Consumer complaint received 2021-05-04
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: IL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan

Complaint:
I have held a Discover Credit Card with them since their first contact in XXXX, since then they have constantly sent mail to my home address, phishing for a personal loan up to a limit of {$35000.00}. Their phishing scams, always are headlined with " Congratulations on your preferred status '' and why not? I have never missed a payment, and since I came to this country I have continued to work on my credit. Anyway I finally took them up on their offer, we wanted to purchase a large deep fryer and we didn't have enough in savings so we opted for {$30000.00} over 60 months. We were supposedly pre approved, they already knew our credit score was XXXX and we had never missed a payment, we submitted our XXXX Tax return showing I earned {$110000.00} last year, we submitted our Bank Statements showing my employer paying into our account, and our statements showed that we had over {$24000.00} in savings in the bank, almost enough to cover the entire loan we were seeking and more than most people have in their accounts, but not enough for the equipment we had to purchase. Discover knew our history, knew our credit score, but hit our credit anyway, they did not ask any questions about our credit score, or my employment or the cash we had in the bank, instead they took aim at our legal status in the USA and declined our loan on that alone. It seems to me they have breached the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. I have 4 recorded phone calls with various people including XXXX and XXXX listed above from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. the first two calls were about sending documents like, pay stubs, bank statements etc, the last two calls were about my legal status in the USA only, one call on the XXXX and the last call on the XXXX, They asked for copies of my Visa which i sent, I also explained due to COVID we had been waiting on a renewal since XX/XX/XXXX but the XXXX have not completed their paperwork yet, I also sent a copy of the form XXXX to show this was the case, They called back again on the XXXX asking for more Information on my citizenship and my status in the USA, I explained again about waiting for the XXXX to send me the renewal, they then declined my loan on this basis. On the email sent the next morning XXXX XXXX the cause was listed as " Unable to verify Credit References '' which is XXXX, and " Documentation you provided is Incomplete/Unacceptable '' this means they denied based solely on my Legal status in the USA, they are in breach of the Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and they discriminated against me based solely on my National Origin. The law is clear that they are not allowed to discriminate in such a way that they did, there is proof online that they approve loans to people with lower credit, and less savings in the bank than we have, but because they're US citizens they were approved their loan over ours. The recorded Phone conversations prove they were concerned with XXXX XXXX and not creditworthiness, The need to be held accountable and i fully intend to take this matter further. Out of the 5 additional reasons listed to the two already mentioned, 3 of the 5 additional relate to my time in the country as a legal resident, and nothing to do with creditworthiness. 
Discover Personal loans are in breach of the Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act Discover Personal Loans, discriminated against me purely on National Origin Regards,

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation