Consumer complaint received 2021-03-23
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Complaint:
I've had a XXXX card for many years and have never had any problems with them until this year after I had my stimulus payment put on my card with direct deposit. By XXXX my balance was {$640.00} that I needed for XXXX rent. For whatever reason I opened my XXXX app and saw my balance was {$0.00} and 2 transactions I did not make that took all of my money. Of course I called right away and went through the process of filing a fraud dispute. On the evening of XX/XX/XXXX I checked my email and saw that I received a email on XX/XX/XXXX and was very happy to read that my card was credited the amount of the charges. XX/XX/XXXX I went to XXXX to buy food and was going to withdraw the rest of my money to get a money order for rent but my card was declined when I tried to pay for the food. I called XXXX and was told my card was locked. I asked the reason and was told for having XXXX balance for more than 30 days. When I told her that was not correct suddenly she started saying she could not hear me that it was too noisy but she had no problem hearing until that point. I hung up and called back and this time a guy told me my card was locked for having a negative balance. Two different false reasons in a matter of a few minutes? I told him it's a prepaid debit card so I can't have a negative balance and never have. He agreed put me on hold and came back and said he spoke to the dept. that's reviewing my account and my card will be unlocked in two days. Three days later I called back because my card was still locked this time I spoke to ' XXXX who seemed to really want to help me. He said the same my card was locked because of a negative balance. I told him that was not true as its a prepaid debit card, he went through my account and all my transactions and agreed I never had a negative balance. He then put me on hold a very long time then told me he spoke to THE PERSON reviewing my account and told them how he went through my transactions and told me my card would be unlocked in two days. The next day I got a email saying my account was suspended for good. HOW DO I GET MY MONEY??? There was a different number to call and when I did the guy was rude as if I bothered him and told me he could not get to my account cuz its gone. He did not give me a reason why it was suspended and could not tell me how to get my money. He actually told me there's no way I can. I called the other number I had been calling and after yelling and asking why they were doing this and to speak to a supervisor she, XXXX told me they will mail a check. No check has come and now I'm put on hold as soon as I tell them my name. How is this allowed to happen? I've read many many reviews and XXXX is doing this to very many people. This is a crime and I know that when they sent the email they credited my account my card was already locked and they planned it so I would not get my money. I'm going to be evicted PLEASE PLEASE help me. They stole on money just as sure as if they robbed me to do it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation