Consumer complaint received 2023-03-30
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: DC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
I contact Wells Fargo regarding the card ending in XXXX to be removed as an authorized user on the account because of an alarming XXXX alert that the card limit had been increased by {$2000.00} to bring the credit line up to {$5000.00}. To my horror, I was informed that I am actually a joint owner, which I not only have not been aware of but was told in text messages from the other joint owner I can submit as proof both recently and from years prior where I am told that he only ever added me as an authorized user. I had to fight to get the case escalated to a Wells Fargo Executive Office Case Specialist XXXX XXXX who confirmed that I was a joint owner and sent me a document I allegedly signed in 2012. However, I have no recollection of this and would submit that my signature was forged by the joint owner I was living with at the time. 

The XXXX closed my case without even speaking to me so that I could provide this information. Further, his grounds for closing are contradictory to what is stated in the document my signature was likely forged on. XXXX stated : " Unfortunately we are unable to remove a joint owner from the account as the account was established as a joint account and can not be changed to sole ownership. '' However, the document used to add me as a joint owner reads " request to add a joint cardholder to your existing credit card account ending in XXXX, '' confirming that the account was in fact not established as a joint account but rather amended after the account was already established. Further, the document used to add me does not state anywhere that it is an irrevocable action, that the joint owner to be added can not be removed, that the account is to be re-established as a joint one, or that the joint owner will be secondary holder and forever at the mercy of the primary holder. 

The latter is the most irresponsible because according to a credit card specialist I spoke to the next day, I am indeed a secondary owner that did not need to consent to the {$2000.00} credit limit increase, despite it's implications for my financial standing, the fact that we are clearly separated and have been for over seven years, and the fact that the additional XXXX XXXX has already been spent and not at all by me. This agent also advised me that the only recourse was for me to close the account. However, that further jeopardizes my financial well being because I am certain that the other joint owner would simply cease payment and leave me to foot the XXXX XXXX bill that Wells recklessly permitted him to run up after granting him a line increase without my consent. It is clear that I am a " joint owner '' only for the purposes of their refusal to take me off the account, but I do not have joint agency over it because the " primary owner '' was allowed to secure and spend an additional XXXX XXXX unilaterally. 

I am asking only to be removed as a joint owner and for the " primary owner '' who sought a line increase and added me as a joint owner, not as an authorized user as he's claimed to me since 2012,  without informing me to ( justly ) be left financially responsible.

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