Consumer complaint received 2023-12-28
Company: LAKE MICHIGAN CREDIT UNION
State: MI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX I received a text stating that there was a {$150.00} transaction pending on my account. This text was quickly followed by two other text stating that two other {$150.00} transactions were pending on my account. I logged in to my online banking and saw these XXXX transactions were from XXXX. I do not and have never had a XXXX account. When I called LMCU the first time, I was told I could do a dispute online. Went to the website to do it, transactions were not available for me to dispute. So I called back a second time at which point I was told the transactions needed to post before I could dispute them. I then chatted in to see if there was anything that could be done at which point I was informed since it was fraud then something could be done and I was given the phone number for the fraud department. I called the fraud department and was told that it was actually a debit card transaction not ACH as the mobile app intially stated. I asked which debit card it was and was told the last four numbers. This representative then transferred me to the debit card fraud team. The gentleman from the debit card fraud team was less than helpful. Literally zero empathy and told me go to a branch or do it online. I hung up with this gentleman and called back for a fifth time hoping to get someone a little nicer to assist. The final person I spoke to was helpful and he was the first person out of the SIX I spoke to that offered to block my debit card for me. Ridiculous that it took SIX people before that was even offered up as a solution to prevent further transactions coming out of my account. So since I was not able to dispute the charges at the time I noticed them, the fraudulent charges caused legitimate items to bounce on my account and resulted in " courtesy '' fees to be assessed. Honestly what I find to be the absolute most ridiculous part out of all of this is their fraud department is constantly texting me to make sure transactions for {$20.00} or {$39.00} dollars are legitimate, which they have been, but when XXXX transactions for {$150.00} dollars occur within seconds of each other on XXXX XXXX, even though XXXX XXXX has NEVER taken money from the account before, not a single eye is batted and no attempts to block it are done. Absolutely ridiculous. This whole experience is making me consider switching financial institutions because I feel like I am having to jump through so many XXXX hoops to get my money back from a fraudulent charge when the fraudster was just able to waltz in and steal the money and LMCU was just like " go ahead, these charges on an account that has never ever had any sort of sports-betting or gambling charges on it ever in the almost XXXX years it has been open seem totally legitmate '' I am just absolutely disappointed and disgusted with how this is being handled. I want my money and all the fees that were charged back immediately.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation