Consumer complaint received 2016-11-15
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MN
Product: Credit card
Issue: Rewards

Complaint:
High Level : UDAAP about Wells Fargo business credit card rewards points. WF adjusted ( by taking away ) XXXX points from my overall rewards points. 
Situation : I opened my business credit card in XX/XX/XXXX. By XX/XX/XXXX, I had almost accrued XXXX rewards points ( it was in the XXXX ). I wanted to wait until I reached XXXX points to redeem them. My business spending activity on my WF business credit card has significantly decreased from the last time I checked my rewards balance in XX/XX/XXXX via my online account. Hence I knew I was not accruing very many points. Therefore, I did not check the balance after that until XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, when I decided to see if I had finally reached that amount. I was hoping to redeem my points for a cash reward in preparation for the upcoming holiday season. 
To my horror and confusion, when I logged on to my online account and looked at the place I usually look at for my rewards points balance ( which is the " Rewards Summary '' section on the left side pane of the Account Activity screen for my business credit card ), my rewards points only showed XXXX. I have not redeemed any of them, nor did I think they expired this early since my experience with my personal WF rewards points usually do n't expire until 60 months. XXXX of my rewards points were gone! 
I did research to understand why such a significant amount of my points were missing. This is what I found, which I believe is an unfair business/service act or practice, and these are my reasons why : WF changed its rewards points program terms sometime in XX/XX/XXXX. Recall that I opened my credit card in XX/XX/XXXX. WF notified me of its change in terms via an email to my personal email address. The email, however, is very general, high level, and vague. It stated : " The Terms and Conditions or disclosures that apply to your Wells Fargo credit account XXXX have changed. '' For something that is such a drastic change and has such a material effect on the financial standing of its customers, I believe the way WF notified me of this is unfair. I 'm reminded of the CFPB 's guidance on Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices and the XXXX of information : Prominence, Presentation, Placement, Proximity. The substance of the email lacked the prominence and presentation I needed about the changes to the rewards because it did not contain clear, explicit information specifically about the rewards points ' expiration. It referred me to the changes in terms document, which was completely outside of the email, and covered many topics, of which the one about the rewards points was embedded on page XXXX of XXXX. 
In this day and age, people check on their accounts via their online account. This method is in lieu of receiving paper documents such as account statements, etc. Therefore, the way WF attempted to notify me also lacked in Placement and Proximity. It would have been reasonable if Wells had notified me about the changes to the rewards points with some kind of " warning '' in the " Rewards Summary '' section when I log online to view my accounts. The " Rewards Summary '' is the place that I believe any reasonable person would have appreciated and expected to see any alerts because this is the Placement that contains information about rewards balances. Having the " warning '' alert in the " Rewards Summary '' would have put the information in close Proximity to the information it qualifies. But this was not the case. 
Overall, I have been banking with WF for a long time. I have business, personal, and insurance products. I have always looked to WF first whenever I needed banking or financial services. I have not wavered from it amidst the negative events it 's going through. I ask to be treated with respect for my loyalty to this bank, and to be treated fairly while giving it my business. Please give back the XXXX reward points. Thank you.

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