Consumer complaint received 2017-09-02
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Confusing or missing disclosures — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

Wells Fargo Complaint This is a complaint about how I, a Wells Fargo customer of 40 years, was treated earlier this year XXXX. I am asking Wells Fargo to reimburse me {$1300.00}. 

During the week of XXXX XXXX XXXX I initiated a wire transfer from my Well Fargo accounts to my bank in XXXX, XXXX, I think this was on XXXX XXXX. The next morning I went online to check the status of the transfer and found all my Wells Fargo accounts and credit cards frozen. I called Wells Fargo customer service including at least two people in the Fraud Department. Even though I gave the correct verbal password the Wells Fargo agents would not verify my identity nor would they unfreeze my accounts. They would not tell me why my accounts were frozen. They insisted that I return from XXXX to the United States to verify my identity with two forms of picture ID. 

On XXXX XXXX - XXXX I returned to XXXX XXXX and met with a bank officer, XXXX in XXXX CA. I presented my CA drivers license and my passport and my accounts were made available to me. She inquired as to why my accounts were frozen. She told me the following : I had recently changed my password - This is true. In XXXX XXXX I changed my Wells Fargo passwords. This is something I do every year. I is something computer specialists advise consumers to do periodically given the rash of identity theft in the US. 
I had opened a new checking account - This is true. I opened a new checking account as part of the process of separating finances from my wife at the time. We were going through a divorce. However, I have been a Wells Fargo customer since XXXX. Even with a new account I had a decades long continuous history with Wells Fargo I had tried to make a wire transfer to a foreign country - This is true. I had just moved to XXXX and opened a new bank account with XXXX XXXX in XXXX. I set up a wire transfer through the Wells Fargo website. I believe I also spoke to someone at Wells Fargo on the telephone to help me set up the wire transfer process. I initiated a {$200.00} transfer to test the wire transfer procedure. 

These 3 events apparently triggered the freezing of my accounts. 

In order to return to the US I had to borrow money to purchase a plane ticket. The flight time to and from the US is 18hrs. I had taxi expenses going to/from the airport and Wells Fargo bank. Food expenses while in the USA. 

Wells Fargo is a major US bank that offered international wire transfer services to its customers through its website. The website was designed for customers to set up international wire transfers on their own from their home computers. I appreciate that Wells Fargo performs fraud detection on its transactions. I liked the procedure of having a verbal password to verify my identity. However, Wells Fargo failed to honor the verbal password to identify me and appears to have no other procedures in place to identify customers remotely. 

I contacted Wells Fargo through their email customer contact. I described my complaint. They refused to reimburse me for the travel expenses associated with this event.