Consumer complaint received 2024-11-01
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (TN)

XX/XX/XXXX : We spotted XXXX fraudulent transactions that had been posted to our joint checking account with Ally bank, totally more than {$11000.00}. 

We called Ally customer service immediately and spent two hours on the phone with an agent who walked through many of the transactions over the phone and flagged them as fraud. It was determined that one of the debit card numbers linked to our joint account had been compromised, even though the physical card was still in our possession. The agent instructed us that we would have to submit an online dispute form for EVERY INDIVIDUAL transaction in order to get our money back. We asked if anyone could help us dispute the transactions as a batch, since there were so many of them in the same amount from the same merchant ( clearly fraud ). We were told no, we had to submit online dispute forms for each one individually, and also, the ones we spent all that time going through with the agent on the phone didn't get noted, so we had to start over with those. 

XX/XX/XXXX : We began to see some provisional credits issued from the disputes we were filing. We had only gotten through about XXXX of the XXXX fraudulent transactions so far. We called Ally again to see if there was a faster way to do this by merchant, or as a batch. They said no. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Ally 's fraud department put a freeze on our checking account without warning and without any communication from the dispute team. They told us there was nothing they could do, investigations were going to take place, they couldn't say why they were freezing it now vs. just doing it at the outset of this whole process, and no, there was no way to transfer any of our remaining money out of the account to pay bills. So not only did we have {$11000.00} stolen from us via fraudulent charges, and not only did we spend hours and hours filling out individual dispute forms, we now were denied access to the remaining funds we did have. Also, there were no additional fraudulent charges shown since the initial XXXX, the last of which was posted on the XX/XX/XXXX. So why freeze it now? No one could tell us. 

XX/XX/XXXX : After FOUR HOURS of being put on hold and transferred around to various customer service reps and fraud department reps, we finally got someone to help us open a second checking account and transfer some money into that one so we can actually pay bills, get groceries, etc. But Ally still refuses to tell us when they will unfreeze the original checking account, where we are with the disputes process, when the fraudulent charges will be re-credited, or how to best continue to submit the additional disputes. 

The whole thing has been a nightmare, and the amount of being transferred around to different departments and having to explain our situation again and again, only to have our account then frozen without warning WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROCESS THEY TOLD US TO PURSUE, has made us feel victimized all over again by Ally Bank AND the criminal who stole our debit card number. Ally 's fraud department has been completely unhelpful and non-transparent throughout the whole process. At this point, our account is still frozen with no estimate of when it will be unfrozen. Meanwhile, all our auto-pay bills and other payments linked to that frozen checking account are being denied, and all Ally can say is, " Well, you may want to think about switching those over to a different account. '' They have given us no estimate of how long this will continue. 

I have never experienced this kind of treatment from a bank when I've been the victim of fraud -- usually they try to help make the customer whole again as quickly as possible, not make the situation worse. It is very clear from the attached screenshot from our bank account that we were the victim of fraud, given all the transactions with the same merchant in the same amount on the same day ( over the same two-hour period! ) And Ally has been completely unhelpful in resolving this or protecting us.