Consumer complaint received 2015-04-10
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I am filing this CFPB action to contest a series of abusive and seemingly unscrupulous actions taken on XXXX XXXX, 2015 by Ally Bank personnel, in relation to my online savings account. I opened up an Ally Bank online savings account last month and deposited a total of {$20000.00} into the account via transfers from my home bank 's checking account. 
Other than the slowness of moving my funds from my bank to Ally ( it took 5 to 6 days rather than their advertised 2 to 3 day period ), my experience with Ally was basically meeting my expectations until the events of the past day. I had successfully set up secure access to my Ally account via both their regular online login system and via their mobile phone application. 
Two days ago, I changed my home phone number due to the increasing receipt of numerous scam and fraudulent calls, and within hours had gone online and promptly notified all of my financial institutions and other service providers of my new home phone number. There was no change to my mobile ( cell ) phone number, address, or any other information. My updates to my home phone number at all of these accounts, including Ally, were done via the usual secure login systems. 
On the morning of XXXX XXXX, 2015 I received a call from a woman on my new home phone number who only identified herself as being from Ally Bank, who said she was calling to confirm an " address change '' that I had recently submitted. She was very aggressive, refused to further identify herself ( I do not have caller ID on my home phone ), and continued to rapidly ask me a very long list of questions. I at first answered the first several questions, such as the last XXXX digits of my social security number, my pet 's name, my mother 's maiden name, and other items that I had offered up as security questions provided by me when I first opened the Ally account, and seemed reasonable. I definitely gave her all of the correct answers. She kept going on and on and on, however, asking increasingly personal questions, such as the make, year, and model of my vehicle, which I have never before been asked, and seemed highly unusual. Since I suspected possible fraud, I stopped answering the questions after about the eighth item, and ended the call. 
I then almost immediately attempted to log onto my Ally account to get the account number, and call Ally 's regular customer service line to confirm that the call from this very aggressive and rude woman was legitimate and to ensure that a problem with my account did not exist. After correctly logging in, a message appeared, saying that my account had been locked and that I needed to call the toll-free phone number provided. I them quickly called the toll-free number and after giving the representative my name and account number ( I had retrieved it by then from my print Ally records ), was told that there was nothing they could do, and that I needed to place a toll call to a woman named " XXXX '' at XXXX. After waiting about 90 minutes I finally received a return call from " XXXX in Loss Prevention '' who again incorrectly asserted that I had filed an " address change '' to my account, which I again said was incorrect, as only my home phone number had changed. I then had to answer many more questions from her, and many of the questions seemed extremely unusual and intrusive, such as the make, model, and year of not just my current vehicle, but also of previous vehicles I have had, and places where I have lived many decades ago. Ally Bank 's so-called " loss prevention office '' needs to be held to account for the abusive behavior of their employees, and should take immediate steps to avoid this from ever happening again. The only thing the " loss prevention '' office accomplished in my case was Ally 's permanent loss of a good customer, and this filing. 

Thank you for your careful considerat

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation