Consumer complaint received 2023-02-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with balance transfer

Complaint:
I opened a Wells Fargo Credit card, because I received a 21 months 0 % APR balance transfer targeted offer from Wells Fargo and decided to use it. I applied for the card and got approved on XX/XX/XXXX. After the approval, I was immediately prompted to make a balance transfer ; I used this opportunity and requested a transfer to my XXXX XXXX accounts for the total amount of {$5800.00}. I received an email from Wells Fargo confirming the receipt of my balance transfer request. The email said in bold font that the transfer will be processed within two weeks. I am a new Wells Fargo customer and didnt have an online account, I also couldnt set up an online account without the physical credit card on hand.

I received the credit card four weeks later and immediately set up an online account. When I logged in, I found out that the transfer had never been processed and I had a full credit limit ( {$6000.00} ). It was clear to me that the balance transfer request that I made on XX/XX/XXXX, had never gone through ( as per Wells Fargos own written communications ) plus the Wells Fargo website prompted me to make a transfer today when I logged into my account. So, I went ahead and requested a new balance transfer. 

After submitting the request, I received an email confirming that my request was received, and the balance transfer would be processed within two weeks. This transfer got processed by Wells Fargo four days later, on XX/XX/XXXX. Then, a few days later, I discovered that Wells Fargo somehow processed my initial request ( from XX/XX/XXXX ), several days after the second request ( from XX/XX/XXXX ) and more than a month late, without notifying me about it or asking my approval to significantly exceed the credit limit. 

In fact, Wells Fargo 's email stating that the requests are processed within two weeks, also features this detailed disclosure, explicitly stating : If you are approved, balance transfer transactions will be issued up to your available credit and will include any balance transfer fee. If you are requesting more than one balance transfer, requests will be fulfilled with the largest balance transfer request first. If the total requested amount exceeds your available credit, we may send less than the amount requested, or no amount, to your creditor.

Aside from common sense and the promise of two weeks, the above is another reason why I felt confident in following Wells Fargos marketing prompts to submit a new request. The bank was assuring me in writing that they would not exceed my credit limit. 

By processing the initial request in more than for weeks after the submission ( which is significantly outside their stated timeframe for balance transfers and against the promise to not exceed the limit ), Wells Fargo frivolously exceeded the limit on my account without notifying me or requesting or receiving my approval. I didnt receive any communication from them regarding the fact that my account exceeded the limit or that an additional transfer occurred. I found out about the additional transfer when I occasionally logged into my account to check the latest statement. When I saw that there was a {$5200.00} overlimit amount on my account, I immediately contacted Wells Fargo. 

They couldnt help me, and they just opened a complaint on my behalf. A few days later, I called the bank again to find out the status of the complaint and see if they have a solution for the situation and found out that the customer representative never submitted my complaint and never opened a case, despite assuring me she had done that. I had to describe the situation again, and again they couldnt resolve it in any way. The representative created a case again, and this time I forced him to give me the case number ( XXXX ). Days later, I received an email from XXXX XXXX saying that they would resolve the situation on or before XX/XX/XXXX. I never received any resolution or communication from XXXX XXXX or Wells Fargo and contacted the bank again on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX wasnt available, and I left her a voicemail. I did not receive any communication from her or the bank in the next few days and contacted the bank again on XX/XX/XXXX, because my payment due date ( XX/XX/XXXX ) was approaching, and I had not received any communication from the bank regarding my case. By this time, Wells Fargo had already reported my account as significantly exceeding the limit, and damaged my credit score by nearly 100 points. 

I called the bank again, and this time my husband and I spent nearly two hours on the phone with three different people. We started with the executive office, where a gentleman told me that my case had been closed and solved, yet I had to make a $ XXXX payment immediately and there was nothing he could do to help me. He transferred me to a customer service specialist. Attempting to mitigate Wells Fargos damage to my credit score, my husband forced the specialist to accept my minimum payment of {$110.00} over the phone, as Wells Fargo online system was not allowing me to do anything outside of paying immediately {$5200.00}. I asked the specialist ( same as the executive office gentleman ) to resolve my issue by either reversing the duplicate transfer or matching my credit limit to the outstanding balance, so they would stop hurting my credit score. Both told me that they couldnt do anything, unless I give them {$5200.00} in that very moment. The specialist transferred me again to her supervisor. The supervisor, again, told me that she couldnt help me, however this time, for the first time in my six weeks of communications with the bank, she provided several important pieces of information : 1 ) She acknowledged, took ownership, and apologized for the fact that Wells Fargos balance transfer timelines stated in the confirmation emails do not match the reality. She explained that balance transfers are not processed until a credit card is received, and the within two weeks is really a misleading statement, and they are working on it, but alas, right now their misrepresentation of facts and violation of the written contract is the customers ( my ) problem. 

2 ) She also explained that she understands that I had already invested nearly 20 hours into communications with the bank and opened three various cases, but she said that unfortunately, I will have to continue opening cases ( fee reimbursement, credit bureau reporting, etc. ) for the next several months (!!! ) to correct their mistake that affects my credit score, my interest rates, my time, my real life. She said that their mistake is mine to fix.

3 ) She advised me to reach out to XXXX XXXX and ask them to reverse the Wells Fargos erroneous balance transfer. I did that immediately ( spending the third hour in one night on the issue ) and XXXX representative, while surprised, launched their own case, which will take up to six weeks. In the meantime, Wells Fargo will continue ruining my credit score and occupying weeks of my life without any solution of their own. 

At the very least, I would like Wells Fargo to increase my accounts credit limit to match the outstanding balance so their reporting of my account to the credit bureaus stops ruining my credit score. 

Long term, Wells Fargo must be investigated for their deceiving marketing practices, violation of their own written contracts and guidelines, and frivolous damages to customers credit scores. 

Thank you very much for your assistance. Your agency is the only hope I have in resolving this issue and rescuing my credit history.

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