Consumer complaint received 2016-10-21
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
In XXXX, I went to Wells Fargo to open a checking account. I was young and completely unaware of how the banking system worked. I just knew that I wanted to join the rest of the responsible young Americans and do what I thought I needed to do to be a productive member of society. I met with the banker and he told me what all I needed to do to open an account. Among the usual items, he also told me that I have to open up a secured card account with Wells Fargo. I told him that I was afraid to have a credit card because I had never had one. You have to understand, growing up in my household in a small town, responsible credit and banking was not common language. It was n't taught in school, and it was n't taught at home. Regardless of my concerns, he said that was the only way I could have a bank account, and in fact, all the banks would tell me the same thing. Were not talking about the debit card you get with your account, but a complete and separate credit card account. He told me that my opening deposit for my checking account would cover everything, and that I just had to deposit it to show it was in there and that it was real, tangible money. He made it perfectly clear that my opening deposit for my checking account would still be available for me to use. I had bills that week that I had planned on writing checks for. Against every single one of my desires, questions, concerns and outlook on my personal finances, he pretty much laid the pressure on me to get this credit card account. Truthfully, I was kind of scared. I was all alone with this professional banker in his office, and I felt that I had to just do whatever he said because he was the professional, and it was too uncomfortable of a situation to say no. I told him several times that I wanted to go get something to eat and think about it, and all he would do was get a loud tone and say " What 's there to think about? You came here to get a bank account did n't you? '' I mainly just wanted out of his office and away from him. I kept looking outside the window as if to ask for help with nothing but my eyes. Needless to say, I signed whatever he told me to just so I could get out of that place. That 's when the real trouble started. I realized real fast that I had no access to my money that I had just deposited, to pay my bills. It went straight to the secured card account. So I had to start using the secured card because that was all the money I had for bills. And from that point, I just never could get out from under it. It was maxed out the first week it came to pay those bills that I originally just wanted to deposit into a checking account. The fees started adding up for some reason. I only put XXXX into the checking account to start with, but I actually owed more than that to the credit card. I ended up owing close to XXXX. I held on as long as I could, but then I started missing payments and then they closed the account on me. I am assuming they kept the XXXX I originally deposited, and I also still owe them XXXX dollars on top of that. I did n't understand how you can end up owing XXXX on a XXXX dollar limit credit card. Fast forward a few years, now I know alot more about how the world works. I am completely secure and financially stable. However, the Wells Fargo secured card that was forced onto me by, I believe, deception, fraud and intimidation, still haunts my credit reports to this day. I originally just blew the whole scenario off as an overzealous banker trying to impress his boss or something along those lines, and I just lived with it, irregardless of the damage done to my credit. On a side note, I called WF executive offices and talked to XXXX on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and told him this story. He blew me off like I was XXXX, belittled me, and basically said I was lying because I am just now bringing this up. So I guess that 's just how WF treats their customers nowadays.

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 explanation