Consumer complaint received 2021-02-18
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Company closed your account
Company: DISCOVER BANK (ME)

I had a charge post to my checking account that I did not recognize, so I called my bank and reported the charge as possibly fraudulent. After investigating the charge, they said that they had verified my information with the company and stated that the charge was valid. I called the company and they said that they had already returned the charge for the payment ( I'm not sure how this charge initially went through ). After verifying that the charge had been reversed, I spoke with my bank and explained the situation. They made a note on my account and that took care of the issue- the charge was reversed and there were no further fraudulent charges. However, yesterday, I checked my email and received a notice that my bank ( Discover ) had changed something about my checking account. I called them immediately and they said they did not know why, but that my bank account had been closed and that the decision was not reversible. I have been a customer for several years with them and all of my payments are setup to be deposited and all my bills are setup to be withdrawn from this account. A paycheck that I have been depending on for food and paying my bills was set to deposit yesterday, but Discover claims they never received the deposit, yet, it shows as going through and the company that sent the deposit stated that the deposit was made. Now I am without any way to buy food for my family and do not even have a way to get gas money to get to work. I am in a desperate situation financially and absolutely NEEDED that money in order to be able to feed my family, and Discover suddenly closed my account with no warning and stated it would be 60 days before they could issue me a check in the amount of my final balance. If this wasn't enough, I receive Social Security for my daughter and the payments are deposited in my Discover account. The Social Security office states that you need to change your bank account information two months in advance to make sure that they have time to process the information- yet I had no notice or warning at all and am now praying that these payments will be updated in time. My tax return and stimulus payments are also set to deposit into this account and even after spending hours on the phone waiting to speak with someone at each institution I have attached to Discover bank, there is no way to update my account information everywhere within the next two weeks, which is when the next deposit is setup to go through. I am now completely without any money or any way to buy food or pay for my bills that are due next week, all because Discover decided to close my bank account without any reason or notice at all. I have no idea what to do and do not know how we are going to make it through the next few days or weeks until I can figure out how to somehow get access to my money before the 60-day time period is up. I have used Discover exclusively for all my banking purposes for years, which made this situation even more devastating. Since they were my only bank account, all of my income and bills are setup through this account- I have no way to get paid until the paycheck gets returned and can be reissued and DiscoveXXXX does not even have a reason for why they did this. My family is in a desperate situation currently because COVID drastically reduced the work available for me, and we have been living paycheck to paycheck for many months. Despite this, I have not been late on any bills throughout this difficult time because I always make sure to budget very carefully. Now, because of Discover closing my accounts without any notice, I don't know how my family is going to make it through the next few weeks while I try to pick up the pieces from this disaster.