Consumer complaint received 2022-07-05
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
THIS IS THE SECOND TRIAL AT THIS COMPLAINT. I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM YOU SAYING YOU DID NOT TRUST I AM WHO I SAY I AM. I SPOKE TO ONE OF YOUR REPS ON THE PHONE AND HE SAID HE WOULD SEND OUT A NOTIFICATION THAT I AM ACTUALLY WHO I CLAIMED IN THE FIRST COMPLAINT. MY DRIVERS LICENSE IS ATTACHED AS PROOF OF IDENTITY.

My wife and I banked with Sun Trust when it existed. We had numerous payees we had entered into their online banking system. One of those payees was XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The payment was scheduled by us to be paid automatically. There were other creditors scheduled the same way. Truist took over Sun Trust. 
Truist promised in written updates that payees and automatic payments would be transferred over to the now Truist account. In addition, we made several calls to them over a period of time to see when we would see the payees list in our account. Unfortunately, we did not document the dates ofthe calls and we didn't save the written notices. Effective this XX/XX/XXXX, our home loan increased because of higher taxes and insurance coverage. We went to out Truist online account to change the amount of the auto pay. None of our payees from the Sun Trust payee list were there. On XX/XX/2022 we called the Truist number. None of the representatives we spoke to could tell us how to change our payment. They said that we should just re-enter all of our payees since our payees would probably not be transferred over. We spoke to XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. We were told they could not see any scheduled payments, and we should contact XXXXXXXX XXXX as they were auto debiting our account. After two calls to XXXX, they swore that they never have debited our account -- that we had set up the payments through Sun Trust. Calling back Truist, they said we could just set up a new auto pay. I said, " What about the old auto pay? Will that be cancelled? '' The response was they didn't know. So, I suggested that we cancel all future payments and we'd make the payments through another bank. Supposedly, the rep then put a stop to the ACH payment. ( A letter dated XX/XX/2022, affirmed the stop, but did not list the proper payment amount. So will the stop actually work? ) Finally, the rep said, " There will be an {$35.00} charge for a stop payment. '' I said, " I do not agree to the charge and will not pay it since it's Truist 's failure to list payees that caused this problem in the first place. '' On XX/XX/2022, I went by the local Truist branch. 
After explaining the situation, the representative credited the charge back to our account. She told me she had no access to online banking and could not help on the missing payees. We have seen on line where others are facing this same situation with Truist charging everyone {$35.00} because Truist lied about payees being transferred over. Most were having to live with their loss. Unlike me, they didn't have the time to make a formal complaint. Now we're in the position of taking the chance that re-entering the payees will result in multiple payments to the same payee. This is since the Truist reps could not find where our payments were being paid from ( though they did appear on our account statements ). We still do not know how to stop other auto pays from the Truist account. Certainly our creditors have no way of doing it. And thanks to Truist, we have no way except to pay {$35.00} for each ACH stop payment and make yet another trip to the local branch to have it all credited back.

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