Consumer complaint received 2020-02-01
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Can't stop withdrawals from your account

Complaint:
On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I contacted USAA to ask what possible justification they had for asserting days earlier that a CERTIFIED CHECK for {$3400.00} issued to me by XXXX XXXX XXXX  which I had deposited 29 months ago on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, same day it was issued to me - had bounced and therefore USAA was now subtracting {$3400.00} + a {$5.00} penalty fee from the joint checking account I have with my wife. 
The USAA representative with whom I spoke was clearly baffled and stated she was not able to determine what was the justification for USAAs giving itself {$3400.00} of our money. 
I asked : In issuing a certified check to us wasnt XXXX XXXX XXXX swearing that it had set aside in its internal account sufficient funds to cover the cheque until such time as I deposited it into my account or otherwise cashed it or in the unlikely event I choose to return it ; isnt it true that a certified check is generally considered to be as good as cash and can not be bounced absent the failure of the issuing bank or its issuance being linked to some illegal act? To each part of my question the USAA representative responded in the affirmative. She also acknowledged that she had never been aware of a certified check being treated as ours was being treated either by USAA or by anyone else. 
Asked by me when I could expect USAA to provide its supposed justification for wrongfully stripping me of {$3400.00} which it had for just short of two-and-a-half years rightfully treated as having been properly deposited, the USAA representative refused to answer. Instead, she told me that I needed to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX  and ask them. 
I said that demanding that I ask Fifth Third Bank to explain why USAA had decided to treat a certified check issued to me by it made no sense. I said that USAAs assertion that XXXX XXXX XXXX  had issued a certified check without having it backed with sufficient funds was to accuse XXXX XXXX XXXX   of having engaged in an illegal act and that in such a cause USAA had an obligation to report this to the overseeing banking authorities. The USAA representative persisted in saying she would not because she could not get USAA to provide me a justification, let alone restore the money it had seized from our account, and, in fact, she would not get back to me because her supervisor would not allow her to make an outgoing call. 
I asked her to escalate my call to someone who might be able to answer my questions and be authorized to call me back later if not able to obtain an explanation right away. 
Next up was a USAA representative named XXXX. I understand the reasons behind USAAs policy of not permitting its representative to reveal last name in these cases and find the policy perfectly reasonable. 
To sum up my exchange with XXXX : I repeated all the points I had made during my exchange with the first USAA representative whose name I had neglected to ask for and XXXX, like that first agent, seemed baffled and was equally unable to provide so much as even a hint of what possible justification USAA might have for ( wrongfully and probably illegally, in my view ) seizing {$3400.00} from our account. Like that first USAA representative, XXXX also acknowledged that each and every point I made about how one should expect a certified check to be treated was fair and accurate and that she had never been aware of a certified check being treated as ours was being treated either by USAA or by anyone else. 
XXXX eventually me that on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX USAA had mailed to me and my wife a letter XXXX not yet received at this point ) that she was guessing should answer any questions I had. I suggested she read it to me so I could know if I agreed that this was true. She immediately willingly agreed and proceeded to do so. 
I pointed out to her that the XXXX XX/XX/XXXX letter not only did not address any of the questions and concerns that I had raised but instead actually revealed additional evidence that in its handling of our account USAA has demonstrated reckless disregard for its fiduciary responsibilities to us. 
I noted that this letter not only provides no justification for USAAs treating a certified check deposit by me different from all other certified checks, including some in the same amount and several others in nearly identical amounts issued to us by XXXX XXXX XXXX  and deposited into our USAA account over a few years but it also falsely claims that a check amount was incorrectly written on a deposit slip when a review of our USAA account would prove that in our more than 30 years with USAA we have never written an incorrect amount on a deposit account. 
XXXX told me she would get back to me soon either by phone or by email with an explanation for what USAA had done and how it proposes to deal with my complaint about what I was labeling a wrongful and likely illegal act that it had committed against me. She failed to do so. 
On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I once again contacted USAA and this time spoke with USAA representative XXXX in Deposit Servicing. 
For the third time, a USAA representative seemed baffled and was unable to provide so much as even a hint of what possible justification USAA might have for what I politely told the representative I felt any reasonable person would view as a wrongful and likely illegal act in seizing {$3400.00} from our account. 
For the third time, a USAA representative acknowledged that each and every point I made about how one should expect a certified check to be treated was fair and accurate and had never been aware of a certified check being treated as ours was being treated either by USAA or by anyone else. 
I asked XXXX to pull up the XXXX XX/XX/XXXX letter that I had previously discussed with XXXX. I repeated the same points I had made to XXXX. 
I called XXXX attention to something that I said was truly weird and indicated to us that USAA was seriously messing up our checking account record and causing us to worry about trusting USAAs care and competence in exercising its fiduciary responsibilities to us : On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX USAA made an adjustment to our account in which it wrongfully added {$650.00}. Reason stated for their doing so is the above referenced false suggestion that we had incorrectly written a check amount on a deposit slip. Huh? The only explanation for this that makes any sense would be if we had shortchanged ourselves by erroneously claiming on a deposit slip that the check we were depositing was {$650.00} less than it really was and USAA had caught our error and fixed it by adding {$650.00} to make us whole. But this is not at all what happened. 
This is mindboggling! Why would USAA have wrongfully added {$650.00} to our checking account and claim it was because we had incorrectly written a check amount on a deposit slip? 
This set of facts appear to me and my wife to be critically important in attempting to determine if USAA had any possible grounds for seizing {$3400.00} from our checking account or if may have engaged in an action against us that is illegal, contrary to its fiduciary obligations and deserving of serious penalization : On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX we deposited into our USAA checking account {$2700.00} and on that same date USAA, claiming we had made an error in the deposit slip, added {$650.00} to our account. 
On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX USAA decided that a CERTIFIED CHECK for {$3400.00} issued to me by XXXX XXXX XXXX  which I had deposited 29 months ago on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, same day it was issued to me - had bounced and therefore USAA was now subtracting {$3400.00} + a {$5.00} penalty fee from the joint checking account I have with my wife. 
Notice that if you take our XXXX XXXX deposit of {$2700.00} and add to it the {$650.00} that USAA added to it that same day, claiming it was fixing an error made by us ( not true ) these two amounts equal {$3400.00}, the exact amount of the certified check USAA declared to be devoid of funds 29 months after its having been deposited on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and its having been considered valid until XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 
I asked USAA representative XXXX to pull up these records and we reviewed them together. I asked if he could explain what USAA was doing here and he could not.

Surely, I said, any bank should be able to determine in the time USAA had already taken here why it had treated a cashiers check differently from how it and others always treat one. He could offer no justification. 
Asked when I might reasonably expect from USAA an explanation and its restoration of the money I felt it had wrongfully taken from me and my money, he said that all he could tell me is that, Were working on it. 
I politely told him that I felt that more than enough time had already passed for this to have been resolved and if at this point I can not even be given some idea of when to expect it to be resolved, my conclusion is that I need to appeal to the proper federal oversight authorities. 
Thus my appeal to you.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation