Consumer complaint received 2024-03-05
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION (FL)

This is XXXX XXXX, owner of 3 accounts at Truist Bank, two business and one personal in XXXX XXXX, FL. You will see in the forwarded email below this current one, this is not the first time this serious problem has occurred with Truist. The first time was in XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX during the XXXX border closures in the aftermath of Covid 19 when Truck drivers began protesting in XXXX against required vaccine requirements for XXXX XXXXXXXX crossing XXXX When the borders began to close, Truist started holding our large summed check from our XXXX customers claiming it has something to do with the protesting and closed borders .... Fast forward to now in XXXX, what is the excuse for these holds to start happening again? 

I am at a loss on how to retrieve monies that was cleared to one of my company accounts and is now, yet again taken back out days later for a so called administrative hold by Truist. I have spoken to my branch manager, of whom states they can not take the funds out of holding with out any clear reason. I have also connected Truist 's fraud department and they too said they do not know nor have notes as to why this check is on an administrative hold. 

The most concerning part is that this is happening yet again after the first incidents occurring in XXXX. The check they have the hold on is from one of our many XXXX customers that we have deposited checks from every month without issues and never having a single check bounce. Another interesting fact is we had two separate deposits on the same day from this customer and Truist, two days after clearing the funds, took the higher check amount back out to hold for 45 days without a clear reason and they refused to send the funds back to the bank of the held check so we could have our customer wire the funds instead, as we can not operate a business when Truist decides to randomly hold our money flow hostage in what looks to be for their internal use. 

We have told the branch manager we already sent payments out after this, now held deposit, was cleared days prior which is now harming our business in the process. They have no answer and no resolution. This has happened too many times for it to be ignored. We can show a history of bank statements that proves no prior history of any checks deposited that were insufficient, or fraudulent. Prior to Truist acquiring our original bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX, we NEVER EVER had one check have an administrative hold from any of our XXXX customers in the decades of being with XXXX XXXX XXXX. It was not until Truist acquired XXXX XXXX XXXX, that we started to have these major issues that makes it very difficult to run a business when payables and receivables are a weekly occurrence. 

Furthermore, we have never had a more difficult time getting a hold of anyone at our branch 's phone line. No one ever answers the phone and it is extremely concerning when you have thousands of dollars in limbo without resolutions. When the fraud department explained the process of having the hold removed, they said I would need to go into the branch in person, review and confirm the check in person in order to remove the hold, however, I just found out today that is not true at all because the branch manager doesn't have to authority to do so. That means I would have spent thousands of dollars to fly back to my Florida office to physically go into my branch only to find out that they would never be able to remove the hold regardless of my presence. Tell me how this is legal for Truist to blatantly hold funds and refuse to put the already cleared check back into the account? 

I do not want to assume there is fraudulent activities happening within Truist, however, we are in a climate where banks are not making money due to high mortgage interest rates, that and there are many CDs out there with high yield rates and for these holds to be starting all over again without a justified reason, is oddly suspicious. 

In the attached files you will see the statements and checks deposited from our XXXX customer ( XXXX ) without issues up until last week when they deposited XXXX checks from the same customer XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX days later on XX/XX/XXXX, took the higher deposit amount out of our account and placed it on administrative hold. Along with the email from the Branch manager stating she can't remove holds, as the email notification of the hold. 

Lastly, I would like to note that my accountant can confirm at the time of depositing both XXXX checks on XX/XX/XXXX, the teller DID NOT notify her that there may be a hold on foreign checks... This is shocking that they knowingly are accepting deposits and not warning their customers that there may be holds on foreign checks, which eliminates the option for the customer to decline to deposit and take a different route for deposit so that business funds are not held for unreasonable amounts of time. As mentioned above, this is a business account that has weekly payables and receivables of large amounts that depend on smooth transactions in order to maintain a successful business. By Truist making these harmful moves to a business and customer is unthinkable. I bet anyone with loans through Truist don't get to put their payments to Truist on hold for 45 days... 

This has happened too many times and every time this happens, Truist gives different excuses for their actions towards a business that has been in operation since XXXX. We have two companies, XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX. XXXX XXXX, that have millions of dollars in sales every year, that is millions of dollars moving through a bank and now all of the sudden when Truist comes onto the scene, they start making moves like this that could potentially put a business under? There are certain customers that do not do ACH or WIRE transfers, and now we have to sit and worry that thousands and thousands of dollars could be held for this long at any given time? 


I apologize for the long " rant '', however, I hope you understand how truly scary this situation is when it is not in my control, but yet it is our company 's money they are playing with. 

I appreciate your second review, of this ongoing problem with Truist. 





Thank You!! 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
Tel : XXXX Fax : XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE : The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee ( s ) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. 


-- -- - Forwarded Message -- -- - From : XXXX XXXX XXXX To : XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX Cc : XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX Sent : Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX Subject : XXXX : URGENT : INTENTIONAL DEPOSIT HOLDS BY TRUIST BANK -- -- -Original Message -- -- - From : XXXX XXXX XXXX To : XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX Cc : XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX Sent : Thu, XX/XX/XXXX XXXX pm Subject : URGENT : INTENTIONAL DEPOSIT HOLDS BY TRUIST BANK Good afternoon everyone, My name is XXXX XXXX XXXX the owner of 3 bank accounts ( two businesses ) at Truist Bank in XXXX XXXX XXXX FL XXXX 



I am reaching out to you all in hopes of some guidance or advice on how to resolve a serious and urgent matter relating to 2 Business Accounts at Truist Bank. 

We have been having multiple issues with depositing business checks into our Truist account, starting in XXXX of this year, XXXX. These administrative holds are on amounts of {$10000.00} over {$100000.00} and for durations up to 90 DAYS. 

We have made multiple attempts to contact our local branch leaders, as well as regional operations managers to receive a legitimate explanation to the reasons behind these unreasonable deposit holds that are hindering our ability to operate a business. 

We have been lied to over the phone and in writing from all of the contacts we have communicated with at Truist. They have been giving us contradicting and everchanging information that still does not explain what is going on. 

Our original bank was XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX, however, Truist acquired our bank and now we have been having deposit issue. Prior to the acquisition, we have been XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX clients for over 25 years and have NEVER had an issue depositing our business checks from our XXXX customers. 

I had a few conversations with the operations manager of Florida ( XXXX XXXX ), of which he blamed the new holds on XXXX Banks and mentioned XXXX is the leader in bank fraud, therefore, they started putting holds on XXXX checks. Mind you, we were never advised by anyone in our branch that they would start such holds. We had to find out by checking our online account daily and never received online notices as well. 

In my first call with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, he gave me information that only employees would understand may have assumed I was a Truist employee asking for help on my account. In this conversation, he said that I would be able to have the branch leader go into client services and release the holds to my name ; me acknowledging the check is from XXXX and that I was responsible for the funds. He then mentioned I could continue to email my branch manager to release any future holds and that would clear up the issue. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX, our branch leader was able to release the current hold ( {$29000.00} ). On XX/XX/XXXX, we checked our account online to find the hold was placed AGAIN on the amount that the branch leader had released. I reached out to both the branch leader and regional relationship manager and they both said they are no longer allowed to release the holds on their end. I then called XXXX XXXX to discuss this unbelievable news He first said, I do not have any record of our conversation last week and we did not have one period.. That surprised me, as I have phone records proving our phone call to his phone including the duration of the conversation of 8 minutes. He then explained that all of the information I had was incorrect and that the branch leader, nor the regional relationship manager had any authority to release holds, even though we have it in writing from them stating they have released holds. He then showed extreme lack of appreciation and respect for the amount of years we have been with the bank and the amount of money we have in Payables and Receivables In the month of XX/XX/XXXX, our payables were over {$600000.00} and deposits more than that. He did not show any concern to the extreme fragility of these holds and that they are extremely harmful for businesses to run smoothly. The fact that Truist has no explanation, nor resolution to these extreme holds on a business account that has had the same clients depositing into our account over 25 years. Out of the XXXX years of receiving checks from all our XXXX customers, we have NEVER had single bounced check to back up the excuse XXXX XXXX is giving for the reasons of all these holds. 

Because of these harmful holds, we have been forced to have most of our clients pay our invoices via Wire Transfer, ACH, which now increases our monthly service fees. I mentioned this inconvenience to the XXXX XXXX and he said Well if that is the only way you can get your money, then you will have to incur the extra charges Not at all acknowledging the reason why we are now having to switch to higher fee services. 

At this point, we are very nervous about the actions made by Truist bank, holding thousands of dollars hostage and refusing to deposit into our accounts. We have never had this issue prior to Truist acquiring our previous bank XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

This could be considered intent to harm a business and commit fraud by leveraging clients deposit funds for their own use within the companys dealings. We are currently seeking confirmation from our customers bank if they have been debited for the current deposit that is on hold in our account for over 60 days. This will give us confirmation if Truist is in fact intentionally holding their clients deposits hostage. 

We have never dealt with an issue like this out of the 34 years of being in business. 

I appreciate any advice on how to proceed or if you have heard of similar issues from other Truist Business clients. 



Thank you for your time, Thank You!! 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
Tel : XXXX Fax : XXXXXXXX XXXX