Consumer complaint received 2020-11-04
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
Hello, I opened a HELOC with PenFed Credit Union back in XX/XX/2020. 
Then I started realizing their system were having issues so I decided to start paying off my balance on my loan so to close the account since their customer service was very poor. 

I transferred {$5000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, then another {$5000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and then another {$5000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX from my other bank to my regular PenFed account, then from my regular PenFed account I paid {$5100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX to my PenFed HELOC account but they reversed it on the same day XX/XX/XXXX saying there was insufficient funds in my regular PenFed account even though it said the funds had posted it was showing I had {$15000.00}. 

So I made another payment of {$5000.00} from the regular PenFed account to the PenFed HELOC on XX/XX/XXXX and again it was reversed saying I had insufficient funds. I also transferred another {$5000.00} from my other bank to my Penfed regular account on XX/XX/XXXX. So by now I had a total of {$20000.00} in my regular account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I paid {$5000.00} again to my Penfed HELOC account and this time it accepted the {$5000.00}. Then on XX/XX/XXXX I paid another {$5000.00} to the HELOC account and then on XX/XX/XXXX I made a payment of {$7600.00}. I also made another {$7500.00} payment so now my balance was around {$17.00}. 

So on XX/XX/XXXX or the XXXX I logged in to may the final payment of {$17.00} to bring the balance to {$0.00} and I noticed that there was no payment option since they had upgraded their system. So now I have to call their customer service and wait almost 2 hours just to make a payment. I finally made the payment and the agent said my balance is now {$0.00}. 

Then a week goes by and I noticed on XX/XX/XXXX I have a {$100.00} interest statement in my account, again I could not make the pay online since there was no payment option, again I called their customer service and waited an hour and 30 minutes just to make the payment and it turned out I only owe {$46.00} which I paid. At this point I asked the agent when will I be able to pay online, they said they have no idea and it could be 3 or 4 months. 

To me this is poor service, so I told him I want to close my account. I spoke to their manager XXXX XXXX and she said she needs to let her upper management know and she will have someone call me. 

One thing I had noticed with Penfed HELOC they do not even show your previous balances and how much was paid off, they only show the payments made so it gets very confusing if some needs to see what their previous balance is. 3 weeks went but and I heard nothing back from PenFed Union. So around the week of XX/XX/XXXX I decided to take time off from work and drive to XXXX to their Branch to see if I can close the HELOC account and waive what ever closing fee I have to pay since it is their system having issues. I talked to the manager there and he said he can not do anything and that he will send an email to the mortgage department so they can close the account. The lady working at the office admitted that other members are experience the same issue with the website and they can not make payments. I asked her so what is a customer suppose to do and she said I can always call in if I need to make a payment, again this is not an option for me to wait almost 2 hours just to make a payment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I get a letter than I need to pay {$450.00} for the pay off amount, which I felt I should so I called their office and I realized nobody can't help me. Manager said she needs to send my request to upper management so she did but I never heard back. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I decided to log into my account to see maybe they have closed the account but they didn't and I noticed there is a loan balance of {$10000.00} now. I thought my account has been hacked and someone taken funds out. So I called their customer service only to be hung up on 3 times, but the 4th time I finally got someone who was nice and willing to help. After 1 hour she still could not figure out how this {$10.00}, XXXX was showing in my account when my balance was {$0.00} and she was the pay off amount was {$450.00}. So she said she needs to send my account to upper management, I told her the last agent tried this for another issue but I never heard anything back and now this issue is more serious since someone may have taken {$10000.00} from my account. 

She assured me she would raise this to management level. A day later on XX/XX/XXXX a lady called by the name of XXXX XXXX and she said she has looked into my account and has no idea why there is a balance of {$10000.00} and she has to escalate this to upper management and that she will keep in contact with me. 

She called me today on XX/XX/XXXX to explain to me that they are still investigating this issue. So here I'm now writing this long complaint asking your office to investigate PenFed Union practice, this seems like a banking fraud and I have also noticed on XXXX their multiple locations have either 1 star or 2 stars and on XXXX I have seen other member complaining about their accounts. 

At this point I do not know who to contact so I have decided to reach out to your office. 

Thank you, XXXX XXXX

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