Consumer complaint received 2022-12-19
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On Wednesday, XX/XX/2022 I initiated 3 separate funds transfers from 3 non-Fifth Third bank accounts into my Fifth Third bank account to consolidate where I kept my money. All 4 accounts ( including the Fifth Third bank account ) is owned fully by me, and only me, and I have all documentation to prove this ( bank statements, login credentials to online banking, debit cards where applicable ). 

On Thursday, XX/XX/2022 I received an unsolicited call from a caller identifying themselves as a Fraud XXXX ( or similar ) from Fifth Third bank named XXXX ( I'm not 100 % confident in this name, but seem to recall this being the correct name ), asking me to verify the 3 amounts that I had requested to be transferred into my Fifth Third bank account. They claimed because the account was newer and the amounts being transferred were large, they needed to perform this extra level of verification in order to approve the transfers of my funds into my Fifth Third bank account. I replied that I would call them back using the publicly available customer phone number to verify the amounts. I called back, went through the phone tree, and was connected back with this department in about XXXX minutes time. I then verified all amounts that were pending to be transferred into my Fifth Third bank account down to the XXXX, just as they had requested. 

At this time I was placed on hold by the customer service rep, XXXX, so he could " check on something ''. When he returned to the line, he stated that my verification was insufficient and that I would need to print out paper statements from each of the 3 other banks from which I transferred funds and present them to an in-branch bank employee so they could fax/ email them into the fraud team to review and approve. I ultimately agreed to this, then made an in-branch appointment for the next morning, Friday, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX EST. 

Upon ending that phone call, I tried to log into my Fifth Third online banking account only to notice my username and password were not being accepted. Further, I was not able to even reset my password as the website didn't recognize my account or debit card number to verify identity. I would later discover that the XXXX team placed a hold / freeze on my entire account without telling me they would do so. This was never conveyed to me, nor did I accept these terms. 

On the same day, Thursday, XX/XX/2022 I called the XXXX team through the general customer service phone number again to ask if they have shut down or blocked my account. I was informed that they had frozen my account, and that it was a common tactic utilized by their team when funds verification was ongoing. Again, this was never disclosed to me until I called back and asked. For this call I was connected with a Senior Analyst named XXXX. After learning about the freeze, I asked the XXXX team employee if she would unfreeze my account, and she replied no. She stated I had to present the statements to the in-branch team at the local physical branch to verify certain details before they'd unfreeze my account. I asked her to identify what " details '' needed to be identified. She responded that each statement needed to show my name and that funds were available in the account. I repeated her words and asked her to confirm that my account WOULD be unfrozen ( not COULD be ) so long as I presented these statements, and that the statements contained my name and a record of the funds that I was trying to transfer. She responded 'yes '. This call ( and all other calls made to Fifth Third throughout this ordeal ) were all recorded by Fifth Third bank, and all of these details can be heard firsthand upon request for these recordings by the CFPB, if needed ). 

On the morning of XX/XX/2022 I visited the local Fifth Third branch at which I made my appointment, and I presented all of the requested statements ; each one showing my full name, as well as the deposit records showing the funds were available in my accounts at the time of transfer to Fifth Third. These were the 2 pieces of information that XXXX had told me needed to be present on the statements in order to get my account unfrozen. XXXX XXXX was the banker who helped me in-branch, and he did a great job advocating for me when talking to his colleagues in the XXXX center. 

XXXX first spoke to XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) who had requested that XXXX scan and then email in all the bank statements I provided. XXXX scanned statements from XXXX, XXXX, and from XXXX XXXX, each showing my full name and that funds were available at the time of transfer ( please recall, this is all that XXXX in the XXXX center told me was needed to get my account unfrozen. She told me this on the recorded line, and I accepted it as fact ). XXXX reviewed the documents while we were on the phone with him, and responded back that they were insufficient to unfreeze my account due to two reasons : 1. my address wasn't listed on the bank statements ( please recall that XXXX did not say an address was needed on the statements ), and 2. the XXXX statement submitted was delivered slightly rotated or slanted ( not aligned XXXX degrees after XXXX scanned the documents to email to XXXX ). I successfully contested item # XXXX by stating a scanner could easily skew orientation, but they stuck to point # XXXX that an address needed to be displayed in order to unfreeze my account. Around this time, XXXX asked for the help of his manager for this situation and transferred the call. The manager was XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and his title was Financial Crimes Lead at Fifth Third Bank. I was shocked to hear that this wasn't the catch-all " XXXX '' department that I had been dealing with, but rather a XXXX XXXX XXXX This was never disclosed to me during the interactions with Fifth Third until I requested contact info and titles for each employee I spoke with. 

With XXXX now on the phone with XXXX and I, he asked if he was on speakerphone ( he was ) and that he be removed from speakerphone so he could speak privately with XXXX. XXXX picked up the handset and removed XXXX from speakerphone. XXXX claimed that XXXX had stated that we needed to send in new bank statements for each bank to re-review before he would unfreeze my account. XXXX re-stated the request ( that all he would need to provide were new, complete statements without any redacting of information to XXXX and that included my name, address, page numbers, and funds availability and he would unfreeze my account ) and he gained an allegedly affirmatory response from XXXX. XXXX then hung up on the call at this point and told XXXX to email the documents to his attention to review. I downloaded new statements from the XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX websites from my phone while sitting with XXXX in the branch, emailed them to XXXX, and he delivered them to XXXX to review. After another review of the documents, XXXX again declined to unfreeze my account, and went further stating that they were ending my relationship with Fifth Third bank. XXXX stated that even though the name and address were present in the full statements, he wouldn't approve them as qualified statements to fulfill the bank 's request to unfreeze my account because : 1. the statements were from the same time period as the ones initially provided, and 2. Two of the statements were from business accounts of which I was the sole owner and employee ( please recall that this was never a cited issue in any previous communications I had with any employee of Fifth Third bank, and the recorded calls to the company will verify this ). 

After the 2nd declination to unfreeze my account and the ultimate closure of the account, I accepted that the bank would not unfreeze my account, and that they were ending their business relationship with me. XXXX was able to withdraw the available funds I had in my Fifth Third checking account ( {$990.00} ) and provide me a receipt for the withdrawal. However, and this is the major issue I have with this interaction, XXXX was unable to provide me the funds that Fifth Third bank were still holding from the attempted money transfers from my other 3 banks. The funds were REMOVED from my other 3 bank accounts as debit transactions and delivered to Fifth Third bank, but they were unable to provide me either any monetary instrument in-branch for those funds. 

Those funds totaled {$42000.00}. 

As you can see, this is a significant amount of money to be told is simply unavailable. I had asked XXXX to provide me my funds before leaving the branch, and he replied that he was unable to do so. He emailed XXXX to ask when and how I would receive my fund back to use, and XXXX responded that they would appear back in my originating bank account ( XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX ) by Monday, XX/XX/2022. As of today ( Monday, XX/XX/2022 ) at XXXX EST, the funds are still not present in my XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX bank accounts, and I have no updates on the status of the return or the location of the funds. 

As you can see, I complied with each and every request made by Fifth Third bank, and they still refused to unfreeze my account or accept the incoming money transfers into my sole-owned Fifth Third from my other sole-owned accounts at XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX. I was explicitly told that they " would '' unfreeze my account after I delivered paper statments from each of the 3 preceding banks that listed out my name and proof of funds availability, and this can all be verified by pulling the recordings of each conversation I had with the Fifth Third Senior Analysts I spoke with. I currently do not have access to {$42000.00} of my money, nor do I have an update on when I'll have access, as the initial promise-by date made by XXXX XXXX has since passed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation