Consumer complaint received 2020-12-10
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Opening an account — Didn't receive terms that were advertised
Company: KEYCORP (NY)

Received promotional advertisement from Key Bank. It alleged if you opened an account with direct deposit you would receive {$500.00}. I have recently applied to Social Security to begin receiving old age retirement. They required a routing and checking account number to process direct deposit. There seemed some time urgency with regard to them processing getting the payment started. Key Bank assured me verbally three times that as soon as the account was opened with a minmum deposit of {$10.00} that I would receive my routing and checking account number that very day. I had promised to call Social Security today and provide them that information. I made an online application last night. I gave them a lot of confidential information required to open the account. It came to the time to select how I was going to pay the minimum deposit online. I selected credit card and {$25.00}. There was some sort of advice that it took between 3-5 days for FUND AVAILABILITY. There was no prompt for credit card number or particular card such as Visa or Mastercard or whatever. I pressed " next '' or " continue '' and the whole application disappeared. I contacted someone at Key Bank and asked what happened with the application. She advised that it went through but I would have to stop by the branch office anytime today and that the account would be opened and that I would have my checking account and routing number available immediately. When I got there, the agent told me at first that he could find no record of my application. He looked around and found it. He told me it would take 3-5 days to get my routing number and checking account number due to the idea that I had chosen to pay by credit card online. I had prevously asserted that I did have {$10.00} cash on me if it was an alternative. He stated that the account number and routing number would not be available for 3 to 5 days. I confronted him with the idea that it had been asserted to me numerous time including the person I spoke with the previous night who alleged that I would have to stop into the office that the routing and account number would be available immediately. He questioned me about the importance of this. I did not question him about why -- even if a deposit was made with a credit card when previous credit card transactions elsewhere seemed to result in immediate funds what the reason for it taking three to five days was. The online assertion was about fund availability only and NOT the opening of the account. So, in that aspect, he seemed to be saying that the account would not be open for three to five days. So with regard to the promotional offer which expired on XX/XX/11 I questioned him about whether the eligibility for the offer would have expired by the time the account was opened. He said no and showed me the screen where the account was open including the use of the promotional code. I failed to understand how the account was open and was not open at the same time. I had relied on the verbal assertion three times that I would get my checking and routing number on the day I paid the deposit. There was never any other assertion until I visited the bank today. I jumped through all the hoops and furnished a lot of confidential information and when I got there, the assurances that the routing number and checking account number would be available evaporated. I asked that the account application be deleted. Other than the idea that Key Bank had acquired access to a lot of my confidential information, I sustained some wasted effort and inconvenience in jumping through these hoops.