Consumer complaint received 2021-10-25
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Ally Financial ( aka Ally Invest, aka XXXX XXXX ) failed to perform its fiduciary duty to me and also stole money from my brokerage account. I have been in dispute with Ally Financial trying to get my money back that was stolen from my brokerage account as inactivity fees ; a total of {$200.00} of which I only received {$50.00} refund. Ally Financial still owes me the remaining {$150.00}. 

I accuse Ally Financial of the following : 1 ) Stole money from my brokerage account. 2 ) Failed to perform their fiduciary duty to me as my de facto brokerage firm. 

1 ) I initially opened my brokerage account with XXXX in XXXX. There was no inactivity fees in the agreement. At the time, I was aware of Trade King ( now Ally Invest / Ally Financial after XXXX acquisition ) in that it charged inactivity fees and had decided not to do business with it. In XXXX, XXXX was acquired by XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and it became my de facto brokerage firm. I did not have any agreement with XXXX. I was not able to move my account out of the firm because it was the Great Recession and I would have incurred a big lost. Also during the merger, XXXX and XXXX ' CEOs jointly sent out e-mails to XXXX account holder promising to " keep the same ... products and services that attracted them to XXXX to begin with. '' ( Refer to attach document Doc1 for e-mail printout ). However, XXXX broke that promise by stealing money from my account yearly from XXXX to XXXX as inactivity charges. I have been in dispute with Ally Financial to recover my money. 

2 ) I have been contacting Ally Financial to recover my money but the firm was not interested in helping me. It has failed to perform its fiduciary duty to me. In XX/XX/XXXX, I did a web chat with agent XXXX and he agreed to give me a refund of the inactivity fee from 4 years, that would be {$200.00}. However, I found out some time later that only {$50.00}, one year of fee was refunded. I asked for 4 years in my original chat, so I went on web chat again, and was connected with manager XXXX XXXX. He told me that XXXX did not mean what he said and that he only agreed to give me one year 's worth of fee that was {$50.00} instead of the {$200.00} that I asked for. He said that XXXX could have been more clear, but then did not rectify the problem, and instead continue to say that company policy only allowed for a one time refund. XXXX ended the chat with while I was still inquiring about the money. That was not customary business practice. I accused Ally Financial of failure to act in my best interest. The firm and its agents did not honor their words with me. All in all my account was hit with more inactivity charges than commissions for the service. 
( Refer to attach document Doc2 and Doc3 for chat transcripts. )

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