Consumer complaint received 2017-01-23
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (WA)

The heart of my complaint about Chase Bank is : they took an abrupt XXXX-style action without letting the little guy speak on his behalf. 

Without any warning, they put my XXXX accounts on restricted status, saying I would not have any access to the funds. I found out about this only by having a normal debit card charge turned down, whereupon I called the number on the back of the card and asked why. The person said the accounts had been restricted, no access to the funds would be allowed, all ACH transactions and checks from that moment would be returned, and they would send me a check for the frozen money in the account within 7-10 business days. 

I am a small businessman and the father of XXXX children. This was obviously going to throw my life into disarray. 

I went to the local branch to see if they could provide an explanation as to why this was happening. They said they could not. They gave me a toll-free number to call. The person said " there was unacceptable activity in the account that represented a risk to the bank. '' ( I hope that was a recorded line. ) I asked what activity she was referring to. She said " certain transfers. '' Since that time my life has indeed been thrown into disarray, as each day I have to deal with returns of checks and ACH transactions that were perfectly legitimate. ( There 's plenty of money in the account to pay the transactions, and the bank has never disputed this or the legitimacy of these outstanding transactions. ) The local branch personnel have been sympathetic, as they see clearly that the little guy ( me ) has been given no opportunity to explain to Chase Bank that the transfers are benign, ordinary, and above board, and their legitimacy can be supported by facts, documents, and historical transactions. They have received all my support documents establishing clearly that these transactions are perfectly ordinary and acceptable, and they have passed these support documents along to their headquarters. 

They have been met with a brick wall. Headquarters personnel have not provided any response to the material other than to simply state that they have been received. Meanwhile, their bureaucratic sloth increases the number of days that I suffer as we approach their closing the accounts. They agree with me that, whatever the concern of headquarters, the headquarters personnel have not allowed reason to enter the discussion and have not allowed the little guy to speak on his behalf. 

They have slowly come to understand that the headquarters people found it objectionable that I made transfers from account to account as soon as funds showed themselves as " available '' on the " available funds '' line, and they did n't want me to make transfers that quickly. But we have made very clear with our documentation that : I have made hundreds of such transfers from account to account over the past 15 years that are immediately credited, without any complaint at all from headquarters. 

I have never transferred more than was shown as available on the " available funds '' line. 

I have never transferred any money before it was shown as available on the " available funds '' line. 

Branch personnel have for many years told me that the proper indication to me that funds were available to be transferred is the appearance of the available amount on the " available funds '' line. 

I have never been advised of any other rule or procedure dealing with when money is available to be transferred between internal accounts, and I have not even heard of any practice that the bank frowns upon! 

IMPORTANT!! We all know the bank is going to respond by saying " small print '' allows them to do this and that. I understand that. That is not my complaint! My complaint is that they behaved in a XXXX manner and did n't allow the little guy to speak on his behalf!