Consumer complaint received 2018-02-01
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Unable to open an account

Complaint:
Back on XX/XX/XXXX I had submitted a complaint ( XXXX ) involving SunTrust Bank. I had a checking account that was instantly shut down because I deposited a check that had been issued a stop payment without my knowledge. I was accused of bank fraud and was told I could never open an account with SunTrust again. It took numerous phone calls, visits to local bank branches, just to get the minimal info as to why SunTrust took this action against me. I had never heard of XXXX XXXX XXXX at the time, and SunTrust didn't care enough to inform me that I was being reported to this company. I went to XXXX  as soon as my acct was closed at SunTrust, for I had a mortgage with XXXX   and they knew me as their customer. I opened a checking account, and I guess it was so soon that the info on me had not been reported to XXXX yet. But lo and behold, after 5 months of banking at XXXX and recovering from the setback in XXXX with SunTrust. I decided to open a savings acct, since every time I visited a XXXX  branch, I repeatedly had it suggested to me by the XXXX employees. Well I went ahead and opened a savings acct, a new type that was for helping people overcome credit issues and rebuild a solid foundation. In the days following, the same nightmare with SunTrust reoccurred. But this time I was told that because I opened a new acct, my consumer report had been pulled and XXXX  discovered that I was listed with XXXX XXXX XXXX for bank fraud. I had know idea what XXXX was, and told them that this was their advice that I followed by opening a savings, and also I had been a XXXX  mortgage  customer for 12 years with no issues whatsoever. They did the same thing SunTrust did, got really cold to me, really fast, and held my funds for 2 weeks and returned all online bills and checks I had written. The previous XX/XX/XXXX I had over {$600.00} in returned item fees and late charges due to SunTrust. It took me 5 months to recover financially and now it was repeated by XXXX. It cost me about {$600.00} again and being prohibited from paying online at some of my creditors. XXXX  even returned the XXXX mortgage payment I made and charged me a returned item fee and a late charge on the payment. I still don't understand to this day, 3 years later, how a bank can destroy somebody's credit and have him/her barred from opening a bank acct for 7 years, because my tenant that was angry at me for not wanting to renew his lease for another year, and someone told him that knew if he gave me his rent check and stopped payment on it without telling me, that I would be accused of bank fraud, trust me he isn't sharp enough to know this on his own.. He even wrote on the check " for XX/XX/XXXX Rent ''. I thought there were laws against tenants knowingly giving a landlord a bad check. Some do this when they are gon na skip out at the first of the month. Write a bad rent check and then move the following night. It destroyed my rental business, and still makes life hard since I don't have a checking account at the age of XXXX, and have always had one since I was XXXX yrs old. For the consumer, there is no " early '' with XXXX, its more like Late warning service, when your drowning in a financial crisis, at the hands of other dishonest people and large corporations that would prosecute me if I did something that cost them a {$600.00} loss. So very unfair. XXXX want discuss it with me any longer, and SunTrust finally admitted that I had been a customer only 10 months, and my tenant had been with them over 20 years, so they had to take his side, even though as after it all happened, the way he set it up and carried it out, so revengeful and criminal, they basically were working with him to pull it off by stopping a payment on a check clearly marked as XX/XX/XXXX rent check and had 10 months of our monthly bank statements showing his rent check going from his account to mine. And to top it off, knowng that I would be buried in nsf fees and reporting me to XXXX and going the next 7 yrs without a bank account. I did nothing illegal, unethical or damaging to my tenant or SunTrust. They sure have put me through XXXX. XXXX XXXX  with its big promotions and slogans of " insights '' for customers to have a good financial life. To me, well they look like " fools '', and if my years of being a customer in good standing isn't good enough for them, there is a special place in XXXX for cowards, sellouts, follow the leaders who want even stand behind a good customer. A joke of a company.. real idiots. That's all.

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