Consumer complaint received 2020-12-11
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
XXXX and USAA began calling me in late XXXX, around maybe XXXX, and advised I was behind on my credit card. I advised them that I wasnt working nor did I have a credit card. When I asked about the information in the file they refused to give me any details. They called multiple times a day and would scream, curse and talk down to me for not paying my debts and every time I told them the account is fraud, they refused to listen or attempt to help me fight it. The account was opened by my mother, which easily explained how someone got all of my information. According to the credit file, I worked for two years doing some kind of loan or bank work. I had only graduated high school in XXXX and went to college a couple months after out of state on a full ride scholarship for track. I ended up losing that scholarship because of it. The XXXX couldnt have that kind of negativity attached to them. {$30000.00} a year to attend XXXX XXXX University in Oklahoma. I tried to tell them that I could prove that these charges were not mine due to not even being in the same place when the transactions happened and they refused to hear me out. I often cried after their calls because they were so rude and aggressive. I didnt know anything about credit at that time. My dad told me this isnt the first time my mother had stolen my identity. The first time occurred when I was three years old. Luckily my dad was able to get rid of that for me. But then I found out that other than XXXX, theres a usaa credit card thats open and delinquent as well. So now I have two companies calling me. Neither willing to help, transfer me to management or other representatives, and caused me to have financial hardship for more than 7 years due to the {$13000.00} in bad debt. I was homeless at one point, another I was making {$1500.00} every two weeks plus monthly bonuses and couldnt get an apartment in a low income community even though I was making decent money for a XXXX yr old. This continued all the way through my XXXX XXXX in XXXX. The only credit Id ever gotten was for my car in XXXX which came at a high interest rate and was only given due to knowing that the XXXX will make sure our debts are taken care of. Even at that time I was still being called and harassed by the card companies. Threatening to garnish my taxes or my checks in order to collect the debt. After being XXXX and XXXX XXXX from the XXXX, my credit score had only recovered from XXXX to XXXX or so. It was XXXX. It still is. That debts dragged me down my entire adult life and has stained my image long before I ever had a chance at life. Being verbally abused and harassed by those companies and going through hardship like that, made me want to die at times because it was so much and no one would help me. My mother ended up filing bankruptcy but never claimed the cards even then. Now here I am a XXXX veteran and I cant even use the housing loan Im entitled to secure housing because of my credit profile. Those credit cards got me rejected from being able to be recruited into the XXXX XXXX, despite my excellent testing scores. The only option I had was the XXXX, and even then I had to speak to someone about the extent of my debt to be able to get through to training. USAA is something that veterans and veterans families because my father is retired military as well. Yet I cant get access to those benefits. Leading me to have to deal with outside companies who took advantage of that and high interest rates, high insurance rates, high deposits for housing, living with strangers because I couldnt get my own apartment and being homeless. This behavior is something no one deserved to have to deal with. My father and siblings were called in attempts to locate me as well. It destroyed my life before I ever had a chance. 

The attachments will show I was out of state and couldnt have made those accts. I have also found the information that I believe is what was used to make the fraudulent account and it will also show I didnt have any money or access to the accounts. Someone who has access to {$13000.00} in credit cards wouldnt be asking for money to ship boxes or to live off of. It will also show I didnt have access to important documents like my birth certificate, but my mother did.

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