Consumer complaint received 2022-10-25
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Company closed your account
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (CA)

I opened a checking account and a saving account with AllyBank. They asked me for account and routing info for me to make the initial deposit to open the account. Since I had been struggling with unemployment for awhile due to a XXXX, my domestic partner offered to make that initial transfer. There was no notification of any kind saying that the account had to be under my name, and no request in the form for the name of the account. It took multiple days for them to verify that transfer ( about a week ), and they did not deny it. The transfer went through, the account was opened, and I used it for at least 2 weeks ( possibly more, maybe 3-4 weeks, just estimating on the conservative side to be safe since I don't have records of exact dates ). 

I tried to access my bank account, and the notification explicitly said ( and I quote directly ), " We've locked your account. You entered an incorrect username or password too many times. Double-check your username or reset your password to continue- it'll only take a few minutes. '' I found this strange since it was a biometric login, but I called anyways on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. I waited for about 50min for someone to respond, and stayed on the call with multiple holds in between for about 1h30min. They hung up on me, and did not call back. I called again on Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX. I wanted about 1h10min for a response, and was told that I had to wait for a callback on Monday since it needed to be redirected elsewhere. I agreed and waited. I called today, Monday, XX/XX/XXXX. They redirected me to a " specialist '' after a 1h30min wait. I was asked whether the account I had transferred from was under my name. I said no, it is my partner 's name. He was present and could verify that he had consented to this. 

I was then informed that this was against their policy, that they were opening up an investigation, and it could take up to 90 days for me to receive a response. I did not raise my voice nor did I get angry at them, I simply asked if there was any other solution since I unfortunately can't afford to not have access to any of my money for that long ( especially since it's the XXXX, and rent payments are due in a little over a week ). They informed me that they would need to investigate to see if they wanted to continue a relationship with me as a client, and that it was out of their hands now. The person was clearly getting exasperated and wanted me off of the call- I didn't push because I understand how much customer service can XXXX as someone who has worked in customer service, but I never raised my voice and never got upset, I was genuinely just saying things along the lines of, " okay! is there a solution to this problem though? ". 

I let them hang up and end the call, but I called again. If the purpose of the investigation was to determine whether they wanted to continue a client relationship, perhaps I could just offer the final answer of " no, I don't want to continue this relationship '', and ask them to close the account and send me a cheque. I waited for about 1h15min, spoke to another representative, kindly explained the situation and asked if they could close the account. They said they couldn't because of the open investigation, and I thanked them for trying anyways. 

I fully understand that I do tend to skim over the longer terms and services document, but this still felt overly punishing for a simple mistake - most banks have never had issues with me receiving transfers from other people, and if this was important enough that it could hold my money XXXX for up to 3 months and open a serious investigation to determine whether I could still be a client of theirs, I felt it was worth having a clearer warning during the transfer process. My partner is a software engineer, I know it wouldn't be too insanely difficult to add a field for " name under account '' and make sure it matches the name provided. Or even just a simple text disclaimer on that specific page of account setup.