Consumer complaint received 2020-12-10
Company: Betterment LLC
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
Hello CFPB, On XX/XX/XXXX I opened a Betterment Bank Checking Account after seeing it on an App called XXXX. Opening this Betterment account and funding it ( no minimum funding requirement was stated ) meant that I would receive XXXX XXXX points, the equivalent of {$50.00} in gift cards. 

After months of waiting, I never got my points. I contacted XXXX and they replied that Betterment is declining to give me my points because I only deposited {$0.00}. Once again, there was no minimum deposit amount stipulated in the terms and conditions. They are not honoring their side of this deal. 

What XXXX said : Sure thing, XXXX! 

The Betterment offer steps are as follows : You must be a new customer To earn your XXXX  points, open and fund a checking account through the button below You must click the button below and open and fund your account in the same session XXXX points are not eligible on Investing and Cash Reserve accounts As I said, the checking account does have to be funded, so XXXX does not meet that requirement. 

My response : So what you're saying is that the XXXX deposit I put in doesn't count? 

What XXXX said : Hi XXXX, Unfortunately, yes that is the case. We have been told of a couple of blogs that were advocating this that were not associated with XXXX that drove some members to create Betterment accounts with XXXX and other disqualified rates. We've done our best to help correct for this, but it looks like Betterment has declined this particular case already based on the amount of XXXX cents being used to fund the account setup. 

What I said : See that's the thing. The minimum deposit amount wasn't listed on the terms and conditions. I deposited correctly ( sure it was only {$0.00} ) but I fulfilled my end of this deal. 

I opened this account purely because I wanted the points on XXXX. 

What needs to be done on my end to get these points? Should I contact the CFPB and make a case against Betterment? I think that will suddenly make them accept that they have to honor this deal. 

What XXXX said : Hi XXXX, I do hear your point here, but as I said, Betterment has deemed this as insufficient to be considered reasonable funded. We've had several members misled by the blog posts that suggested this, and have had a painful time assisting them because of it. 

_____________________________________________________________ So here we are today. CFPB you're my only hope to rectify this situation. Betterment Bank scammed so many people who opened accounts, got a hard pull on their credit score, didn't stipulate a minimum requirement ( just that it had to be funded during the same account opening which is what I did ), realized their mistake, and now they're trying to put the blame on the customers. This is the definition of a scam. 

Please do whatever you can to help consumers like us from these banks that are trying to get away with scamming us. Thank you so much.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation