Consumer complaint received 2023-09-29
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: DC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Payment process

Complaint:
I have several issues that stem from my PENFED HELOC account. 
First, on XXXX XXXX, I transferred {$28000.00} from my Heloc to my savings account in order to make an international wire transfer. The fee was {$30.00}. The PENFED person took the information for the transfer ( which required an intermediary bank ). We went over the information twice and she performed the transfer. The following Monday, I discovered that the money had been kicked back to my savings account at PENFED. When I attempted to find out why, PENFED did not have information on why the money was kicked back. I later found out from the recipient that it may have stemmed from not having compliance information required from me. I called PENFED back to resend the wire. PENFED informed me that it could not complete the transaction at all because 1. the Federal Reserve did not allow it, 2. PENFED was too small of an institution to do it, 3. PENFED was unable to complete complex wire transfers. She told me this information was coming directly from the HEAD OF WIRE TRANSFERS, and another supervisor. When I expressed amazement at those reasons, I asked if I could email the instructions to the person I was speaking with. She told me that she could not give out her PENFED email address. I ended up sending the transfer with a smaller credit union that had no problem completing the transaction. PENFED had no explanation for charging me for the initial wire that they later claimed they were unable to perform. They later reversed the charge. Additionally, I received several letters from PENFED stating that I had a late HELOC payment. This was after I sent a {$62000.00} payment to them online. Instead of making the payment, they made a principal payment only and gave me no credit for the monthly payment. They assessed a late payment fee. When I called them on it, they stated that it was an error and that they would correct it and remove the fee. After the wire transfer failure, PENFED sent me 2 letters stating that they had received my XX/XX/XXXX credit card payment. However, I do not have a PENFED credit card. I assumed it was my HELOC account. Then I got a letter that I had not paid my HELOC and they assessed a late fee. When I looked online at my account, it said I paid on XXXX XXXX. This caused me to look at my statement, which I normally did not do. Normally, I just paid the amount due. But looking at my statements for XXXX, XXXX & XXXX, I found that the payment coupon had an additional amount due that was not included anywhere else on the statement. Further, on one statement, I had a {$1.00} late fee. PENFED informed me that the greater amount due was from XX/XX/2020, for a skipped payment during the COVID19 pandemic. Further, the {$1.00} late fee was from XX/XX/2020. No one could tell me why either amount was not on the statement ( the XXXX late fee was not on the other statements ). I requested an audit of my account and PENFED told me that they don't do audits and that they could send me the one statement that initiated the skipped payment and the late fee. However, no one could address the why these don't show up on my online account at all or even on my statement. Last I told at least three different people that I wanted the money from the HELOC that was sitting in my savings account to be returned to the HELOC. This is an action that can not be done through online banking. I finally accomplished that today, but someone needs to look at PENFED and how it is operating. Also, I want an audit of my account.

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