Consumer complaint received 2017-04-12
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money

Complaint:
USAA froze all of my family 's assets held at the institution, locked our debit cards, and unreasonably denied access to all funds through all methods of withdrawal. They additionally refused to honor bill payments USAA sent on my behalf via their online service despite plenty of available funds and despite the payments being initiated before the account was frozen. 

USAA informs me that they did this because there was a security concern with the account. I was told by a customer service representative that a third party, potentially inadvertently, entered my account number into USAA 's automated phone system. According to multiple customer service representatives there was no compromise of any account, no suspicious charges, and the caller was not able to successfully authenticate. 

I was initially informed of the security concern via SMS message from the bank and upon receipt I immediately called to inquire about the issue. The customer service representative walked me through changing my website credentials out of an abundance of caution and assured me that no further action was required. The next day, Tuesday the XX/XX/XXXX, my debit card transactions were being declined so I called USAA to find out why. It was n't until then that I was informed that my assets had been frozen. It would have been simple for me to make arrangements for an alternate payment method for the day if USAA had informed me the night prior about the account status. Instead, my entire family found itself in a position where we could not withdraw from an ATM, initiate an ETF, use XXXX, visit a bank branch, make a purchase with a debit card, or access any of our money held in any USAA account by any means. 

While the accounts were in this locked state, no customer service representative was able to tell me when I would be able to access my funds. They were unable to tell me what USAA 's process is for unlocking the account or what the status of any investigation might be. They also could n't provide me with an accurate estimate of when this would be resolved. USAA was, however, able inform me that there was nothing I could do about it except wait patiently. Effectively, my assets had been seized for an indeterminate amount of time and without reasonable justification. This continued for about one week from XX/XX/2017 to XX/XX/2017. 

If there was any question about the legitimacy of transactions on the accounts, it would have been trivially simple to confirm them with me over the phone during one of my many authenticated calls to the bank during this period. Instead, USAA refused to honor my website bill pay requests causing both my regularly scheduled mortgage payment and my county property tax payment to be rejected. There is nothing I could have done to prevent or mitigate the situation. 

I have asked USAA to reimburse me for a {$35.00} returned item-handling fee that has been assessed by the county in response to the returned property tax payment. USAA refused my request. 

USAA 's actions were excessive and their drastic response was not proportional to the severity of the situation. USAA 's actions resulted in direct financial damages to me.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief