Consumer complaint received 2020-07-29
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
Oh boy, where to start. 

Initially, my husband and I realized credit fraud had happened when I tried to co-sign on a loan application with my son. I was turned down based on my credit report that showed a credit card had been opened in my name with US Bank, I believe in XXXX, 2019, with a charge and balance of {$13000.00}. ( I am not certain if this was a single charge or multiple charges ). The card appears to have been issued by XXXX XXXX, but again, I am not certain how XXXX fits into this complaint. 

Unfortunately, I do not have exact dates or the number of times I attempted to call the different agencies or businesses involved, but to give you an idea of the madness, I have literally written down 15 different phone numbers to the four primary players ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and US Bank ) I was given to try and resolve this issue. Online websites to these four provided even more numbers. At one point I was told by US Bank to call the collection agency because the matter had been turned over to them adding a fifth company. The collection agency was much more helpful and cooperative than US Bank has ever been but was essentially told that I needed to resolve this with US Bank. 

But US Bank does not seem to care. When you think about it, I am not only trying to restore my credit but help the bank recover $ 13k dollars and at least try and prosecute the perpetrator so he/she will not continue their evil ways. 

Part of my problem in getting this resolved is that I work full-time and do not have the time at work to resolve the issue especially in dealing with this extremely time-consuming bureaucratic nightmare. Also, it has been impossible for me to fully understand the issues and resolve this fraudulent matter myself, so I enlisted my husbands help who in turn has spent countless hours trying to figure out the details. Something so simple has morphed into an endless cycle with " Customer Service '' representatives who have forgotten why they were hired. 

To resolve the problem, US Bank told us they were available 24-7 so we should contact them during hours when I am not at work. So we called during non-business hours, reported the problem and asked US Bank to please allow my husband to be added and authorized to represent myself because I not only trusted him in such matters but knew that I did not have the time or patience to resolve this on my own especially given the absurd run-around primarily by US Bank. It is worth noting that on one of many conversations with US Bank, we were told that they would be sending out some sort of paper work to further identify the charges and I supposed to be a form we could fill out to file an official complaint and inquiry and add my husband as an authorized agent on my behalf. Never received anything. 

More than two weeks later, my husband called US Bank again. The Customer Service agent told my husband they would have to speak to my wife since the account was in her name. After explaining that we had already tried that and were led to believe US Bank had already added my husband as an authorized person when I spoke to them several days prior, my husband continued the dialogue initially in a pleasant but firm manner. The Customer Service agent eventually hung up on my husband. On the 2nd call he was not as courteous and admittedly berated the agent ( after initially trying to cordially explain our problem ) and was hung up on by the Customer Service agent a 2nd time. ( Keep in mind, this is after numerous calls and exchanges with US Bank Customer Service Representatives. 

Our problem ( both myself and my husband ) is that this account and fraudulent charge had nothing to do with either of us. IT WAS FRAUD and yet we feel we have been treated by US Bank as the criminal, unwilling to offer reasonable help and direction. US Bank and their Customer Service agents have been rude and frankly incompetent to listen and think outside the box of their standard legalistic rules. My husband in trying to resolve this was not requesting any personal information about me, the credit card number or any other information that could have been used against me even if we were not married. He was not asking for anything that could make the situation worse, but desperately tried to make US Bank understand that our attempt to clear up the matter was in ours and US Banks best interest. 

We simply needed HELP from CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES to correct a wrong. But because US Bank does not have representatives who have the ability to consider the entirety of each situation on its own merit and could not think out of the box beyond their own inept and limited rules, we continue to struggle to have someone from US Bank act as if they care about FRAUD or anyone else other than the criminals rather than innocent potential customers. We requested many times to escalate this to someone else willing to listen, but their way of handling Customer Service was to hang up. 

I would like to know how someone can apply for and be issued a credit card so easily. Are there not checks and balances to thoroughly vet and investigate your applicants without a picture or something else proving they are who they say they are? No wonder there is so much FRAUD in the industry. 

The bottom line is again I need assistance from US Bank to resolve this matter and recommend changes to your policies and perhaps additional training to your " Customer Support '' agents in dealing with FRAUD. A little bit of effort from your investigative FRAUD department may boost your profits by {$13000.00} with maybe 2-3 hours of investigation. Pretty good return I'd say. 

Please make immediate arrangements to add my husband, XXXX XXXX as my authorized agent in resolving this matter and taking whatever action is necessary to dismiss this charge from your records within 30 days from the date of this notice or I will have no choice but to retain legal counsel and pursue all remedies and recourse as allowed by the governing states and agencies of both Texas and Minnesota. 

You should be ashamed the way your company has so unwillingly handled and offered Customer Assistance to resolve what should have been a very simple matter.

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