something I would avoid if my goal is to settle my Comenity balance for less.
If you have more than one account you are trying to get reduced interest rates on, and more affordable monthly payment plans, consider working with a nonprofit credit counseling agency. It can be a whole lot simpler to get all of your accounts that qualify enrolled in the 5 year repayments that these counseling offices can get for you. They do all the work!
You Can Settle With Comenity For Less
Settling with Comenity for less than what you owe on your credit card is common. Like with most any credit card that you are negotiating a lower payoff with, you want to be several months late on your payments in order to get the best discount approved.
The outcomes of your settlements can vary depending on your situation. I have good success getting Comenity settled for under 50% once you are 5 months or more late.
If you need several months to pay your Comenity settlement, that is an option! The payment flexibility can come in handy when you do not have quite enough cash to cover a lump sum settlement. It can also be a tool to allow you to do more than one settlement at a time, which can help you maximize your savings on multiple accounts.
How you prioritize which account you settle with first may mean holding off on dealing with Comenity. I can cover more about this critical decision with you if you post in the comments below, or schedule a phone consult with me.
Comenity Uses Collection Agencies
If your Comenity account is more than 7 months late you are likely dealing with a collection agency working for the bank, or a debt buyer. How I would approach settling will depend on who has your account.
If your Comenity account went to a collection agency, but was not sold, your settlements are often going to be less than half the balance owed. Payment terms on your settlements can typically go for longer than would have been the case if the settlement were done directly with Comenity earlier on. This can be super helpful to your settlement goals with other creditors!
Your account can go from one collection agency to another without it having been sold. Many banks will send your account to a different agency every few months. Be sure to open all of your emails and regular mail to keep track of where your account goes.
They Sell to Debt Buyers
Comenity sells their accounts that go seven months late and longer to Portfolio Recovery and Midland Credit Management (and others). We have good success settling with both of these debt buyers for 50% or less, and often get a couple of years to pay, depending on your situation.
Comenity is not known much for suing to collect themselves, but when they sell to a debt buyer like LVNV Funding (and others mentioned), the risk of being sued for collection is seriously high.
You can prevent being sued for your Comenity account by:
- Settling with Comenity before they sell your account off.
- Settle with a collection agency working for Comenity.
- Settle with the debt buyer that bought your account before it goes to a collection law firm.
Avoiding being sued is very realistic even if you do not have a lump sum of money, because your settlement can be stretched out over monthly payment terms.
Settling Comenity accounts is pretty standard. Even if a law firm has your account you can often settle for at least some savings.
Credit Reporting and Comenity
Like most major banks, Comenity will show late payments in 30 day intervals on your credit reports. These late pays will culminate in charge off credit reporting after 6 months of payment default. After the charge off is when Comenity will typically subject your account to their external collection policies.
If Comenity sends your account off to a regular collection agency, where they retain ownership of the account, they will still be the one to show an unpaid negative on your credit. Settling with the collection agency that has your account will trigger an update to your credit reports by Comenity. It will show a paid collection and a zero balance owed within a month or two of completing your settlement.
The collection agency has no influence over Comenity’s credit reporting.
If Comenity sold your account to a debt buyer they would then typically still show a charged off account on your credit reports, but with a zero balance owed (they sold the legal rights to your debt).
Some banks have been testing deleting accounts once they sell them, but that is not a trend yet (I wish it were).
Once a debt buyer purchases your account, most will then show a negative collection debt on your credit reports, and with the balance now owed to them. You want to be sure Comenity is showing a zero balance owed to them if a debt buyer is now showing an unpaid balance.
If you see them both reporting a balance you can do something about it. Check out my video about double negative credit reporting. You cannot owe two places for the same account!
If you resolve your Comenity account with a debt buyer, many of them will delete their credit reporting trade line (whether you pay in full or settle for less). The deletion can take a month or two with most, while Midland Funding has a credit reporting deletion policy that is a little unique, but they still do it.
Whether a resolved Comenity collection account gets deleted or not, you can still accomplish most any credit and financing goals with paid and/or zero balance owed collections on your credit.
I should point out a couple things more about credit reporting with Comenity.
If I were to take a temporary hardship plan with any bank, I would first want to be confident my monthly cash flow short fall is only going to be brief. And I would probably not take one if I am already showing ninety days late or more on my credit.
Taking a hardship plan does not mean Comenity is going to remove the late pays on my credit reports. If I am more than 90 days late, I may be able to help my credit more by settling with Comenity for less, than by using a hardship plan.
If you enroll in a nonprofit credit counseling debt management plan, and you never went 30 days late with Comenity, you will likely see no meaningful hit to your credit score in that repayment plan. Accounts in a debt management plan do get closed, but you can get new accounts once you complete the repayment.
Debts Are Bankruptcy Eligible
Comenity credit cards are unsecured. They would qualify for discharge in a chapter 7 bankruptcy (the version I would want to file if I had to). You would typically not have to pay unsecured debts in a chapter seven bankruptcy.
Your Comenity accounts can become part of your repayment plan in a chapter 13 bankruptcy, which is where you typically pay back some, or all of your unsecured debts over a five year period. This is the version of bankruptcy I would not want to do if I could avoid it. I would generally look to settle my debts on my own terms outside of a chapter thirteen if I could.
Depending on your overall debt situation chapter 7 bankruptcy may be better for your credit than settlement.
Comenity Credit Card Brands Include
There are well over 100 different affinity and branded credit cards that Comenity Services. Here are some of the larger stores that partner with Comenity:
Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Arhaus, Ashley Furniture, Bealls, Bed Bath and Beyond, Big Lots, Buckle, Burlington, Christopher and Banks, Crate and Barrel, DSW, Eddie Bauer, Forever 21, Game Stop, Goody’s, Hot Topic, Houzz, HSN, Ikea, J. Crew, J. Jill, Lane Bryant, The Limited, LOFT, Lucky Brand, Maurices, Meijer, New York and Company, Overstock, PacSun, Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Talbots, Victoria’s Secret, Wayfair, West Elm, Williams Sonoma, and many more.
Comenity services numerous retail jewelry store credit cards, hardware stores, travel cards and healthcare providers too.
If you have questions about resolving debts with Comenity, no matter where you are at in the life cycle of the debt, you can post in the comments below for feedback. You can also click the box below to schedule a private phone consultation with me. I do not charge anything for those calls.
I have a Smile Generation credit card account from Nov 2018 – the original amount was 3619, I made a few payments, then was unable to pay due to medical issues and losing my job. I made a couple of large catch up payments in 2023 and then paid regularly via a hardship plan until August 2024. The amount I now owe them is 3746. I have not made a payment since August, however I did speak to them on the phone today in order to try and get a handle on the issue. Can you provide any guidance? We are finally both employed and getting back on our feet – and I would really like to start recovering my credit. What is my best path?
Given the fact you are already more than a few months late with Comenity, I would negotiate as settlement for less than the balance owed. They will update the credit report to show a zero balance and your credit can bounce back from there.
I have the ULTA rewards mastercard credit card. The last time i used it was in 2022. It is now 2024 and I owe about 3,500. With everything so expensive i cannot afford to give more than the munimum payment, I have never been 30 days late to pay. Shoul I try to settle my debt or what are my options?
What is your interest rate on the card today?
Could you afford to pay around 70 dollars a month to Comenity?
Do you have other unsecured debts, and if so, what do they all add up to?
Settling the Comenity Ulta credit card would require you to go way more than 30 days late. You will take a major credit hit as a result of falling late in order to settle. If you are passed the point of credit damage carrying any weight in your decision, settlement becomes a good option.
I can offer feedback on other options with answers to my above questions.
I have a $600 closed Ulta CC account that I need to get rid of in order to be approved for a loan,, I want to try and settle but how can I be sure that they will remove the account? And how can I check if they have sold my debt to collectors?
You can call Comenity bank and find out if they sold your account, and who to.
Comenity is not in the habit of deleting negative items off your credit in exchange for payment. That can happen with several debt buyers though.
Comenity is required to update your credit reports with a zero balance if you pay the account off or settle with them for less.
I do not owe anything to commenity or synchrony banks , but they both (during covid) falsely said they would reverse the false charges they added to the accounts but did not and I had to dispute them. Even after going to the corporate office and explaing the false charges didn’t help (I have stopped using all of the cards they issued even the ones that were with $0 balances and the companies went belly up anyway). Comenity bank falsified the amount s and did a “charge-off of the false inflated amount (I had already pd. the account in full but they kept adding interest/fees and then doubling those fees over and over even after their customer service said they reversed all, but they still showed after many calls and then comenity would not accept calls and they also stopped my being able to get into my account and stopped their “contact email”)
Their false charge off still shows with the 3 credit bureaus after 4 yrs. and has effected me negatively and cost me getting loans from lowering drastically my credit score down 200+ points
Do be afraid to dispute them, they have harrassed me for years and 5 now have Resurgent for 2nd time as they circle the office for them to try collecting debt not mine after theft fraud and 2019 written off 321.00 I didn’t owe, 6 years later after 2 others tried to continue this unfair process back to familiar one after both hearing from them since 2023, sent letter I responded with request to provide all account info and I heard nothing back until April from a Shepherd outsourcing text message which did not respond after my text back, hiya app gave more info on complaint by consumer other then me. I had enough and I will not be hearing from them. Retired disabled and plenty of informed legal advice . Plus commenity bank is having multiple lawsuits filed against them and in trouble. I have legit legal issues from breaches, theft and lists never ends. I cannot take it from them and the opportunity to sue everyone involved over 6 to 8 years is all on my side with my health issues and they affected my quality of life during covid and up to this year, anxiety disorder since young age and I have never been worse again since they have bothered me every day in a tumultuous and traumatic situation in life. Time to get compensation from all of them, time lost cannot get back money is the principal and the loss of it due to many different programs and device to protection,, all reported but story is longer to be more shocking, I rather not continue. They are not getting away and more than already have been and it’s worse for me since this all happened.
I’m a Canadian with a Caesar’s credit card that has a balance of roughly 6,000 I’m struggling financially here and to keep making payments both in Canada as well with this credit card Trying to work out deals directly with credit cards to avoid consumer proposals or even bankruptcy They put me on there hardship program but still charging 10% interest and $175 monthly payments which is still high for me that’s about $240 Canadian they would t lower it will they if I can’t met it Do they write off ever? I don’t even see them reporting on my Canadian credit report What should I do ? Thanks in advance
If you are unable to make your Comenity minimum payment you could try to get the interest rate lower, but at 10% it would already be considered pretty low.
If your Caesars card goes several months late there will be opportunities to settle the account for less. You would need to be able to come up with that money to pay the settlement in a lump sum, or be able to confidently commit to making monthly payments on the settlement.
I am facing Chapter 7 bankruptcy due to caring longer term for an ailing parent with cancer who later passed away and then facing a long road of medical recovery of my own. I have a card through Dell which is not under Bread (Comenity). I thought about keeping the Dell card and not including it in the bankruptcy. My attorney is advising me to include it stating they will more than likely close the account anyway. Do you know if I did not include the card, and continued the payments would they allow the card to remain active? The account balance is small, less than $500, but if they are going to close the account regardless, I am not going to gamble on having to include or exclude the account. Even before considering bankruptcy, they closed a long-term card I had due to lack of use and when I used another card through them, they payment was made the same day and I was charged late fees and they would not remove them. I hear they are not friendly with payments and there was a class action suit in Ohio regarding this. Thanks
I would list all cards in the bankruptcy if it were me.
In 2022 when attempting to pay Comenity, their service was disrupted for weeks at a time, with no one being able to pay. There was no way to contact them and the if you mailed your payments the system was not receiving it. I have proof of this. People were talking about this situation all over the internet. Now they’ve sold my account to Midland and it’s not my fault their system was not working forever. I’m filing a class action lawsuit
GOOD, ADD me as I went thru this nonsense too
I had several credit card accounts sold to Portfolio Recovery Collections from Comenity. Their policy indicated once balances are paid, they will contact the credit bureaus and request accounts to be deleted completely. It is listed on their website and I have this is writing. One year later and the accounts are showing as “paid, collections” but still on my credit report. No longer showing under the collection agency name but under the original creditor name, Comenity. What can I do about this???
It sounds like PRA deleted their credit reporting but that Comenity is still showing the fact that you stopped paying them originally, but with a zero balance owed. That is how it normally works. Comenity does not have a pay for delete policy. No banks really do.
Your credit can still recover, and most major credit and finance goals can still be achieved, even with old zero balance derogatory marks.
I paid my bill in full and I still keep getting notices from Comenity for late fees and interest.They have 1480 complaints on the BBB. I filed a complaint with the OH State’s Attorney Office. I have never seen such an outrageous company that should be put out of business.
You may want to consider filing a complaint through the CFPB portal too. They will generally respond to you when you do that, and fairly rapidly.
I reported comenity and synchrony for their crappy practices and even falsifying amounts and it didn’t help at all to recoup time and money. Those 2 companies (synchrony and comenity) need to be sued so people recoup their time and money and they get put out of business. Add me to any lawsuits against these 2 companies