Consumer complaint received 2018-02-21
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
Shortly after using my card for the first time, several suspicious transactions appeared on my account, payments were misapplied, fees were assessed and interest was added to the account balance without a proper explanation of the charge nor were they included in the account history. 

Unfortunately I did not recognize this suspicious activity until much later which I believe was due to my browser redirecting me to a fraudulent Discover website.

Upon the discovery of these odd events, I contacted Discover to dispute the unauthorized transactions, the erroneous fees, and to report the misapplied payments. 

This dispute was opened XX/XX/XXXX but it wasnt until XX/XX/XXXX that I was sent a new card and received confirmation that an investigation was opened. 

Around this time, I was sent a list of the items that were to be disputed. The list of the disputed transactions I had requested was inaccurate and included several payments that were successfully applied to the account. 

Discover requested I either add or remove items on the list and asked me to return this list along with the signed affidavit of fraud. Prior to its submission, Discover took it upon themselves to dispute almost every transaction and payment that was made on the account.

Then, for some unknown reason, I stopped receiving my monthly statements and requested copies. Discover did not honor this request until three cycle periods later and, when the statements did finally arrive, I was shocked to see how the disputed transactions were itemized. These items were reversed several times, as if they have been paid more than once, then, some of these reversals were re-charged as new purchases, re-reversed then re-charged, all in the same statement period including items that I was unfamiliar with.

Then, after calling Discover to clarify the information that was contained in these statements, additional copies of statements were sent to me but this time, I received statements for the old account during the disputed time periods when I was under the impression the account balance had just transferred over to the new account number and was deleted. This was now a third record in my possession with varying transaction histories. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received notice that Discover had completed its investigation and concluded that no fraud had occurred which I disagree with.

When calling to request more information, I was told that because I made payments online, it was not possible the account was misused. I made several reports that the website was acting suspicious, and requested information validating the websites legitimacy. I continually reported problems that I was having when printing my online statements. I reported receiving phishing emails and, I reported payments that I attempted online were never applied to my account. Because of these incidences, I can not comprehend how the use of the website could validate the decision to not complete a proper investigation. 

When searching one of the misapplied payments on my account, the item comes up on ten different occasions. The totals for these ten transactions result in a positive credit of {$1400.00} which would lead a person to suggest two {$700.00} payments were made, yet this amount was never deducted off the balance. Then, adding to my suspicions, two days after this payment was rejected, my card details show that my cash advance credit line availability was negative {$660.00}. Furthermore, my statement has a {$0.00} cash advance charge which was not included in the transaction history and a {$0.00} charge showing as a minimum interest fee and appears under the fee summary and not as an interest charge. 

Disappointingly, on XX/XX/XXXX, 6 days after the investigation was completed, I received notice that Discover closed my line of credit without a valid explanation. 

Throughout the months of XXXX, XXXX through XXXX, XXXX, myself and my mother whom is an authorized user on the account have made numerous calls to almost every department of Discover attempting to have someone explain to us the confusing statements, to ask why our account was closed as well as to ask why Discover failed to conduct an appropriate investigation. Each call has ended without a fair resolution and conveyed an unwillingness to explain the variations in the account histories. 

Lastly and perhaps most frustrating, on XX/XX/XXXX, Discover emailed me a revised letter disclosing that the prior letter sent to me regarding there decision to close my account was incomplete. Discover is now claiming there decision was based on my account having an unsatisfactory payment history.

I am extremely upset that Discover is now trying to justify this as a valid reason to close my account especially, since the date of the first correspondence mailed to me, each of my monthly payments were sent in a timely and satisfactorily manner, with some months even paying double.

This excuse comes off as a direct attack on my character by disclosing false information portraying that I failed to comply with the account procedures. This may be an attempt to hide the fact that my account was closed after I exercised my right to dispute. And, by doing so, Discover should be held responsible for conducting unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business affairs.

Discover should also be held accountable for knowingly making false statements, possibly manipulating statements, applying unnecessary charges to my balance, and failing to provide a clear record of what I am being charged for. Lastly I would like for them to compensate me for the time myself and my mother have wasted trying to sort out this mess, and for damaging our credit worthiness. This account was the oldest account on my credit report and by closing it with an outstanding balance has caused my credit score to drop substantially.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation