Consumer complaint received 2019-04-26
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF OMAHA (VA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent a payment of {$150.00} to FNB Omaha via my eBill pay service, as I always have for the past decade ( at least ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent another payment of {$130.00} via the same method. 

Between XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I had received a missed payment notice via email, but assumed it was in error since I had confirmation from my bank that the funds had been sent. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, My bank refunded the {$150.00} payment I made on XX/XX/XXXX. At that point, I called FNB Omaha to inquire why they hadn't accepted my payment. The representative I spoke with told me that she could not see my account because they were updating the system and no account information was available, so she couldn't tell me why they were rejecting my payments - I would have to call back some other time because she also could not take a message and call me back when the system was up again. Since the {$130.00} had gone through, and with this new information, I assumed the {$150.00} had been returned because of the system update. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called again to inquire. Because I didn't have the card with me, the account rep I spoke with initially told me she could not look up the account because I didn't have the card. As she was about to end the call, I actively asked if she could look the account up another way, and she admitted that she could. Initially, she said she didn't see any account tied to my name and seemed to insinuate that I was wasting her time. When she finally found it and started doing the research, she let me know after 25 minutes that I had reported a card lost or stolen in XXXX and that the account number had changed. As a courtesy they had been sending my payments to the new account. But they stopped doing that for me at the end of XX/XX/XXXX, so that's why they were rejecting my payments. I asked if they had notified me about the change - as I had no idea this has been happening for five years ( no one ever asked me if I wanted them to apply the funds to a different account ). She said that they had put a note on a statement. I explained that they don't send me statements - I don't even get notified when there is a new one available. But since I can see anything pertaining to my account simply by logging in and looking at my activity, payments, payment due date, rewards - EVERYTHING that is typically included on a statement, I don't ever look at my statements. The information has never been any different. 

I asked to speak to a manager, who treated me with the same disrespect ( never an understanding of how I could have not known they were making a critical change to my account ). I asked if they had tried to contact me to tell me that there was a critical change happening to my account? The answer was no - they let me know by putting it in a statement that they don't send to me. They said that there was probably a note in the new card when they sent it to me in XXXX, so I asked them to send me a copy of that. I wanted it for my records, to see how I could have missed it, and also for the instructions to update my eBill payer account with my credit union. She said she would put in the request and I should have that  communication via email in 48 hours. 

Same day, I called my credit union and asked if they could find the money that had been removed from my account on XXXX but had not made it to the intended recipient. They returned the money to my account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Around XX/XX/XXXX I received a collection call and explained to the representative all of the above, and let him know that the letter I had requested was never received. He tried to tell me they sent it to me, so I searched my inbox and found nothing. The very next day, the attached letter was sent to me via secure email. This is clearly not what I requested. 

I have spoken to four representatives since then, each of them telling me that I should have known that critical information that isn't on my personal account page would only be accessible in a statement they don't send me. I argued that something this critical should be communicated in a more direct way. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX ( ID XXXX ) told me that she checks her statements every month to see if they have made changes to her eBill pay account. I have been building credit for almost 30 years and have never heard of this ( and I also work for a large financial institution and have never even heard of this as a best practice ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, a {$600.00} payment was sent via my bank and this one is now being rejected as well. I still have not received that letter telling me that I have new account info and how to update my eBill payer account with my credit union. But I HAVE deleted FNB Omaha from my list of payees. I have alerted FNB Omaha that as soon as my bank refunds the last payment of {$600.00}, I will  send it via some other method. But I do not feel confident I will ever receive the information I requested so that I can update my account. Perhaps it was never sent to begin with. 

XXXX refunded the late fee and said they would not report anything to credit bureaus if they receive payment before mid XXXX. My bank asked me to check back on Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX to see if the funds had been rejected yet. I have informed the FNB that I will send that money to them as soon as the funds are put back into my account. 

While there might not be any lasting damage to my credit or account ( obviously this is still TBD ), I still want to understand how it is a reasonable expectation that a high-value customer would be aware of critical account changes when that communication is delivered via an indirect method. I was told that I should be looking at my statement every month to see if there are eBill pay changes, even though they don't tell me when new statements are available. I asked why they couldn't communicate that to me on my account page, via postal mail, email, or phone, and I was told that it isn't their responsibility to hold my hand when bills are due ( ignoring the fact that I had actually been making payments, and the bill being due is not the actual issue ). Meanwhile, they raise my credit limit $ XXXX every year because they have never had to hold my hand ever before. I asked them why they never communicated to me over the past five years that they were reallocating my payments without my knowing. They told me it was my responsibility to know this - I should read the statements they don't alert me to. I noted that I had no idea there was an account change - I log into the same account with the same user name and password every time with no issues. How would I know there was a new account to look for? I was repeatedly told I should have known to look at my statement to see if they were changing my eBill pay information. In 30 years no one has ever changed my eBill info without telling me before - only this organization.