Consumer complaint received 2019-01-17
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: Flagstar Bank, N.A. (UT)

This will be a long tale. To begin with XXXX XXXX had sold several branches in the Midwest to Flagstar Bank. Included with this sale where several accounts opened in said branches. I live in Utah and was not aware of said transfer until the day before ( XX/XX/XXXX ) when I checked my spam email and saw a notice about my XXXX XXXX account from Flagstar ( bank I had never heard of ) after investigating I found out about the transfer and that I was affected by it. The closest branch I can find on the map is 23 hour drive away ( no stops ) I did not want this account that far away because it was my main checking account used for EVERYTHING. So I pulled all the money out of said account and started fixing all my payment accounts. So far I'm left with three that I still had issues with ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXX ). I called Flagstar on the first day that they said it was open after the transfer ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and after finding the phone system down I gave them time to get up and running so I called them on the XXXX I couldn't get through before I had to go to work ( 2 hour time zone difference difficult to call during the day ) I called again on the XXXX and got through. ( called again on my way into work ) After discussing that the account was unwanted and I wanted it closed. They stated that I needed to send a letter stating my intent to close the account. I also found out that overdrafts happened because I had purchased lunch on XX/XX/XXXX, and that they wouldn't close the account because I had a negative balance ( {$3.00} ). I decided to wait until I got the monthly statement so I could make sure that I got all charges and such accounted for and I wouldn't be surprised by more reasons to not close the account, but the statement was lost in the holiday rush The next letter I got from Flagstar this month was more overdraft notices. I contacted XXXX XXXX and they have started the refund of payments made. I also contacted XXXX XXXX and they have started their Refund of payments. XXXX is another issue that I'm currently trying to look into. I contacted Flagstar today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) to request that the account be locked so that we could reconcile the account so it could be closed after the refunds where made so that no more surprises accidently went out ( yearly payments I may have forgotten ). I went through a round of people ( 6 people ) trying to get me to pay them the deficit due, each time asking for the account to be frozen until it reconciled only to be told " we don't do that '' before being passed to the next person/department. With the 6th person I started asking why they couldn't and was passed on to yet another person. The last lady tried to answer my questions with vague reasons that didn't define anything. So I asked for the Policy location on the freezing of account so that a layer could find it in the charter. All I was told was " its because its not Fraudulent ''. That said all payments made from XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX are in the process of being returned per conversations with those companies as of today.