Consumer complaint received 2017-09-11
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
- An XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from US Bank closing my new US Bank XXXX card. The reason " Failure to comply with the terms of the Cardmember Agreement due to excessive or patterned purchases of cash equivalent instruments, such as gift cards, rewards cards and other pre-paid cards. '' - I purchased discounted XXXX and XXXX gift cards on XXXX XXXX  in amounts of $ XXXX {$45.00} for a total of about {$800.00} over serveral months as part of their monthly promotions. This credit card gives 3X points when using XXXX XXXX, so natural for a consumer to use it for the purchase. XXXX runs a monthly promotion for up to {$500.00} face value per month on a variety of merchants. 

- No where is it advertised when signing up for the credit card that purchasing merchant gift cards like XXXX is prohibited. This is obviously a very UNSUAL violation. I spoke to XXXX at US Bank who sent me the letter and closed my account. He said US Bank as " zero tolerance '' for buying gift cards. 

The US Bank application can be reviewed here : XXXX : XXXX - US Bank says I forfeited 91,758 points by doing this, worth over {$1300.00} for travel and over {$910.00} if I simply cashed them out for statement credit/cash. I attempt to redeem online, but as expected, my redemption is blocked. 

- XXXX at US Bank verified that I received no warning or direct communication. He says they are in the terms which ARE NOT ONLINE nor given to you at time of application. US Bank is mailing the card member agreement to me that they claim to have sent with the credit card. 

- XXXX says complaints should be directed to US Bank Card Member Services Office of the President XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, ND XXXX XXXX can be reached at XXXX Ext XXXX - I spent about {$10000.00} on the credit card over several months. The credit card had a 50,000 point bonus which posted over a month ago. The XXXX XXXX had nothing to do with meeting the sign up bonus and XXXX did not bring that up at all. He simply said " we do n't allow the purchase of any gift cards '' and they are justified to close my account and forfeit all my points. 

- I have attached my recent credit card statment and am not worried about my personal information on this document. You are free to discuss with US Bank as desired. 

I would like my points cashed out as if used for the XXXX cents give for travel redemption, so a bit over {$1000.00}. Closing my credit card for minor gift card purchases appears to be a pretext for forfeiting consumer rewards. At this point, I do not desire my credit card to re-open, I think any consumer in this situation should be allowed to cash out their legit points earned. I also think US Bank should fully disclose and communicate effectively with consumers for their " zero tolerance '' policy for buying any merchant gift cards as this is highly unusual. 

In terms of legal issue, 1 ) US Bank may have not legally fully disclosed that " We do n't allow the purchase of any gift cards. '' I certainly was unaware and I ca n't beleive they do n't disclose it at time of application, even in some minute fine print. Nothing I could find anywhere and XXXX was unaware of anything as well. 
2 ) The card member agreement is not available online for review to consult. At this point, XXXX at US Bank says that this provision is buried in that document, which could have been changed after my application as this is new credit card product for them. 

Thanks for your time.

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