Consumer complaint received 2023-02-08
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: OH
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I made two deposits into my Huntington checking account ; {$2200.00} ( check from my business account at XXXX XXXX ), and {$1000.00} ( check issued from the Ohio Treasure Department ). Within 2 hours of depositing the {$2200.00} check, I received a notice from Huntington stating there was a hold placed on that check. I looked at my account the next day to see what was going on. The hold was still on the check for {$2200.00} and the check for {$1000.00} had cleared. I called Huntington to find out why their was a hold on the {$2200.00} check, and I was told that they were waiting on XXXXXXXX XXXX to release the funds out of my husband 's bussiness account. The customer service representative told me to call XXXX and ask them to release the funds and once XXXX had confirmed that they released the funds, I could call Huntington back and request the hold be lifted off the check.. My husband called XXXX to find out why the funds still had not been released and the XXXXXXXX XXXX representative explained that the check was going to be returned for the {$2200.00} because the check tried to clear overnight 2 hrs before my husband 's direct deposit cleared in his business account. The XXXX representative apologized to my husband that the situation occurred because it shouldn't have happened that way. He waived the returned check fee and told us to deposit another check for {$2200.00} into our Huntington checking account, and XXXX would release the funds to Huntington immediately. So on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, that's what we did. Again, I received an email from Huntington a few hours after making that new deposit, that it also had a hold placed on it. Meanwhile, the government issued check for {$1000.00} had cleared and was in my account and available to make purchases with. After making a few purchases, my account balance was {$870.00} on Friday night. On Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at my checking account with Huntington and it was negative roughly {$1100.00}. This made zero sense to me how I can go from a positive balance to a negative balance over night. So I called Huntington again. The representative was unable to provide an explanation as too why this was occurring. I also told her that we had confirmed with XXXX that the funds had been released and i wanted to request that the hold be lifted off the {$2200.00} check. After going back and forth with her, I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor told me that the the first check for {$2200.00} was being returned ( which i already knew ) and that the other check for {$2200.00} had a hold on it and was being deducted from positive balance that I had which is why it was causing my account to reflect a negative balance. This made zero sense to me! I have dealt with holds being placed on checks for larger deposits before, and this has never occurred! Since when does a pending deposit or a check hold that never cleared the account effect an overall balance! I told her that after banking with Huntington for over 20 years, I was going to be closing my account after the situation was sorted out. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email that the hold had been lifted off of the check, but the funds had still not been deposited into my account and my overall balance was still negative. I decided to go to my local Huntington Branch to see what can be made sense of with an actual banker. He was even perplexed at what was going on with the holds and the negative overall balance and he was confusedaboutall the notes that had been made on account, which were not shared with me, but I am very curious about. He ended up having to call the holds department to try and make sense of it all. He ended up figuring out the check for {$1000.00} ( Ohio Treasures Department ) had a hold placed on it too. Why was a hold placed on that check? How can the bank place a hold on a check and not notify me of the hold? How can the bank release the funds into my account for 24hrs and then take them back with no notice or reason? The branch representative let me know that there was a note on my account that Huntington had made the decision to force close my account for too many NSF deposits which was scheduled to happen on Friday, XXXX XXXX many NSF Deposits ..... I can only think of maybe 4 times this has happened in the last 20 something years that I have had my checking account with Huntington. The banker informed me that the hold ( that I was never notified about ) for the government issued check would be available to the next day. On Tuesday, XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at my account and it had a positive balance of roughly {$1100.00}. I tried to make a car payment over the phone, and my card was declined. I went into the Huntington Mobile App to try to figure out what was going on, and I seen that my debit card was suspended, and yet again, I was not notified. So I went back to the Huntington Branch to withdraw the funds that were available in my account. The banker had to call the Holds Department to get permission to release my money to me, which took about 30 minutes to get clearance to release MY MONEY TO ME! She informed me the hold on the 2nd {$2200.00} check had been lifted, and that i should see it in my account the next day, but I might not be able to withdraw the money until Thursday. Today, Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at my account and the {$2200.00} was in my account. I went back to my local branch to withdraw the rest of my money and close the account, and the banker again, had to call the holds department to get permission to give me my money and allow me to close the account. The banker informed me that even though the money has cleared, and is in my account, that she was not able to give me the funds until Friday! I came back home and called customer service and explained the whole situation and requested to know why I still can't touch my money. She told me I could go to my nearest branch and withdraw the money and close the account. I told her, I just did that and the branch told me that I could not. I asked to speak to a supervisor who also, had to call the Holds Department. He told me that even though the funds had been released into my account, Huntington is still holding them until Friday to make sure that they aren't recollected by XXXXXXXX XXXX I explained to him that the funds have been released and gone from my husband 's business account since Friday, XX/XX/XXXX! And since I know that Huntington is force closing my account on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, what's going to happen when I go collect my money on Friday? Am I going to be able to collect my cash, or am I going to get told that I have to wait on Huntington to send me a check for the remainder of my money? He said there is a strong possibility that could happen. I am so mad right now! My money is being held hostage by Huntington! Meanwhile, my account is completely locked down! Huntington is refusing automatic payments to go through and my rent check bounced as well. I have not received one alert, email, or secured message about any checks being returned or payments being rejected from Huntington, which has caused multiple late fees that I am responsible for! And now, to top this all off, I may have to wait on a check to come back to me from Huntington for the {$2200.00}! That's my rent money that has still not gotten paid, because of this whole mess that was not my fault to begin with! Between holding my money from me, not serving notices for returned items and rejected payments, not serving notice that my account has been froze, and not notifying me about a hold being placed on a check after it was already deposited into my account from the Ohio Treasures Department, and getting different answers from multiple people to the same issue at Huntington .... I'm completely speechless and beyond angry at the business practices at this bank! Something needs to be done and someone needs to take accountability for this! All I want is my money and to put this nightmare behind me!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation