Consumer complaint received 2022-03-25
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: SC
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
I was an employee at the time that I took out a Business line of Credit with BB & T which is now Truist Bank. The agreement stated I would be charged {$100.00} annual maintenance fee starting on my origination date and stopping on my maturity date. My origination date was XX/XX/XXXX. This was a THREE YEAR line of credit. My line matured on XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to my line maturing the branch manager had called me and asked if I wanted to renew the line. I asked her what the new rate would be since I caried a balance on the line of credit. I was either going to pay it off or renew the line. Well my line matured on XX/XX/XXXX and Truist charged me another annual maintenance fee but closed off my access to the funds to use since it had matured. I heard back from the branch manager a few days later and I had asked her if I was going to renew the line, were they going to charge me an additional {$100.00} annual fee and she responded a few days later saying yes. So Truist not only charged me {$100.00} annual fee on my maturity date while cutting off my access to funds but they were going to charge me another additional {$100.00} annual fee on top of that if I wanted to renew the line. That is absurd and completely unethical. So now I have FOUR annual fees assessed on my THREE year line of credit. The branch manager asked for a refund because she was unsure of why the fee was charged on maturity date. She was denied that request. I then called in and spoke to a representative in their loan department who read the agreement with me and agreed that I should NOT have been charged another annual fee on maturity date when it clearly says it would stop on maturity date. She submitted a request for the fee to be refunded as well. She escalated the case to the customer care team in which I was to receive a call within the next 7-10 days. I requested a copy of that agreement I signed to be mailed to me since Truist had now removed my access from seeing it online. I called in a few days later to find out that her request had been denied as well. I spoke to that representative to review it with me and see where it makes sense that the bank would charge me again on my maturity date when the agreement clearly states they would not. I asked her as well to send me a copy of the loan agreement as well. She as well escalated the case creating a new ticket which I was supposed to received a call back within 7 - 10 business days. I then over the next 2 weeks kept calling in spending well over 15 hours on the phone trying to get this resolved. I then submitted a CFPB complaint in which XXXX XXXX XXXX out of XXXX called me from Truist letting me know she was going to handle my complaint. I asked her as well for a copy of the loan agreement to be mailed to me. Every request for a copy of the loan agreement up to this point had been denied. The bank was refusing on purpose to send me a copy. She spent about 20 days to get me her response in which she stated the bank was in the right to charge the fee because there was still a balance on the line at that time. She clearly doesn't not understand banking and how charging fees works and maturity dates work. I was an employee of BB & T/ Truist for 6 years until I left last year because of unethical things like this going on. I didn't want to be apart of it anymore. I asked XXXX again where was my loan agreement that I had asked for almost 3 weeks ago from her. She said she would now send it out after she has now closed the case. For whatever reason she denied my request as well in the beginning to send it out to me. She however did sent it out after she closed the case and I received it last week. I had received it over 2 months after I initially requested it. Thanks to my training on Fair lending practices and ethics training while I was employed at Truist, I understand and know what the bank can and can not charge fees for. The agreement is also very easy to read. It states under " Annual Fee : " The Borrower hereby agrees to pay an annual fee of {$100.00} on the due date of this agreement and due thereafter on each anniversary date of this agreement UNTIL THE MATURITY DATE as it MAY BE EXTENDED from time to time. '' What she and the bank has failed to comprehend is that the line of credit MATURED!! It was not renewed! The next section discusses the part where the maturity date may be extended from time to time. It states under " Renewal : The bank may, at its option, renew this agreement in whole or in part, substitute a new instrument of different form for this agreement, or make changes in consideration of loan extension. The Bank may charge any fees permitted by applicable law for the MODIFICATION, RENEWAL, EXTENSION, or AMMENDEMENT of any of the terms of this agreement. '' Again I never renewed the line and the bank never renewed the line. The line of credit had matured. The maturity date was never extended. They can charge an annual maintenance fee if they decided to renew the line but they didn't!!! So therefor the only thing they can charge me for on the balance on the line is INTEREST! They can not charge me an annual fee on a line I no longer can use and then charge me interest as well. This is how class action law suits are started and how the reputation of bank can be tarnished. The only reason I had a balance on the line still was because I was waiting to hear back from the branch manager on what my new rate would be if I renewed the line. Once I found out they charged me a {$100.00} fee on the matured line and would charge me another {$100.00} fee again to renew the line I informed them I would just pay it off online. Then there online banking would only take max daily payments of {$1000.00}. Then there was days where their online banking wouldn't even allow me to make payments. I have screenshots of all of these. I called back XXXX to urge her legal department to review this before I get my legal team involved. I have left her 2 voicemails and she has refused to call me back. The bank should be ashamed of themselves for trying to take advantage of people like this. I'm sure they are doing it to others. If anyone else has seen this happen to them please contact your attorney. This is completely unethical and fraudlulent. Nowhere in their agreement does it say they can charge another annual maintenance fee if there is a balance on the line at maturity. Nowhere! It states the fee will stop at maturity unless the maturity date has been extended. I would expect better from a bank who is trying to rebuild their brand on trust.

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