Consumer complaint received 2022-08-28
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Delay in processing application

Complaint:
I sent this to their executives, after calling and emailing as well, but they sent a manual bounce back ( without any real bounce attached ). They were NOT authorized to run my credit either. I am VERY CONCERNED MY INFORMATION HAS BEEN COMPROMISED!!! 

To the WF account executives, My name is XXXX XXXX XXXX, though your customer service employees kept calling me " XXXX XXXX '' on the phone as they were powerless to help me. 

I'd just decided to lease a condo part time. My permanent address is the same one links to my SS # and my XXXX ( depending on which agency you ask ) credit score. I am single -- by technical definitions, I am a literal orphan. I have no one on this earth. I was raised poor. By poor, I mean POOR. I mean, I remember having a nickel to last a WEEK. Surely you understand WHY having worked HARD for an XXXX credit score is a big deal. Now thanks to the ineptitude of WF, my credit score will fall for two years, all because of a credit check I did not actually authorize. You WILL remove this, and I will fight this up to every level possible. It may only be a few points, but I fought hard to get where I am, and I am not going backwards.

I teach for a major university. I teach remotely, but found leasing a condo was cheaper than the hotel I live in now. But my permanent address is still the one linked to all my credit cards. I have myriad cards -- none with a late payment. XXXX, XXXX, you name it. Annual fees, I pay them. But as a traveler, 50 states, 5 continents and counting, I decided to listen to XXXX XXXX and his buddies and pay my rent with the BILT REWARDS card. My nightmare began. 

All was good until WF wanted to text me twice as I was beginning my application process. The first time was at my current number, which is on my credit report. I verified it. All was well. But then it asked to send me a security code at my number ending in XXXX to complete my application BEFORE CHECKING MY CREDIT. I recognized that -- VAGUELY. I may have been in grad school 20 or 30 years ago when I had that XXXX flip phone, back when texting was {$.00} a minute? Are you kidding me right now? 

That's when my nightmare with WF began. By now you maybe know the end. I have initiated a consumer credit complaint against you. I can't tell if someone on the XXXX end stole my information, or if someone at WF is clueless or what. Two phone calls and three emails later -- note that NO ONE EVER sent ME and email after my application-- and all I could find was I was supposed to MAIL my secure documents through US mail ( NOT SECURE! ) which included utility bills?

All the proof in the world I am me, and WF is so antiquated they don't have secure portals for these things? I don't feel safe with such protocols anyway, but I haven't even moved in, and my permanent address is with an old mentor of mine. SHE PAYS HER UTILITIES. I live in a hotel when I am in the city of the university. This is not XXXX XXXX. 

By then I began to wonder who was online when I submitted my secure information. I think someone was messing with it. No one could help. Lots of apologies, but no answers. I feel very UNSAFE, very lied to. And the worst part is that you already checked my credit before I could get that far. I was saying that IF THE PROCESS CONTINUED YOU COULD, but I hit CANCEL. I specifically hit the word CANCEL IN THE PROCESS WHEN I SAW YOU WANTED TO VERIFY AN OLD PHONE NUMBER. But you went ahead and did a hard inquiry on my credit report. 

I take issue with this and insist it be removed or I will consider this either fraud on the part of whomever was taking action, or perhaps even actionable behavior as this was genuinely the shadiest thing I have ever had in 20+ years of credit and professional life. 

That's like an inoculation with the wrong medication -- you can't take it out. So my credit report now looks like I was rejected for a card for which I was WORTHY. I chose YOU over a different Chase card which I would not be able to get now due to their rules, but after the trauma and possible FRAUD I went through with WF, now I don't have the BILT REWARDS card either and my credit score will fall a few points.

All I have is my good name and credit. My student loans are THROUGH THE ROOF, and being paid off through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, every painstaking month, since I was on my own going through school. In this world, I may have e a PhD but I am still no one. I did not need Walls Fargo and XXXX XXXX to REMIND me of this. 

I will file a fraud dispute against the inquiry, but I would like you to address this and even remove it. This was a horribly traumatic experience. I started my life with bad credit and barely knowing how interest worked and messing everything up. Now I am three years away from my student loans being forgiven, and not having any real debt in the world. And I just got treated like the biggest loser ever.

Someone at WF is either stealing info or doesn't know basic security protocol. Or both.

I am NOT in the habit of emailing every executive in a company but I am both beginning my new position Monday and moving into my part time condo I can not now NOT use BILT REWARDS to pay for because someone wants me to perpetuate fraud and MAIL my government documents to you in the most insecure way that exists. I wouldnt send a baptism certificate through the US mail. Further, I CANCELED my authorization, and you checked my credit anyway, but That is what I would expect from a site with such weak security you think my phone number ends with XXXX and XXXX cant remember what level of grad school I was in when I had that number. 

This is my singular notice and request I will CC to credit bureaus, CFPB, XXXX XXXX XXXX the XXXX  as a request you remove your inquiry from my credit report, and remove ALL RECORDS of my former business with you. What a horrific mistake I made even considering trying XXXX. I look forward to other companies competing with you. Anyone else would be a solid winner. I have literally had to call my union legal counsel to see how to proceed, but have been informed for me a letter to you with this information may be sufficient, and, thus, I trust they are correct and you will show some integrity and I will receive notices from my credit bureaus saying items were removed from my report. 

I also request you investigate this incident. This was at best a security breach, and at worst, fraud on behalf of someone working when I began the process and pulled out when I saw the wrong phone number. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Please do not try any technicalities on me with buttons embedded on your website. The old phone number issue and my pushing cancel, and the fact your employees then told me BOTH my current phone numbers were unable to text me when you already had both prove your website was not accurately working. So even if you try saying I authorized anything, I did not. To my knowledge, I pushed CANCEL and you checked my credit anyway. I will argue the technical aspect all the way to court if I must.

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