Consumer complaint received 2024-07-11
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: GOLDMAN SACHS BANK USA (WA)

I have been an account holder with Marcus by Goldman Sachs since XXXX. My wife and I are In the process of moving out of the country for her new employment. We need our savings to purchase a home and we are making a good faith effort to satisfy Marcuss terms and conditions. We would like to withdraw our funds from Marcus to our US checking account so that we may use them to purchase a house. We plan to close the Marcus account when we purchase a home and no longer have US residency. Similarly, we plan to close both our US phone numbers. We have been repeatedly contacting Marcus support to transfer our funds to a linked account, and to change my contact information. It took over 11 calls and over 9 hours on the phone to change the contact information alone. We have still not been able to transfer the funds despite repeated attempts. This issue is time sensitive as we are moving and trying to purchase a home. 

A timeline of our complaint and phone calls attempting a resolution is as follows : XX/XX/XXXX 7 minutes. First inquiry as to why first transfer initiated online was canceled, told to try again at beginning of next business day XX/XX/XXXX187 minutes. Long call to reinitiate second transfer 30 minutes. Enquiring as to why second transfer was canceled, again told to try again at beginning of next business day. No indication of any problems through this point. 

XX/XX/XXXX 4 calls ( 8 minutes, 20 minutes, 68 minutes, 20 minutes ). Enquiring as to why transfers are repeatedly being canceled, and to reinitiate. Identified issues at this point are the IP address and phone number, both of which we attempted to resolve and were not given any indication of any additional problems when we once again initiated the transfer. 

XX/XX/XXXX 5 minutes. Enquiring as to why third transfer was canceled. Outcome was that we were hung up on by representative 37 minutes. Created callback request. Supervisor tells me repeatedly that transfers are done on a case by case basis, wont put me in touch with anyone who can give me more detail about why our case keeps being denied or how to resolve. Asked supervisor about the funds availability statement in the deposits and account agreement. Supervisor ( XXXX ) simply stopped responding to us ; we could hear her breathing over the phone and stayed on the line with her prompting her for a response for several minutes until she hung up the call, sending us to the two question customer satisfaction survey. 
65 minutes. Spoke with supervisor XXXX who confirmed callback request. Needed to change the phone number on the account for the callback request, which we had attempted to do on multiple previous calls at this point. Previous representatives had told us they could not do that, got put on with people who said they had changed it, but those change were never reflected when we called back. Continued to have a disconnected phone number on file. XXXX advised that the transfers were being reversed because they were being transferred to a different location than the funding accounts. Asked why this was a problem per the deposit and accounts agreement, XXXX agreed that he could not understand how this was a violation of the deposit and accounts agreement. XXXX advised also that the funds have to remain in Marcus for a period of time. He would not advise what that period of time was. Again, asked where either the existence or duration of a holding period was described in the deposit and accounts agreement ; XXXX agreed that this was not clear. XXXX did not know why it took so many calls to get this information about our own account. 
16 minutes. Confirmed with someone the change of phone number. Finally looks like this will be resolved, representative said that we would receive email confirmation of this in 24-48 hours, which we did. 

XX/XX/XXXX1934 minutes. Called to check on the status of our callback request. Claimed that callback request had been completed and a voicemail left on the previous day. That was a lie. I know its a lie because when we complained we did receive a callback and a voicemail later that day. Supervisor we spoke to was the first person in twelve calls to tell us that the funds would not be available to us until they had been in the account for 90 days. Said our transfers got flagged. Would not answer why they got flagged or how to resolve. Would not answer where in the deposit agreement it says this is acceptable. Initiated transfers back to funding account for the money that had come from cash savings. Did not initiate transfer for money that had come from investment accounts as unclear what would happen to this money. 
26 minutes. Calling back after receiving voicemail. Was told there is no way around the holding period and that senior leadership declined to comment. Also checked on the wire transfer initiated today and was told that it would not be able to go through because a previously canceled transfer had finally been approved. Enquired further about this, as this made no sense and was not reflected when we looked at the account online, and the agent backtracked to say that yes, the XXXX transfer was indeed canceled and the XXXX transfer had been approved. 

To date, we have not been able to access any of our money in Marcus. Various things we have been told about why we can not access our money include : Phone number listed is not registered under my name. This is correct - I no longer maintain a US phone number as we are in the process of moving. The best way to contact me is via my wifes US phone number, registered under her name. Have attempted to remedy this multiple times both online and by speaking to agents on the phone. Our good faith attempts to update contact information per the deposit and accounts agreement were not met in kind for the first 11 phone calls we made to customer service. This is now resolved.

Attempting to wire to new accounts. This is incorrect. The accounts weve attempted to wire to have been used to fund the Marcus account in the past, and have been linked for several years.

Money not in the account long enough. This is not described in the XXXX. Few reps would tell us this. Of the ones that did, most said they were not at liberty to tell us how long the money needed to sit in the account. The one person who did said it needed to be 90 days. No one is able to show us what allows for this in the XXXX. The XXXX states under deposits and withdrawals for both ACH and wire transfers that any limits must be disclosed at the time of transfer. Not once have any limits been disclosed to us about how much of our own money we have access to, and we have not been able to find consistent and reliable information about when we will have access to our own money. The XXXX states under funds availability that funds will generally be available within 5 business days if not sooner. There is an opaque clause that availability of funds may be delayed. Any reasonable consumer would not imagine, based on this XXXX, that the availability of funds would be delayed for an undisclosed amount of time which may or may not be 90 days with no opportunities for any alternative. 

Marcus advertises their high-yield savings accounts on the basis, in part, of the ability to make same day transfers. The advantages of these accounts in comparison to Marcus other products are advertised as unlimited withdrawals and accessibility of funds, making them suitable for saving up for a special purchase like a home. All of these advertisements are misleading, as same day transfers have not been possible for reasons not described in the XXXX  and funds have not been accessible for reasons and periods not described in the XXXX. 

In short, the lack of transparency regarding the availability of funds has cost us over 9 hours of time on the phone spent getting misinformation and nearly cost us the house we were attempting to use the funds to purchase. Marcus by Goldman Sachs has exhibited predatory behavior including but not limited to false advertising, opaque account agreements, dishonest customer service, and have generally acted in poor faith in this case. I feel that a 90 day holding period, if this is really the policy, is outrageously unreasonable and is far beyond what is implied by the opaque deposit and accounts agreement. We feel like we are being told that Marcus can make up any rules they want and arent obligated to explain them to their customers, resulting in customers being blocked from accessing their own savings based on things that they did not agree to in the XXXX. In my research, I see dozens of complaints from the last few months with essentially the same details. Marcus needs a major policy overhaul as this is an obvious pattern. At best, this is a bait and switch and at worst it is a breach of contract. As a consumer, I feel this is unsafe and would recommend others to stay far away from Marcus when saving for lifes most important moments.