Consumer complaint received 2020-07-13
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Can't stop withdrawals from your account
Company: MUFG AMERICAS HOLDINGS CORPORATION (CA)

This is a very complex story. 
I have learned, via conversations with six different employees of Union Bank, that the bank is unable to terminate a given company 's ability to withdraw funds from our checking about by EFT as required by law. The CFPB 's page : https : //www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-stop-automatic-payments-from-my-bank-account-en-2023/ explains that " You have the right to stop a company from taking automatic payments from your account, even if you previously allowed them '' as we would expect. The supporting ( linked ) suggested letters for the company and for the bank which are provided on that CFPB page ALSO make it plain that we have the right to request that any and all auto debits from a previously authorized company cease. Also, one form on the Union Bank website, here : https : //bankingsso.unionbank.com/web/customerservice.do under the " Automatic Payments '' choice, where a form is given called " Automatic Payment Authorization '' states " This authorization will remain in effect until you ( meaning the bank ) receive a written notice of termination from me. '' Same story. And yet, not one of the six people I've spoken to at the bank ( actually there was one who thought I could do this but who could only suggest that I go into the branch to do this ) has told me that this is even possible, let alone provided a form to revoke an authorization or said " Yes you can come into the branch and do this '' - quite the contrary, i.e. they've all said, no, you can't do this. I have explained numerous times now that this power of the account holder is required under federal law, yet the bank is simply incapable of honoring this obvious and gigantic security loophole closure which defends against fraudulent and incompetent debiting, both. The Union Bank web page is only accessible to account holders for you to get the form, but I can provide you with a PDF copy of their Auto. Pmt. Auth. form if your site allows me to after this point in the process of filing a complaint. This issue arose because an honest company with an incompetent bookkeeper debited our checking account for {$15000.00}, when the debit should have been XXXX or at most a few XXXX dollars, owing to two errors. I was forced to put a stop payment on the debit, which was an option for me only on account of sheer luck as this debit triggered a low balance warning text message to my phone. I would have had to rely on the good faith AND good sense of the company to refund the money had I not placed the stop payment successfully. And having placed a stop payment, I could expect that they might again debit the account for the same errant amount or a different errant amount. 

The bank has said instead that I can : 1 ) Place a stop payment on any given debit, should I notice it in time, for a {$30.00} fee 2 ) Close the account after opening a new one, and transfer over all of the other auto debits and deposits by informing each of those entities of the change 3 ) Place the account into a deposits and credits only mode, so that no checks will be honored and no EFT debits will be honored 4 ) Contact the company making the debit and tell them not to do it ( which would obviously not work in the case of fraud or dispute over an owed amount, which could result from incompetent bookkeeping as in my recent experience ) None of these remedies is acceptable as a proper solution to the need to terminate a given entity 's right to withdraw funds from an account. Who will see to it that every bank in America provides us with this obviously-needed capability? Please see to it that Union Bank and every other bank provides customers with : A ) The unfettered right to terminate any and all EFT withdrawals from your account by any given previously authorized entity, regardless of changing dollar amounts or changing dates or changing frequencies -- no if 's, and 's or but 's and no uncertainty about it working, via a reasonably straightforward procedure, indeed by the procedure outlined on the CFPB 's own website as mentioned above. 
B ) The right to limit EFT withdrawals to a certain range of dollar amounts and a certain range of dates of each month and a certain number of times each month or on some similar schedule. These items may not currently exist as rights, but obviously should, as basic protections against fraud and financial errors made by third parties ( who do not own our money ). Duh. 

Also please make sure that there are no loopholes which any entity can use to take funds from our accounts, aside from state and federal agencies carrying out their duties according to the law, after we have chosen to terminate their right to take money from our accounts, having previously authorized them to do so. 

Thank you! Go CFPB!