Consumer complaint received 2016-08-02
Company: First Data Corporation
State: NC
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
In or around XXXX XXXX I was wrongfully terminated from my job following a work related accident. I suffered a XXXX which required XXXX to repair but found out that my employer did not have worker 's compensation insurance. When I was terminated, my employer did not pay me for the accumulated time, ( vacation ) and did not pay me for the time worked following my injury and prior to my termination. As a result I had to temporarily put a hold on any funds being automatically withdrawn from my bank account in order to avoid overdrafts and I cleared this arrangement with the credit union PRIOR to halting payments and in order to allow me time to find out when my worker 's compensation payments would be initiated by my employer. Shortly after I attempted to purchase groceries from XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. Both stores systems accepted the checks but when I attempted to use a check after that for a purchase my check was declined. It was at that time that i learned that my previous purchases at XXXX XXXX and XXXX via check went into Telecheck because they claimed I wrote checks on a closed account. MY ACCOUNT WAS NOT CLOSED! Someone at the credit union entered the wrong transaction I assumed and " CLOSED '' my account although I still had funds in my account instead of the " automatic withdrawals '' from my account being blocked so that my account was not overdrawn. This was the credit unions error and they admitted the error and sent, via fax, a letter explaining what happened to Telecheck. Telecheck, although they received the letter, would still not clear my account from their system and I contacted the attorney general of my state, finally, after paying the checks that " cleared '' cleared the stores when purchases were made, but were returned for " closed account '' at a later time ( though I am not sure when because I never received a notice from Telecheck only a printout when attempting to pay for purchases shortly after. Even though I paid both checks when I learned the original checks had been returned " closed account '' with cashiers checks I, again, ran into problems with my account while shopping a different Food Lion in my community. After filing the complaint with the attorney general and again having my credit union write a letter to Telecheck my account was finally cleared XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX with the assistance of the N.C. Justice Department - Consumer Division and the manager of my branch where I bank. I resumed using checks in these stores and until today had no problem, even though I seldom use checks but use my debit card for grocery purchases. Today when I attempted a purchase of {$58.00} I realized I left my debit card at home and had to use a check to pay for my purchase. My check was declined. I checked my balance before leaving to go to the grocery store so I knew i had more than enough to complete the purchase. The cashier ran the check through twice and both time it was declined. I called my credit union while at the store and it was confirmed that I had more than enough to cover my purchase. The store manager explained, after making a phone call, that Telecheck was declining my payment and I would need to call them. I made the call to Telecheck and was informed that " due to a risk analysis acccount or ID has not been evaluated because my account had not build up sufficient activity and is consistent with fraudulent activity '' I have had this account for years and use debit card and checks for my purchases. Since this matter was supposedly cleared up more than a year ago with Telecheck and since that time I have written checks at these same stores that cleared - I want to know why I am repeating the same kind of denial that was cleared up more than a year ago. Telecheck has a bad reputation for keeping information active after resolution and penalizing m

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief