Consumer complaint received 2021-08-28
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
On or around XX/XX/2021, I opened a personal checking account with SunTrust Bank with an opening deposit of {$500.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX I made two deposits totaling {$500.00} to SunTrust. On XX/XX/2021, I made an additional two deposits totaling {$500.00} to SunTrust, meaning my account had a final balance of {$1500.00}. On XX/XX/2021, I decided that I needed the majority of those funds in a bank account to pay my bills so I attempted to transfer {$1000.00} to an external account via the XXXX transfer system but it was rejected by SunTrust and I quickly lost access to my online banking. After calling into SunTrust, they informed me that I had to go to a nearby branch to confirm my identity. On XX/XX/2021 I went into a local branch with my ID, and an employee called into SunTrust 's mainline to assist me with regaining access to my account. On the same day, I regained access to my account so I reattempted to send a XXXX payment to myself to an external bank account for {$1000.00}, and it again, got rejected by SunTrust bank. That same day, I called SunTrust bank to ask them about the transfer and to determine the outcome. SunTrust informed me that it was rejected because the email I was attempting to send the funds to was not associated with a XXXX account ; I had recently linked the account using that email address, which I attempted to explain to them but they told me it would likely not go through and I had to wait 1-2 business days to make their determination. At this point, I attempted to transfer {$1000.00} by using an external bank account to do an ACH pull as I needed the funds as soon as possible. On XX/XX/2021, I attempted to log into my SunTrust account and noticed my account access had once again been blocked. I called into SunTrust to attempt to get my account access back to which they replied that I had to go back into a branch in order to verify my identity. I informed them that I had already did so on XX/XX/2021 - the customer service representative initially did not believe me. The customer service representative placed me on hold a number of times to discuss the issue internally and eventually informed me that my account was being investigated for closure and finally told me that it would in fact be closed but that no timeline was given as to when I would receive a cashier 's check for the {$1500.00} still in my account. On XX/XX/2021, I called into the local SunTrust bank and left a message for the employee, whose name was XXXX, that helped me regain access to my account on XX/XX/2021. XXXX eventually called into SunTrust and was informed regarding my pending account closure. After, I called back into SunTrust and was told that I could go into the branch to withdraw my funds. After receiving this information, I called XXXX back who told me that I would not be able to withdraw my funds in the bank as the account was pending closure and that I should call SunTrust bank as that information was untrue. I called back SunTrust one last time in order to determine an actual timeframe for the account closure as I need access to my funds ; SunTrust would not confirm a timeframe, nor would they provide any reasoning as to why my account was closed.

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 non-monetary relief