Consumer complaint received 2022-04-07
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: CO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
I opened a PNC student-marketed " Virtual Wallet '' bank account in XXXX XXXX XXXX Pennsylvania in XXXX, shortly before I started college. I continued to use it until I moved to Colorado in XXXX. PNC had no Colorado branches then and the bank account became useless and an inconvenience. They made it very difficult to close the account from out of state with their restrictions, and it required multiple phone calls and escalations. Despite the loopholes, I was finally able to confirm the account closed in the winter/spring of XXXX. I received no communication from PNC ( no bills - no account statements - no communications ) from them on until recently. 

In XXXX, I opened up a XXXX bank account based on a promotion. The account management system proved inconvenient and I promptly closed the account in XXXX of XXXX by going to the local XXXX XXXX branch office. I closed the account same day. This was prior to the PNC acquisition of XXXX. 

In late XXXX ( XXXX ), I began to receive correspondence from PNC bank pertaining my Virtual Wallet account. This surprised me as I had closed my Virtual Wallet account in XXXX and had heard nothing about it since then. Over time, these account statements began to show a negative {$2.00} balance on the account, which concerned me. I called PNC several times to attempt to resolve this, but the long hold time made it difficult to reach someone. Eventually, on the afternoon of XX/XX/XXXX, I was able to reach a customer service representative. I asked him why I was receiving correspondence stating I owed {$2.00} on a closed account. 

The representative was unhelpful and, frankly, incompetent. He stated multiple times that he did not know why I was receiving any correspondence. He assured me my account was closed and showed as closed on his end. I asked him to note the account with this information and the conversation, and he seemed to mostly want to get me off the phone. The consistent message I received during that call was that according to PNC 's own representative, my account was closed, had a {$0.00} balance, and I had nothing to worry about. 

The following month, I received another account statement from PNC bank, which showed a {$25.00} charge, which I presume would have been for late payment of the earlier {$2.00} charge. Later I would receive yet another bank statement with still accumulating fees. PNC also reported my account as being delinquent to multiple credit reporting agencies, including XXXX and XXXX. As a direct result of this reporting of my account as delinquent, I have had a credit line be decreased by {$5000.00}, which has directly harmed me financially already. 

I have disputed this with the credit reporting agencies and informed PNC of my long-standing dispute, though with my calls they should have been on notice that I am disputing this account. Despite this, their behavior has not changed. As recently as last week, I was still receiving automated collection calls from them, mailed letters from them, text messages stating that they were trying to collect a debt from me, the whole package- over an account that was confirmed closed five years ago. 

PNC bank has revived a five-year closed account to a zombie account that they re-opened without my consent, racked up fees on, and are now using to not only harass me repeatedly but are also using to destroy my credit lines and financially harm me goes beyond gross negligence at this point. This is fraudulent and they have been on notice that this account is under dispute due to me contacting them regarding this- yet they have not changed their behavior. This has caused me direct financial harm, reputational harm through the lowered credit score, stress due to having to deal with this, filing disputes, as well as time off of work in trying to fix the mess they made.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief