Consumer complaint received 2024-04-09
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION (MO)

XX/XX/XXXX- Moved all funds to a new bank account. 
- setup autopayment on dividends customer portal ( no option was available to cancel the old one ) XX/XX/XXXX - Realized that they kept trying to pull from my empty bank account. 
- The way they have their emails setup up disguised how I was getting charged and why ( did not even notice until recently ) - emailed them to cancel the automatic payment to the bank account that had no funds. 
- They quickly responded that they can not do so via email and that I must call them between XXXX and XXXX Monday-Friday for security reasons. 
- Responded that their options available to manage my account via phone were not possible due to my work hours. Also if they continue to keep charging that account it is not costing me anytime or money. ( Clearly, I did not understand that I WAS getting charged ) - Another quick response from them just stating that I need to call them. no explanation that I was getting charged and no other means to cancel were made available. 
XX/XX/XXXX - Realized that my bill had increased. Thought it was do due to the me not being able to provide the IRS refund money so that I can keep the same monthly installment. ( This was all well explained at signing and part of our agreement but was an month earlier than expected ) -Sent email inquiring about why am I see this amount increase? 
-They quickly responded via email that it was not the monthly increase but due to insufficient funds charges. 
XXXX sent a follow up email detailing all the issues and concerns I have with how this situation along with account information is being handled. Then politely requested that my automatic payment be canceled, for the second time, and all funds related to the insufficient funds be credited. 
-They again just responded that for security they can not make changes to the account. 
XX/XX/XXXX - I sent another email requesting that my correspondence be elevated to the management level for review. 
XX/XX/XXXX -They responded that they have went ahead and cancelled the autopayment. No recession on the insufficient funded that were charged. Only that those charges are automatically assessed. 
XXXX responded with a gratitude of the cancellation but that the charges needed to be reversed. I have not heard back since. 

Additional Notes of interest : -They claim the call in to them is for security but offer consumers to enter sensitive personal information on their website. 
-Every email has this statement word for word at the end " Note : This is a service message with information related to your loan account ( s ). It may include specific details about transactions, products or online services. If you recently cancelled your account, please disregard this message. '' -Their automated email has false information about their customer portal, " Remember, you can always manage your payments on your payment portal or by giving us a call at ( XXXX ) XXXX. '' -I also pointed out a message from their website that pointed customers to request payment history requests via email contradicting the security risks of email that they. 

I believe it's clear that this institution is violating The Electronic Fund Transfer Act and other unethical and possibly unlawful procedures that create harmful loans conditions for consumers that can not be available for their relatively short window of availability.