Consumer complaint received 2018-11-01
Company: KEYCORP
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I have been a personal and business customer of Key Bank for over 7 years. In XX/XX/XXXX, my business account became overdrawn. I was unaware of this because in the past, I have received a phone call from Key Bank to alert me of the problem with my personal account if it became overdrawn and it was a quick fix to transfer funds from my other account to bring it current. I received no communication from Key Bank other than a monthly statement. In addition, I had the understanding that my business account would never be overdrawn as when I opened the account I specifically requested that no overdraft protection was applied to that account so I could never be overdrawn with it. Because of that understanding, based on my records, I had a tiny amount in the business account to keep it open. At the end of XXXX, Key Bank paid 2 charges that brought my account negative by {$120.00}. If I had received a phone call or even a letter alerting me of this, I would have been able to transfer money from my personal account to bring it current. Again, I had the understanding that if charges were assessed against the business account and there were no funds to cover, the charges would be denied. When I questioned the Branch Manager why I was not called, he told me its branch prerogative whether or not they call the customer to alert them. When I questioned why the charges were paid when I purposely did not have overdraft protection on that account, the Branch Manager told me that they have never offered the option to opt out of overdraft protection. 
Key Bank closed my account on XX/XX/XXXX. Without notifying me, they sent the account to collections for the {$120.00} in charges as well as {$110.00} in overdraft fees for a total of {$240.00} and on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from the collection company which was my first notification that there was a problem. On XX/XX/XXXX, I went into the branch to see what happened. When I swiped my business debit card, it somehow was attached to and accessing the companys account that I had previously owned and had sold in XXXX creating what I would understand as a data breach. No notice has been sent to the current owner that this occurred. I have requested multiple times to be provided documentation in writing that I am in no way attached to my previous companys operating account and have not received it. 
When I expressed my willingness to pay the charges that were assessed against my business account but not the overdraft fees, the branch manager told me there was nothing they could do and I would need to contact the collection company to pay the full amount. When I asked the branch manager to recall the account from the collection company, he said that he could not do that so I contacted the collection company. At that time, I was informed that Key Bank had recalled the charges and I would need to discuss it with them. The collection company gave me the number of Key Banks collection department after I told them the story. When I contacted Key Banks collection department, I was informed that the account had been recalled and referred to a completely different collection company. All of this occurred in less than 20 days. 
I feel that I have been lied to at least twice. Once when I opened my account and requested no overdraft protection. I was told at the time that they could meet that request. Now Im told that I never had that option. Of course the manager that I originally opened the account with is no longer with the company. The second lie was when I requested that Key Bank recall the charges from the collection company and was told they could not. They did in fact recall the charges from the first collection company only to re assign it to the second collection company and force me to chase the location of the account down. 
I would be more understanding of the need to close my business account due to overdrafts if I did not have another account open with Key Bank and had not been a long time customer. They made no attempt to call, email or mail me notice that they were turning the account into collections. At this time, they have expressed no willingness to work with me on this and have created a serious problem for my small business.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation