Consumer complaint received 2024-06-07
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (FL)

I am XXXX XXXX XXXX with XXXX XXXX and my husband and I went everywhere together except for the last 6 months of his life when he developed mobility issues at XXXX. We never went to the bank without each other and almost always went inside together due to our age. We had a joint bank account together at Wells Fargo and they were quite aware that we did and that we were very elderly and it took both of us to be able to do our banking. One day my husband got a call from Wells Fargo and they pressed my husband into opening a savings account using the funds from our joint account to fund the savings account by putting the change from each transaction into the savings account. As a joint account holder we assumed it would be in both our names, even though they never offered the product directly to me and in looking back they never even offered me my own ATM card. Given my eyes are legally XXXX and due to my age I let that go. My husband and I went into the branch and discussed the savings and our joint checking and we left there with the understanding that I was part of the savings since nobody even asked us about beneficiaries to the account. When my husband asked we were told the account was a joint account. My husband passed away in XXXX of last year and all I get from XXXX XXXX is that I wasnt part of the saving account even though the money being pulled from the joint account to fund the savings was also my money. Then I am told that there was no beneficiary on the savings account and the {$2000.00} was more than they could release to me without a court order. The money it would take to get an order would be three plus times the cost of whats in the account. My husband joined the military at the end of XXXX XXXX XXXX  and was going to be XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX. Because he was seriously injured he wasnt able to continue his military career and Im not even eligible for any widows benefit. My income has decreased by more than double and yet the XXXX I make is more than enough income to deny me food stamps. My husband owned his own business for 50 years and would have never left me in a situation where I wasnt the beneficiary of the money in our joint account, or cost many more times to get all the assets he had left in the world, sadly was only the {$2000.00} in Wells Fargo bank. I cant believe Wells Fargo can see people who are married and have joint accounts and then put them in a position that requires thousands of dollars in legal fees to get {$2000.00} when they never even asked us about beneficiary people and explained what we needed to do. Their entire point was to just get credit for opening an account and leave an elderly couple in serious situation. If they are doing this to me and my husband knowing we were late XXXX and XXXX they are doing it to everyone in our age group. I feel they are targeting elderly people to keep the accounts open. They told me the balance exceeded what they could distribute without a court order, but nobody could tell me what that was. They have put a XXXX XXXX XXXX woman in a very serious financial situation and wont even help. Seems like elderly abuse to me considering they know we always went to the branch together and they have made a situation beneficial to them at the expense of the elderly to further take advantage of us. The funds the money came from was just as much mine as it was my husbands and yet they opened an account just in his name and cut me out completely, and has made it impossible for me to retrieve the funds. I have been married to him XXXX XXXX, and theres no children and no XXXX or XXXX. My husband just felt funds came automatically to the spouse you were married to especially when the funds moved from the joint account to the savings account was joint funds. Someone must have gotten a big bonus to cut a poor widow out of her funds and then never mention or take any action to ensure the surviving spouse would get their legally entitled funds. I feel they have committed elder abuse by failing to ensure we were properly notified and fully understood what they were trying to do to us. 

Due to my very limited vision and age, I authorize my legally adopted daughter XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX FL XXXX to have full access and to assist me and speak on my behalf. She is aware of the entire situation