Consumer complaint received 2018-01-31
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Sent card you never applied for

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX around XXXX XXXX., I went to Suntrust Bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, FL XXXX ) to close a checking account to avoid fees, since I was not able to keep enough amount in there. This was for my own financial reason. I informed the teller that I wanted to close my checking account, which is when she referred me to a banker named XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX approached me in an attempt to assist me. As I was telling her my reason for the visit to the bank, she kept advertising the Suntrust Credit Card  and its benefits. I let her finish and politely declined her request in signing me up for a credit card with them. I briefly stated my personal reasons as to why I will not open up another credit card account at this time. XXXX and I headed to her desk. 

As she was working on closing my checking account, she kept pushing me to apply for the credit card. I tried to focus on my goal of getting my checking account closed. In the middle of her still trying to push me into opening up the credit card, she mentions that the checking account is not able to be closed due to a pending transaction. I asked her for more details as to when I can close the account and if the transaction was already paid off, so I can at least get the money out and return to close the checking account tomorrow. At this point XXXX is still bringing up the credit card she wanted me to open with Suntrust. When she said that Suntrust had already paid the pending transaction the amount requested, I told her to " go ahead '' and get all the money out of my checking account now and I can come back tomorrow to close the checking account. Then she hands me a withdrawal slip to withdraw all the money out of the checking account. As I was filling that in, she started asking me questions that seemed like small-talks. She asked me what high school I went to and asked how come I was living away from that city now. By the time I was done filling the slip, she looked at me and told me " Congratulations! You have an account with a credit limit of $ XXXX ''. 

Then I asked her what did she do. I told her that I am here to close an account with Suntrust, not to open one! Then she says " Oops, I already applied you for a Suntrust Credit Card. You said 'go ahead ' and thought you meant for the credit card ''. She did not ask me for my SSN nor have I signed any agreement to open up a Suntrust Credit Card. She simply assumed I would agree to her after she keeps talking about the credit card in every bit of our conversations. At this time I was very concerned of my credit score, because I was going to apply for a car loan -- where my credit report matters. The fact that a banker could access my personal information so easily without my authorization just to get a commission was bizarre and immoral! I know this application to Suntrust Credit card created a hard pull on my credit. At that time, I was focused on not making things worse, so I told XXXX to just stop with further action. She offered to close the credit card, but her and I both came to the conclusion that the hard pull would affect my credit score regardless, which I could not afford. 

I decided that arguing with her was not worth my time, so I left after getting all the money out of my checking account. On my next day off from work, appalled by the experience, I went back to Suntrust and XXXX was the only one available to assist me. I told her that I came here to close both the checking account and the savings account with Suntrust, also to please get all my money out of the savings. I do not trust Suntrust anymore after seeing that the company would hire someone like XXXX who would take advantage of her power. I received the Suntrust credit card in the mail today (XX/XX/XXXX), but am not activating it. Currently, I have no bank accounts with Suntrust and not taking further action with the credit card due to wanting the credit card canceled and out of my ownership as well as getting this unauthorized hard pull off of my credit report. 

I am filing this complaint so that other people may not experience the financial abuse from their banker, regardless of the commission bankers receive from signing people up for their credit cards. In addition, as stated before, I want this credit card canceled and I want the unauthorized hard pull off of my credit report.

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 non-monetary relief