Consumer complaint received 2017-04-11
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: OH
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2017 I called Wells Fargo to close XXXX my checking and savings account. The banker said I had to wait for all of the pending transactions to post before closing and to call back to then cancel it. While on the phone I had the banker cancel my debit card so no further recurring transactions could be made. Once all of the transactions posted there was an overdraft transfer fee that caused my checking to pull from my savings and charged me {$12.00}. At this point it put my checking account into negative. I then called Wells Fargo back on XX/XX/2017 to try and close the account again. Since I was now negative in my checking they obviously wouldnt allow me to close the account until I brought it positive. I asked the banker to waive the overdraft fee since I was in the process of closing the account. He said he was only able to waive 75 % of the fee which brought my account back to positive and left {$3.00} in my checking. At this point he was able to close my savings account with no problem. While he was in the process of closing my checking we got disconnected. Upon calling back and speaking with another banker I was told that they were having trouble closing my checking account since the system was showing an error. The banker said normally to close the account I either need to come into a branch and pull out all of my money or they will send me a check for the remaining balance. After the banker could not figure out why there was an error, I asked to speak with the supervisor. The supervisor then said the same about an error and that the system was n't letting her cut me check for the remaining balance. Finally she said the amount was too low to cut me a check and send it to my address in XXXX, OH and I would need to come to a branch or transfer the remainder. I live in midwest where Wells Fargo is non-existent. The amount left in the account was {$3.00} since I pulled all of the money out previously. I was still baffled that they could not cut me a check for the remaining balance of my money even though it was barely anything. The supervisor then said the only options left to close the account were to either come into a branch, which I was unable to do, or to write a check for {$3.00} or transfer that amount. The next day I transferred the remaining balance to my father since he also has Wells Fargo which the transfer was instant. I called back and they said the transfer was pending even though my account was at XXXX with XXXX pending transactions. I was once told again they could not close my account. At this point I was furious on why I could not close my bank account with them and had no clue how to get someone to help me since no one from Wells Fargo would give me a straight answer. A few days went by and I received an email from Wells Fargo saying insufficient funds. I logged back into my account and saw that my account was negative {$260.00}. I once again called back Wells Fargo and was told now I owe them all that money since my account was never closed. The supervisor I spoke with said they were supposed to cut me a check upon my request to close the account back on XX/XX/2017. I asked for them to pull up all of the previous phone conversations on how I was told they could not close my account because of a system error. He said they have a department that handles all complaints, etc. and I would receive a call from the investigation department which has yet to happen.

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 monetary relief