Consumer complaint received 2020-07-23
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: TN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Late or other fees

Complaint:
PNC Bank, with whom I was a customer for over 20 years, closed my checking account after assessing month after month of discriminatory, predatory " account maintenance '' fees until I had a NEGATIVE balance -- which it then tried to collect from me. PNC has been doing this to customers who carry a monthly balance of less than {$500.00} in their checking accounts and don't have direct deposits over a certain amount each month ; in other words, they do this to people who are already stretched thin financially. This is an unfair and unscrupulous practice under any circumstances. But to do this to people over the past 5 months -- during the COVID crisis, when so many people have lost their incomes -- is unconscionable. PNC helped itself to the little bit of money that remained in my checking account, until there was not only nothing left, but LESS than nothing left. They had drained my account to $ XXXX in XXXX, and then they charged another late fee in XXXX so that it was drained to around $ XXXX. Then on XX/XX/XXXX, they closed my account without my knowledge or consent. I discovered this when I tried to log into my account online, and use the telephone banking system, and was denied access. When I got through to PNC today, the person to whom I spoke asked me for my account number, after which she said she needed to redirect my call to another department. I was thinking that perhaps someone had fraudulently tapped into my account and changed my PIN. The person to whom I was redirected asked me a couple of questions to confirm my account and then said, " This is an attempt to collect a debt '' -- which confounded me, as I hadn't used my checking account in months. Of course, I had forgotten about the " maintenance fees '' of {$25.00} per month. My call had been redirected to the internal COLLECTIONS department. 

I am incensed that PNC has gotten away with charging this high fee in a discriminatory fashion, first of all. They NEVER should have been allowed to do this in the first place. I am also disgusted that they took my money until there was not only nothing left, but LESS than nothing left, and then closed my account without my knowledge -- so that at the age of XXXX I not only have no bank account, but can not even access any of my financial information from an account I have held with them for 20 years! How can a financial institution be permitted to treat people so terribly? How can they get away with charging people {$25.00} per month just to keep a checking account open when the most it could possibly be costing them to do this might be a few XXXX  a month ; and moreover, how can they be permitted to engage in this practice during the COVID-19 crisis, when half the people in this country have taken a serious hit financially while banks like PNC have been given special breaks by the US Government? 

I am fed up with being treated like garbage by banks and corporations that are only in business because of the many loyal customers with whom they started out ... .the " little people, '' like me. When people fall on hard times, our financial woes should not be compounded by banks -- especially when we have been loyal to those banks when times were good! 

I am asking you to PLEASE investigate, hold PNC accountable for its wrongdoing, and initiate a call to justice not only for me, but for thousands of other customers who have been treated this way by PNC and other crooked US banks. Customers are supposed to be able to TRUST their banks to keep their money safely stored. Instead, banks like PNC are bleeding people 's accounts dry and breaking their spirits in the process. PNC 's message is clear : Not only are you completely worthless to this institution ; we are so confident that you will continue to be worthless to this institution in the long run that we did not give a second thought to burning a bridge with you. '' Even after a 20 year relationship ... 

There are XXXX  and XXXX  with more integrity.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief