Consumer complaint received 2021-01-21
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
To the attention of the CFPB : We are writing to complain about a situation with our bank, Chase, where we have been clients since XXXX of 2017, having both a checking and savings account and maintaining a balance of about {$80000.00} normally. During these four years we have always made the same use of the account : to receive our income and pay utilities, mortgage and household spending. 

In this time, we never had any alert from the bank for any type of suspicious or fraudulent transaction. We have excellent credit scores and have never been involved with any type of collection agency nor have had financial problems of any kind. 

This past Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, my wife, who is currently unemployed, received a message from the FL Department of Employment Opportunity ( DEO ) explaining that her benefit payment had been rejected by Chase bank where we have direct deposit. The following day we called XXXX to ask if there was any problem and why the payment was rejected, to which they replied that there were no issues and that there was not cancelled transaction from the XXXX. On Saturday XXXX, we saw that my paycheck that should have been deposited on the XXXX wasn't posted in the account. Also, we discovered that we couldn't make any purchases with our debit cards. 

We contacted XXXX on Sunday afternoon and they informed us that we needed to speak with the Fraud department on the following day. Upon calling that department the following day, we were told that our account was being frozen and closed, that the decision was final, and that they would not disclose the reason for their decision. They also informed us that we would be issued a cashier 's check for the amount of our balance within 7 to 10 business days. 

Because we were concerned about a potential case of identity theft or fraud we have reported this incident to our county sheriff 's department and there is a case open. 

XXXX did this to us without any previous notice without us engaging in any malicious conduct that would motivate this decision or treatment. We understand that the bank can close our account, however, they have put us in a negative situation because they have rejected our paycheck, unemployment benefits, bounced checks ( potentially damaging our credit ) and we had to borrow money to make our credit card payment and cover our basic needs. 

We don't know what has motivated this action on their behalf, but being good clients of XXXX for four years we would expect that in the case of any suspicious behavior they would make us aware of the situation so we could protect ourselves. Instead, the bank has caused us significant stress and moral damage. 

As a result, we would like to file a complaint, not only for the mistreatment and misinformation with respect to potential fraudulent usage of our identity, but mainly because we have never signed terms and conditions that allow XXXX to hold our funds without any justifiable reason. 

Sincerely,

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation