Consumer complaint received 2023-04-01
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: AZ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Around XX/XX/2022 I had problems using my US BANK debit card and accessing my account and I didn't know why. A few days prior someone tried to scam me as a fake employer and deposited a fake check in my account for me to wire transfer elsewhere for office equipment. I made the bank aware of this and they weren't at all helpful and said once the check gets returned for fraud we'll investigate and withdraw the funds. At the same time I initiated a balance transfer of {$6000.00} on one of my credit cards in my girlfriends name that came to us in the form of paper check. She tried cashing it and was denied as she didn't have an account with US BANK so she gave up for the time being. I believe it was the very next day she went to a different branch to try again and the manager told her to sign it over to me since it was already on my account and I can cash it. That didn't make much sense to me but I did it and deposited it thru my app and remember that it kept giving me problems and I took it into a branch on a different day. Come to find out my account was frozen due to a fraud investigation and Since around XX/XX/2022 I still haven't had access to my account and they will not release my positive balance of aroudn {$2500.00} and I can't seem to get a reasonable explanation, I get the run-around almost every time and if I call I'm transferred multple times over . One of the first letters I got said that after 15 days they will be sending a check with my positive funds but that never happened. It's been 4 months and that one setback has totally ruined my family financially unfortunately. We haven't been able to pay our bills like normal and are currently behind on the mortgage 4 months and over {$6000.00} and facing foreclosure. They have no sympathy in the matter and don't seem at all interested in making things right and returning my hard earned money. They've already made it clear that there are no further charges on my account or fees/fines and that is a good standing positive balance but for some reason they cant give it to me. One phone operator told me to go into any branch and request the funds and i should be able to pick them up no problem, and when I tried I waited over an hour for them to tell me they need to look into it further and I left empty handed. It may seem like a small amount of money but it's the difference between my family being homeless or not in the very near future. We are absolutely devastated, terrified and angry that after almost 15 year banking with them they could just treat me like a piece of garbage. Apparently when I initiated the balance transfer it shouldn't have gone to a person but rather an institution and secondly I shouldn't have tried to cash it myself. I wasn't aware of that and they allowed it to happen anyway and we were instructed by management to do something fraudulent. It doesn't make any sense and if anyone should be investigated it should be that manager. Plus they're claiming that my girlfriend already cashed the check, then I tried cashing it too so that triggered the fraud on my account. It was absolutely at the direction of the branch manager at the US BANK on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX. And how do I still have the check if it was apparently cashed multiple times. So now I'm also being charged for the {$6000.00} on my credit card that we never received which doesn't make sense either. So my payment is {$900.00} past due and without access to my account and going into everything blind they claim the money was disbursed to my girlfriend even though it wasn't and I still have the check. Everything about how this turned out is very shady and I'm being punished because I tried writing a check to my girlfriend so we could pay off high interest credit cards with the {$6000.00} at no interest. That money was never made available to us in any way and I don't know why I'm being charged for it still if it was an incorrect " fraudulent '' check in the first place. I would never knowingly do something that wasn't above board or legal and was just trying to take care of my family and combine other credit card debts into a single payment.

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