Consumer complaint received 2020-10-04
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: IN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Complaint:
I contacted the office of the president, Elan Financial Services, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, ND XXXX Complaining that the {$350.00} of the Visa Debit Cards I had ordered as benefits thru the XXXX Credit Card benefit program did not work -- they were refused both online at any business I attempted to use them. I received a response from Elan Office of the President requested information such as where I made the requests, the number of the cards in question, and my personal information, that I was to snail mail to them. Several days later, I received a call from a telephone rep of the Elan company requesting for me to call to them and to speak directly to the rep, which I did. This was after spending nearly 12 to 14 hours on hold to the company credit card help line, only to be told that all cards were in working order, and that the problem had to be on my end ( three calls total to lower tier helpline ) None of the numbers worked, which is why I wrote to the above Office of the President. I called the rep, who spent approximately 1/2 hour on the phone with me, looking thru each credit card, and actually removing fees charged to me on some of the cards that I could not access. I was then told that the cards were fine, but I had made the mistake of attempting to use VISA debit cards  online on XXXX, and the ELAN 's forgery system disallowed such purchases, because the algorhythm of the fraud program saw this as an abuse of the cards. In order to actually use the cards, I would have to do so within my zip code area for them to work. If I did, I would be in fine shape. About one month after that I went to XXXX  XXXX XXXX and attempted to buy several hundreds of dollars in lumber and supplies for a DIY project I was doing at home. Every single one of the cards was denied by XXXX. I apologized and left, after putting back all the merchandise. I went to XXXX XXXX, in the XXXX zip code area and again tried to make a purchase -- this time for only {$150.00}. Again, all of the cards were denied at checkout. I then decided to give up. I wrote to the company again and said that the problem had not been resolved and to please help me. I was sent a response that I would receive a response soon. This was over a month ago. I have received no response. I wrote to XXXX  XXXX, based in XXXX INdiana, the sponsor of the program -- company that offers the rewards program as incentive to use its credit card, but denies any responsibility for anyone trying to use those rewards. As a result, I have hundreds of dollars in useless cards. I have asked repeatedly to just receive credit back from the rewards program -- an answer which seems fairly easy, since the cards do not work, and therefore are fraudulent. No response from Elan. No response from XXXX XXXX Nothing. I am writing out of desperation. These companies enticed me to use their credit card through a rewards program. I saved up points for years to get prepaid cards to use to help me at home, as well as help pay for items for my mother who is in assisted living. I've explained all of this over and over to no avail. This is theft, and I am being ignored. I really need your help please. 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