Consumer complaint received 2019-05-03
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I accessed my Bluebird by American Express account that I have had since the end of XX/XX/XXXX ( and never had any issues with ) to transfer some money to a family account and wondered why I had less money than I should have. Upon checking into transactions, I saw charges on my card that I never authorized and didn't recognize, which are fraudulent charges of each {$50.00} and {$120.00} on XX/XX/XXXX as well as {$50.00} and {$120.00} on XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
I immediately called Customer Service and told them I did not make those transactions, upon which I was asked questions, which led to me initiating a fraud investigation. I was advised that my card would be cancelled and no longer valid and I'd be sent a new card and that, if after 10 business days, they needed more time to investigate, I would be issued a provisional credit of the amount in question, {$340.00}, and that the investigation could take up to 45 days. Within two days, I received an email with a link to download the dispute form and a link where I could directly upload the filled out form to my Bluebird account. I filled out all the information, which included personal information but, since I was told my old card number no longer would be valid and I had not yet received the new card, I left the field where I was to fill in my card number, blank given I was directly uploading the form that included all of my identifying information directly to my account and was not given enough time to wait for the new card. 
Last week, desperately needing my money with XXXX children, I called in to check on the status and was again told that if the fraud investigation was to take longer than 10 days, I'd be provided with the provisional credit and the person I spoke with checked and said I had provided them with everything needed from me. 
Yesterday, the 10 days were up and I received an email stating that unfortunately, my document was not accepted. This morning, I called and was told that because I left the card number field blank, this was what they decided. Really? After I was told that my old card number was no longer valid and to destroy the card and still did not have the replacement card, so I had no clue what the new card number was? I would assume that with me uploading the documents containing all the other information to MY own account, and the field I left blank due to that just stating " Card and/or number '' ( after the " or '', there's nothing stating what else the " or '' could be ), they would know that this is me. From my perspective, they are using an excuse, or else they would have at least offered me to correct the situation. 
Bottom line is, after discovering the fraudulent charges on my account, I tried researching what " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX '' even was, it took me minutes to find out that there are plenty of other credit card fraud victims with the same charges to their account. Bluebird can clearly see that prior to the fraudulent charges, I paid over {$300.00} to XXXX/XXXX   and that I also make payments to XXXX XXXX, hence have plenty of data from other providers and have never once had any XXXX XXXX XXXX transactions! 
From my point of view, I should not have to suffer any losses- this is absolutely not my fault- no one has access to my card! ANY other financial institution would have helped! My money should have been safe and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX should tighten the safety measures, having had a lot of trouble with this dating back to XX/XX/XXXX ( as far as I can tell ). Why should my family and I have to face even more trouble that it's already caused? To us, this is the difference of keeping a roof over our heads or losing everything! Please, I'm begging you- help me get my money back!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation