Consumer complaint received 2019-03-12
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I am a XXXX XXXX and left the US last XXXX - I informed Chase that I was leaving the country but that I was keeping my account open with some funds still in the account so that I could deal with my tax return this year, receive or pay any over or under payment, and then close my account. Chase knew I would be out of the country and would not be using my account. 

On Wednesday XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I logged into my Chase bank account online to check whether a payment had been made in relation to my tax return. When I logged in, to my horror I saw that payments in increasing increments had been withdrawn from my account to random paypal accounts. The first withdrawal happened on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ( a small amount of around XXXX XXXX ), but this then increased to three or four withdrawals a day of USD XXXX or more each time. For reasons that I will come on to explain below, I do not have a copy of my bank statement showing these withdrawals ( Chase will not give me the same ) but the amount taken was in the region of about XXXX XXXX or so. 

The transactions were quite clearly fraudulent in nature. They were to random paypal accounts ( the same account more than once ), and were for increasing figures as time went on. As above, I had also informed Chase I would be leaving the country and not using my account ( and therefore have not been checking my account either ). Despite this, at no stage did Chase ever attempt to contact me to inform me of the charges. 

I called Chase as soon as I realised the amounts had been taken ( again on Wednesday XXXX XXXX ). I  spoke with the fraud team and the claims team and went through all of the fraudulent transactions ( some of which were pending payment ). I was told that because I had reported the issue more than 60 days after the first fraudulent transaction, I was only entitled to be reimbursed for transactions up to 60 days after the first one ( XXXX XXXX ). This resulted in only USD XXXX being entitled to reimbursement. I have not yet received an explanation of how that amount is broken down, or confirmation that the pending transactions were blocked ( and nobody seems to be able to confirm that ). When I questioned why Chase did not inform me of the transactions, given that they were clearly not typical of how I was previously using my account, and as I had informed them I was out of the country, they told me it was not their job to monitor my account, and that whilst they sent fraud notifications when debit cards were possibly used fraudulently, they did not do the same thing with bank accounts. This surprised me. Every other bank account I own sends me email and text notifications whenever my account is used suspiciously. I was surprised that Chase did not do the same thing. I was told there was nothing they could do and they would not be reimbursing me any more. Whilst I was on the phone, my account was blocked. I was then told I could call back 24 hours later, and that I would be able to speak with someone in the exceptions team to push through a wire transfer of the funds remaining in my account, so that I could transfer them to my UK account and avoid having the funds sit there whilst I waited for a check from Chase. They also took down a new US address ( my employer 's address ) where the check and any correspondence relating to the fraud could be sent ( as I am now back in the UK ) On this advice, I called the fraud department back on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ( 24 hours later ). I was told that the advice I had received about making the wire transfer was incorrect and that I would not be able to make the transfer after all. I then asked for confirmation that my address had been changed as per the information I provided the day before. The address had not been changed and I was told I needed to speak with customer service to do that. Whilst on the phone I also asked for a copy of my bank statement, so that I could contact paypal to inform them myself of the fraud - the hope being that they might be able to catch the criminals that did this, as some of the transactions were very recent. I bounced around a total of 7 departments and spent nearly three hours on the phone trying to get a copy of my statement. I spoke with fraud, who transferred me to customer service. They told me my account was blocked and therefore they couldn't send me anything or change my address, and that I would need to speak with fraud. I was then transferred back to fraud, who couldn't help. Then I was transferred to claims, then I was told to call my local branch. They couldn't understand why I was calling them and told me to call customer service again. I went round and round in circles, with people in each department telling me that the person they were transferring me to could help, but each time I was told that I had been transferred to the wrong department. I was continually told that the only way to resolve the issues was to come into the branch in person - difficult given that I am in XXXX, UK! After 3 hours, I finally received confirmation that a note of my new address had been made XXXX although they could not formally change it on the system ) but each person I spoke to refused to give me a copy of my bank statement. I am now in a position where I can not complain to XXXX as I have no bank statement, I have no access to the funds that remain in my account, I have no way of being able to check the status of the funds in my account, and I still haven't had any confirmation from Chase that they have blocked the pending charges - those payments simply should not have been made. 

I am extremely disappointed at how Chase is handling this and have been left frustrated and angry. Their systems are awful - I should be able to obtain a copy of my bank statement. I should be able to have access to the remaining funds in my account. And I should be able to do all of this without having to come into the branch in person. Equally, I have been deprived of the opportunity to report this direct to XXXX. I still have not had confirmation that the amounts pending payment have been blocked. And I am not satisfied with Chase 's excuse that they do not monitor bank accounts. They are under an obligation to inform me of any possible fraudulent activity, and I do not accept that the loss should fall on me. 

This has been a horrendous experience. In the likely event of me returning to work in the US, in light of this experience, I will be opening an account with another bank. Chase is a large international bank - they should not operate like this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief