CFPB Meets With Bilt Following Credit Card Switchover Issues

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working with Bilt to address credit card customer concerns, according to a Tuesday (June 2) press release.

The concerns stem from the FinTech’s transition from Wells Fargo to a new banking partner earlier this year, per the release.

“CFPB officials met with Bilt to understand the issues caused by the transition and what steps Bilt has taken to ensure customers affected by challenges with the transition were made whole,” the release said.

Bilt notified the agency that it “proactively reached out to the limited number of potentially affected customers” and offered to reimburse them for overdraft fees, late fees or insufficient funds fees tied to the transition, according to the release.

“The CFPB has also discussed with Bilt the steps it has taken to guarantee that all transition-related technical issues have been resolved, and Bilt’s documentation submitted to the CFPB appears to show that it has completed the process, and its systems are back on track,” the release said.

A Bilt spokesperson declined to comment when reached by PYMNTS. The company issued a statement last week following a report that Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is also looking into issues relating to the card transition.

The statement said the switch “attracted unexpectedly high demand, and some of our members experienced gaps in service that are simply unacceptable to us.”

In response, Bilt increased its customer service capabilities and contacted affected customers, according to the statement. All “outstanding issues relating to the card transition in February have been addressed and resolved,” but the company invited members to get in touch if problems should occur.

Bilt and Wells Fargo first teamed up in March 2022, but within two years, Wells Fargo was losing as much as $10 million per month from the relationship, although both companies denied their partnership was in trouble.

Last summer saw reports that Wells Fargo was ending the partnership, which had been scheduled to run until 2029.

In other CFPB news, the agency in April published its final rule on the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a law prohibiting discrimination in credit transactions. The bureau amended Regulation B, which “shapes how lenders process applications, request information, determine credit outcomes and communicate adverse actions,” PYMNTS reported April 22.

The changes were backed by the American Bankers Association and America’s Credit Unions. However, fair housing and fair lending groups have sued the CFPB to reverse the overhaul, saying it actually reverses long-held anti-discriminatory practices.