Consumer complaint received 2021-10-07
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees

Complaint:
Hi. Im low income and XXXX. This started when I first came across Wells Fargo bank on my college campus about XXXX or XXXX offering free checking and credit card. Wells Fargo Bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA, XXXX. Phone number : ( XXXX ) XXXX. Wells Fargo Bank and other banks ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX & etc ) should be investigated for wrong doing to their clients/consumers for bad business practices and intentionally scamming their clients. This has been going on for a long time and continues to go on for me and many consumers. Their should be an internal audit on all the fees that charged their customers. The were/are playing with the internal banking system by taking out old chargers that have already been posted to the account to make it seem that they have more money in their account or credit card balance. Consumers ( thinking we had the funds ) like me then would then charge via debit checking account card or credit card two small transactions ( {$5.00} or {$10.00} ) or so and their system approves the transaction and then they put that one big charge ( for example {$40.00} or above ) back into the system. I would see that I have two and sometimes more fees of {$35.00} or {$37.00} or so each transactions. This was done on a regular basis. I would call and explain to them what happened and tell them why did your system approve the changes they would give me a one time curiosity credit and put the blame on me. I even spoke to supervisors regarding this with no avail. I finally realized that it was done intentionally since I started to check balance on a daily basis and printed proof .but still supervisors/managers would not reverse the charges. This also happened on their credit cards where they would approve the charges knowing very well I hit the limit and then charge me over the limit fees. I even would go to the local branch with proof with no luck and they would tell me to call customer service. This continued.the only thing I did was go to another bank and found out they were all playing this game to cheat consumers who are low income hard earn money. This was happening during the time that the banks got bailed outs by the government. To me that did not make sense, I knew very well that money was just going to go into their pockets and not to help consumers. 




I went back to Wells Fargo bank about three times in my life time since other banks were also playing games. About XXXX -XXXXor so, I was doing auto pay through Wells Fargo and I closed my account on one of the company I was making auto pay. I didnt trust the company not to charge me one more month since I experienced that before. I called Wells Fargo to to take auto pay off and they wanted to charge me about {$40.00} dollars to do that. I told them that did not make sense and I never had a bank charge a fee to take auto pay off. I even spoke to a supervisor/manager after that and she said the same thing. I went to the local bank the next day and closed my account. The agent asked why I was closing account and I told him. He told me that they dont charge for stopping an auto pay and I should I have came to the bank. I told him in the past, I did and I as always told to call customer service. I told him to close my account. 
Recently, I got a text ( scam-which I reported to the FTC ) from supposedly Wells Fargo regarding my account which has been closed for many years. These scammers somehow knew I had an account. I dont know, if Wells Fargo was hacked, if so I should have been notified. 
In the past I have asked Wells Fargo for my bank information and statements and they always asked for money for that as well. I believe that should not be the case. I hope the FTC can get my information from Wells Fargo to look into this for me and other consumers. Im sure Im not the only one had these issues. When a company does shady or scams people their should be no time line that the FTC can go after them. Someone needs to look after the consumers and that is hopefully the FTC. 
I consider Wells Fargo bank and other banks are also scamming consumers by the games they are playing to cheat us out of our money. 
Please help me and many others like me. I wish I knew the FTC existed a long time ago. The FTC is a blessing to go after corrupt business. Sorry, I did not proofread this document. Thank you and have a great day. 
Best regards, XXXX XXXX

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