Consumer complaint received 2021-03-13
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: IL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I kept a personal Chase checking account with a {$40.00} balance in it tied to my social security number and the IRS. This account was used to make IRS payments, and receive IRS refunds, including COVID pandemic stimulus payments. I had this account for over 10 years, and moved money out of it in XXXX due to another incident I will recount towards the end of this email while still retaining a nominal balance for the aforementioned IRS payments and refunds and stimulus because the only way you can change your electronic deposit with the IRS is when you file your tax return and I would have changed my information in XX/XX/XXXX with my tax filing but this happened before I could do that to protect my payments and disbursements with the IRS. 

Chase contacted me on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX with the following text : " Chase Fraud : Did you write a check for {$520.00}? Please reply YES or NO. Msg & data rates may apply. '' I did not write a check for {$520.00}. I replied " NO ''.

Chase then responded : " Chase Fraud : Thank you. We will not pay this check. You don't need to do anything else. 

Moments later, I got an automated call from Chase, asking me to hold the line. During the hold, I logged in to my banking to see a fraudulent check had been presented against my account, and that Chase had also charged me a {$34.00} NSF fee, reducing my balance to {$6.00}. 

When I was finally connected to a Chase loss prevention specialist, I told them that I did not write any checks against my account, and the check that was showing as being presented against my account was numbered in the high XXXX. My checks, printed and provided by Chase, go up to XXXX and I have not even reached close to that check number yet. How was it I asked, that when they should know my check numbers max out at XXXX, and they are presented checks exceeding the number, from out of state no less, that their internal security doesn't immediately fly and refuse the check on its face alone since the check number exceeds checks I have been issued? The Chase specialist had no explanation for this. I was adamant about pressing for an explanation, because this was the second instance, the first being in XXXX of XXXX, that a fraudulent check with a number higher than the check numbers I was issued, had been accepted and processed by Chase from out of state, against my account. 

The first Chase representative put me on hold and connected me to another representative, to whom I share the same story confirming I didn't write the check and that it as fraudulent, and the second operator told me they acknowledged that it was a fraudulent check, and that my {$34.00} would be refunded to my account. I had to spend about an hour on the phone total with hold and actual conversation time. 

This past Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I logged into my Chase checking to see that the {$34.00} NSF fee had NOT been refunded yet, and that there was still only a balance of {$6.00} in the account. I also saw the reference to the fraudulent check presented against my account still in the register. I figured I would wait another days for it to sorted out, and I logged in yesterday, XX/XX/XXXX to see what the status was. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the Chase had CLOSED my account, without any advance notification. As this account was tied to my IRS payments, I panicked and called Chase asking why they closed my account, because with the new stimulus package passed the same day, when the IRS sends my payment, it would have nowhere to go and I would then have to wait for it by mail and given other horror stories from last year of other people without electronic deposit who STILL have not gotten their first stimulus checks, this unwarranted cancellation of my checking was going to throw my life into more problems that were dependent on the new stimulus to help manage. I was told by the first representative, and the second representative, that there was nothing they could do, and that a letter and cashier 's check for {$34.00} and {$6.00} had been sent to me XX/XX/XXXX. I still have not received the notification letter by mail, or the cashier 's checks, however I did log into my XXXX email tonight which my Chase account was connected to and found conflicting emails from them despite all the time I spent with them on the phone XX/XX/XXXX. The email that said they sent me an important letter about my account in " Statements and Documents '', with a link does not open in the my Chase console ( I have provided a screen grab along with all the emails and the original text message they sent me that I answered ). More devastatingly, without this account reopened as it is the account linked to my IRS payments, I am now in limbo for when I may receive the new IRS stimulus payment of {$1400.00}. 

I was told I could contact the IRS to change my banking information to my other bank where I have another account, to which I informed them that it's not possible to change your banking information with the IRS until you file your return, and that wasn't scheduled to happen until before XX/XX/XXXX. That's why I was keeping this account open with a nominal {$40.00} balance to process my stimulus payment until my XXXX return was filed and I could update the IRS with a new bank for future business. 

Chase claimed they could simply not reopen the account they closed, without explanation or notification to receive my IRS payment and I scrambled with my accountant yesterday to see if he could file my return early to update the IRS with my new banking information for electronic deposits but as stimulus payments are going out this weekend, the window for this is practically nonexistent as my accountant hasn't even gotten back to me to let me know if he could get my return done quickly so the IRS will deposit my emergency funds into my other bank. 

I've banked with Chase for 10+ years and this incident, along with the aforementioned incident in XXXX of XXXX where they accepted another fraudulent check with a check number exceeding the amount the bank issued me, are troubling signs that Chase does not have any logical security cross checks in place to automatically identify a fraudulent check that may have their routing and my account number on it from what I am assuming is a data breach with check numbers exceeding the number the bank has issued me. 

Last year, when I deposited a large sum into this same account from a personal injury settlement that my brother represented for me, that check cleared his bank on a Monday, should have reflected in my account on Tuesday, but Wednesday Chase was bouncing checks I wrote to pay off associated XXXX debts from the injury and said they had placed a hold on the funds for 2 weeks to clear, then they put me on the phone with a representative at Chase Fraud in an international call center who asked me probing questions about where I got the funds as if I was trying to launder money. I told him it was none fo his BUSINESS where the funds came from but that he should call my brother the attorney 's who would inform him it was from a legal settlement. He called and my brother told him in no uncertain terms that as my money had cleared his client trust account to my personal checking ( the same account they have now closed ) that they had better clear the funds immediately and stop bouncing the payments I had made to creditors for my medical bill because he would take action against them and the Chase rep then quickly released the hold. They do this to make interest off our money, its completely unethical and I called the rep out on it and he had the audacity to say " I can't convince you, we don't do this to make interest off your money '' and I retorted " then who IS making interest when you freeze the money for 2 weeks even though I've been banking with you for 10 years and there have been other large sums deposited in that time? '' Chase has proven to be completely derelict in its responsibilities in all three instances I am relaying here and will be creating more instability in my life during this pandemic than is warranted against any customer who has banked with them for so long.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief