Consumer complaint received 2019-12-21
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: FL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other service problem

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX I applied for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  Credit, Checking and Savings accounts. I was approved and confirmed. During this online set up process, I initiated the transfer of {$250.00} to the XXXX  Checking and {$250.00} to the XXXX Savings accounts from my SunTrust Savings account. Upon doing so, I set up mobile banking online as well. These two payments as well as a {$6.00} " Excessive Withdrawal Fee '' were posted to my Suntrust account and the funds were deducted on XXXX XXXX XXXX time unknown ). On the same day at XXXX XXXX, I received an email from XXXX XXXX XXXX  stating " Dear Customer, we're letting you know that your Online ID has been disabled at your request ''. I did not request this. After five different phone calls, I was finally told I had to go to a XXXX XXXX XXXX  branch and show two forms of ID to prove my identity. 

I went to a branch the next morning on XXXX XXXX, where I was told the XXXX   Checking and Savings accounts I had previously set up and sent money to were no longer in existence because the XXXX team considered me a fraud or security threat of some kind. For clarity let 's call these two first accounts " Set A ''. At the branch I was helped to set up a new XXXX  Checking and Savings account, which will be " Set B ''. So at this point, I was told by the XXXX  associate that the {$500.00} I sent to the Set A accounts could not be accounted for, and that he assumed when Suntrust sent the money to a ( presumably ) non-existent account they would eventually realize and the money would " bounce back to me '' in a few processing days. Not reassuring but I accepted this. 

The branch associate who helped me also suggested that I use XXXX to transfer money again from my Suntrust account to one of the new XXXX   accounts in Set B. He mentioned, " It only takes minutes to process. '' This was not my first time using XXXX, but he even helped me set it up on my phone to work between both banks. I even received an email at that time from Suntrust confirming the action. I then attempted to send {$500.00} from my Suntrust savings account to my new XXXX  Checking account via XXXX. Within seconds, the Suntrust team emailed me with " Alert : Problem with your account. Contact Customer Support immediately ... Your XXXX account is on hold. '' This is not the first time Suntrust has wrongly flagged me for fraud for legitimate transactions. It happens frequently in fact. I called customer support immediately and the automated system told me my account was unlocked after entering the necessary security information. 

However, I wanted to speak to a representative to see what was really going on and to ensure the payment would go through. So I called and was passed around to multiple departments before being informed that my XXXX account was relocked again for suspicious activity and that all external transfer capabilities were suspended as well ( this was less than 10 minutes after the call stating that I had unlocked it ). They informed me it would take them 24 to 48 hours to '' investigate the account in question '', despite my verbal consent and passing all the security measures. So now, at this point, I have no idea if the XXXX transaction has gone through, because for more than 24 hours, I was unable to even see my XXXX account because of their lock out. Later that same day, at XXXX on XXXX XXXX, I received an email from Suntrust stating " Access Denied for Funds Transfers ''. I still had no access to my XXXX account, though, so I waited. 

On Friday XXXX XXXX at XXXX PM ... more than 48 hours after the initial suspension ... I was informed in two emails from Suntrust that " Your access to SunTrust Online Transfers Service has been re-activated '' and in a second email that the {$500.00} XXXX payment was confirmed. The XXXX payment, which " typically takes minutes '', has still not made it to my XXXX XXXX XXXX  account, but it has been taken out of my Suntrust savings. And now I suspect that it will take until Monday at least to see the money go anywhere. 

All the while, I still have not seen any indication of the first {$500.00} being refunded to my account. It has been 7 days since that transfer was initiated and 5 days that the money has been " processing '' in other words : withheld from me with no sign of outgoing or incoming direction. Now, Suntrust or some mystical realm of credit is withholding {$1000.00} from me for what I suspect will be several days because of their mistakes. And again, all of this is with no formal documentation or acknowledgement. 

On top of everything, XXXX XXXX XXXX sent me a debit card with the wrong account on it. Now, the {$500.00} XXXX deduction does not appear in my activity history, but the deduction reflects on my balance.

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