Consumer complaint received 2023-04-12
Company: Netspend Corporation
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
I purchased a prepaid card from Netspend for the purpose of getting some items online and loaded funds to the card. Upon making several purchases I noticed that I had been charged for several services that I had not received nor had been aware of. After I became aware of the charges I contacted Netspend and I filed disputes for the fraudulent charges and was given a reference number in order to follow up on the status of the claim XXXX filed for the fraudulent transactions. This was done on XX/XX/2023. On XX/XX/2023, I called back to confirm that the disputes had been filed correctly and that is when I was informed that the information that I had provided previously was not correct. After spending over two hours on the phone with the customer service representative two days before none of the information about the dates nor the amounts was correct therefore the disputes had to be filed again for the same information previously submitted. After completing the tedious task once again I verified the information from the reference number to the claim number as well as when I was supposed to receive a provisional credit for the fraudulent transactions while the investigation was ongoing. Ten business days after the dispute was filed is when I was supposed to receive the provisional credit. When the tenth business day came there was no credit to my account so I called and inquired about the date that the credit would be applied and that is when I was told that I didnt submit the documents that were requested for receiving the credit, which was not true and I have proof in the form of the email in which there was a reply thanking me for submitting the necessary documents. I was also told that they didnt have any documentation for the claim number that was given to me for following up on the status of the claim and that since my account was anew account, which it was not, that instead of ten business days it was going to be 20 business days before I would be considered for a provisional credit.

This is not stated anywhere in the cardholder agreement this was a blatant lie. Prior to submitting the claim I could get my transaction history from the automated system but once the dispute was filed they were unavailable as if they had never existed and I was able to access my account online but after the dispute was filed I could no longer access the account there either. It was not until after the XXXX of XXXX, the day that they had designated as the infamous 20th business day that they were supposed to issue the provisional credit that all of a sudden every one of the disputes that were filed were denied without any explanation or documentation in support of the denials. This is unacceptable and unethical business practices that should be investigated and not ignored. I am insulted by this obvious attempt to steal my money by playing games from the very beginning when the disputes were incorrect after spending two plus hours on the phone and then pretending to not have any record of the disputes and documents after that. I am in disbelief that this kind of behavior has taken place and that over a month later that I am still without my money that was stolen due fraudulent charges and transactions that were made on my account. I would like to receive my money back immediately and the fees that were charged for each of the transactions as well. It has been well over a Month and going on two since I have attempted to obtain my funds back.

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