Consumer complaint received 2018-07-29
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
STATEMENT On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I used XXXX search to contact the XXXX, Nebraska County Treasurers Office to check on the current status on property taxes my wife and I own therein. I was connected with to the Treasurers Office but it was the section that dealt with automobile taxes. I returned to XXXX   and added real estate to the search specifications and was connected to a official looking web site that requested the address of the property I was interested in obtaining information about, I entered the address and was informed there was a {$1.00} charge to obtain the information. The charge was not unusual, I had paid a small charge to download a property deed previously. I agreed to the charge and gave them my USAA XXXX card number. This is the only charge I agreed to.

After about 2 or 3 minutes, which seemed too long to me, the site presented a summary of the information they obtained. It contained facts about the house- rooms, square footage, etc., some of which were wrong ( I have owned the property for 42 years ) but had no current information on the XX/XX/XXXX taxes due in XX/XX/XXXX. This made me suspicious. The site encouraged me to download more information, including a picture of the house, but I declined. the site then wanted to know if I wanted to view other property or be interested in investing in other property. Now I was sure this was not getting me the data I needed and I closed the site. Unfortunately, I did not think to record the site URL.

I was suspicious enough to contact USAA a day later to check on my XXXX card charges but the {$1.00} charge I had agreed to was not posted. I regret I did not check again before I received my credit card billing showing a charge of {$1.00} made by XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and also a charge of {$18.00} by the same the same entity on the same date. I complained to the credit card company, USAA-XXXX  thru USAA Savings Bank, and they advised me to fill out a Transaction Dispute Form and mail it in. I did so on XX/XX/XXXX, I also filed Transaction Dispute Forms for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I cancelled my XXXX card because of the inaction of USAA Savings Bank. The bank has mailed me a new card but I have refused to Activate it because the bank is carrying over the fraudulent charges of XXXX to the new card.

I have recently received an e-mail from USAA Savings Bank that they are giving me Temporary Credit for the {$18.00} charge on my XX/XX/XXXX statement but warn that the problem is not yet resolved.

I recently checked on the account and found that the posting of the latest {$18.00} charge the changed posting date from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX so that it would be included in any new billing. Looks like the bank is aiding the fraudulent claimant.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief