Consumer complaint received 2022-04-06
Company: EVERBANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Didn't receive terms that were advertised

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I received a personalized and direct mail advertisement for a TIAA Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account. I was not a customer of TIAA Bank and did not have any accounts with TIAA Bank. The offer promised to pay a special one-time bonus of {$750.00} if I opened a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account before XX/XX/XXXX and maintained a balance of {$250000.00} on that account. 
I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX retiree who recently sold my longtime home to move in with my daughter. As such, I chose to deposit the sales proceeds from the sale of my family home in a TIAA XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account to earn the promised {$750.00} bonus. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I opened a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account online. On XX/XX/XXXX I went into a local TIAA Bank branch ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, FL XXXX ) and deposited a check ( from an account at a different bank ) for {$250000.00} into the Yield Pledge Money Market account opened on XX/XX/XXXX. TIAA Banking XXXX, XXXX XXXX, assisted me in the branch and said that I was eligible for and would be paid the bonus as long as I leave the money in the account for at least 70 days. I have made no additional deposits into the account and have never made a withdrawal from the account to this date. 
Based on the above dates, the terms and conditions of the offer, and the representations made by XXXX XXXX at funding, I should have earned the {$750.00} bonus on XX/XX/XXXX ( 70 days ) and the {$750.00} bonus should have been credited to my account no later than XX/XX/XXXX ( 120 days ). Unfortunately, TIAA never paid the promised bonus. 
When I called TIAA to claim my bonus, I was told for the first time ever that my account was not eligible for the bonus because of a prior account with EverBank that was closed in XXXX. Apparently, some time after XXXX EverBank was acquired by TIAA and the name changed to TIAA. But I had no knowledge of that since I had not banked with EverBank since XXXX and had never been a TIAA customer until I opened the TIAA Yield Pledge Money Market. I have spoken to XXXX XXXX as well as XXXX customer service representative, XXXX XXXX, but both refuse to help me or honor the {$750.00} bonus I was promised. 
To be clear, I would never have opened a TIAA account, deposited such a large sum of money into that account, and stopped having access to that money for several months if not for the promise of the {$750.00} bonus. I feel that TIAA is taking advantage of an elderly, XXXX retiree by refusing to pay me the bonus. Their offer was unfair and deceptive in that it was specifically sent to me by name and does not mention EverBank anywhere. I had absolutely no way of knowing that EverBank had been acquired by TIAA, and I had absolutely no way of knowing that months after agreeing to open the account and taking my deposit, TIAA would claim that an account with EverBank that had been closed many years earlier made me ineligible for the bonus.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation