Consumer complaint received 2017-06-02
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (TX)

This was not an easy decision to do this. I have written this complaint several times and not submitted it but from the urging of my family and people who have had work /personal ties with the banking industry I have decided this is the next step to try and protect my family and others from this happening again. You see I have been with USAA since I was XXXX ( XXXX all insurances under them and XXXX all banking under them ) so I thought we had a good relationship until their practices of lately that devastated my entire family which was so unacceptable. We had 3 bank accounts ... first was me and my husband ; 2nd my oldest daughter and her fianc ; 3rd my youngest which I am on because she is single XXXX XXXX XXXX  and in case of emergency she needed one of us to have access to her account. My youngest account I do not use unless for her. all this was relayed during all the craziness to USAA. So this all began on XXXX XXXX ' XXXX when my daughter sold 2 formal dresses on a selling App called XXXX to a man and his wife. This man sent her a check from his so called realty/moving company he owns. she had been talking with him and wife via phone, text and email throughout ordeal. He told her he was sending larger amount because an employee of his would be out that way to do a move order and he would get dresses ... he said the overage was amount he owed employee for moving job and picking up dresses for him. She received the check in amount of XXXX he later told her that he needed her to send excess to this employee instead because thus employee needs money to do the job. She became nervous having that kind of money so she asked me to call our bank USAA and verify funds ok. This is where the USAA catastrophe began. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I called USAA at XXXX XXXX and spoke with a lady about making sure check was ok because usually checks like that are held till go through but this one was not. She stated at least 3 times the check has cleared his bank and can not bounce ... I repeated several times " are you sure '' to which she stated yes it can not bounce. So trusting USAA my daughter went on with withdrawing cash to send money orders. On Friday XXXX XXXX, XXXX my daughter went into her account and noticed that the check had indeed bounced after being told it could n't. This left her negative whole check amount -XXXX she had in there. We immediately called USAA to file scam/fraud complaint with a man representative at XXXX. I again called at XXXX to ask why that lady told us it had cleared and how the bouncing of check was possible ... he stated the check was supposed to be held and that she does n't have authority to say that, other then that he said he does n't know why that happened. We gave him the information. We explained at XXXX XXXX police dept waiting to file crime report. He told us to send in police report case number and USAA will reimburse the money to our daughter within 45 days. I began doing some investigating on own and revealed that this was a crime ring going on from all over USA with this particular legit realty company in XXXX being victimized also ... they had checks stolen and reproduced ... .one man arrested but not giving up others at that point ... so all in all relating to my daughters case it is ongoing between 4 states ( XXXX , XXXX , XXXX, XXXX ) and those police departments. XXXX will not extradite because it only extradites violent criminals not financial but XXXX id looking to extradite anyone involved. There are warrants out in XXXX XXXX if anyone bothers her or comes here and is involved in case. All this info given to USAA via documents sent and over phone as well as sent to yall in this complaint. I sent crime case info to USAA Monday XXXX XXXX via USAA App and received message sent ok. I called on Wednesday XXXX XXXX, XXXX at XXXX XXXX to get update and lady at USAA told me documents were received but no record of any complaint filed. What the? I had to resubmit complaint with her again. I was angry and hurt so I requested copies of tapes ( they say they tape all calls for quality assurance ) from XXXX and XXXX. she put me on hold for minute or so and came back and stated she could not find any record of calls or any tapes. Imagine that,,, this is where all the lying on USAA part continues because apparently they do not tape all calls and do they really believ you and I are stupid enough to believe those specific tapes have magically disappeared. On another thought they may not have records of all my calls but iam sending with this complaint all my phone records to show all the calls I made during this craziness. oops they forgot it is age of technology and lies always will surface. Well wish that was end of it but this was just the surface of USAA unethical, lying, wrongful ways. We continued our lives as usual keeping in contact with USAA getting the run around that it takes up to 45 days yada yada yada. My husband got paid on Thursday XXXX XXXX direct deposit ( our only source income ), We have most monthly biils come directly out and use money for medical needs and food for family. I used my debit couple times during XXXX span without problem. On XXXX XXXX. XXXX me and my husband went to XXXX to get groceries because we were almost out food and our debits declined ... we were confused because husband has high paying job and he just got paid.. so we wrote check which went through. We incurred many returned fees do to this and had to open new account elsewhere and change all direct deposits / bills coming out directly - which was a waste of our time and should have never had to happen. I tried to look at my APP but I was blocked from looking at accounts so I immediately at XXXX XXXX called USAA. I was transferred to fraud department where I was told all our accounts were frozen do to overdraft on daughters account since my name was on both and that they were on " Credit only status '' meaning only money could go in nothing would come out. WE were never given warning that this was to happen so we were unprepared to get bills paid and new account set up - unethical, They did give me access to view my accounts for couple days before that was revoked. We were baffled because we had move from XXXX recently and there any accounts with multiple names can not be touched unless both parties involved in whatever going on. We explained that we had medical needs for XXXX XXXX XXXX and needed food to feed family, we also explained our bills needed to get paid and that is all the money /income we had. That went on deaf ears - they ignored all that and did n't have one ounce of concern/ care. I contacted a local attorney who does n't work in the finance field but has helped us somewhat along the way - he is one reason I 'm doing this complaint. I was in contact with USAA constantly. Many times sent from one person to others or they were having technical difficulties and couldnt help me at that moment. during some of those calls I asked how if on credit only status they could keep excess money and not let me have it for medical needs/food ... I only got that they can - makes no sense. I also several times asked if on credit only status could they take out insurance premium ... after week of asking they took premium back to save face and not give me any more leverage against them.. I also stated several times that they cant keep me from seeing my account because that is my right to know whats happening so they eventually gave me that right back to save face. I called 4 times to request to speak to crimes unit and was told I could n't they would tell unit I wanted to speak to someone and the unit would call within 24-48 hours,,, of course more lies ; as you can tell bu phone records not once did I ever get call from USAA. On fourth request I was told by a lady that there are no records of me calling in ( Hmm records do n't lie like USAA ) but that unit will decide whether to call or not. What the heck you mean to tell me you put my life in the hands of a unit that does n't even have to communicate with me - that is ridiculous and unacceptable!!! Finally after there supposed investigation ( which we know never really occurred because they feel legally protected ) they sent letter stating my daughter was at fault - a XXXX year old who XXXX XXXX XXXX and works part time ; XXXX XXXX ; never any trouble with law or institutions etc- and USAA wants to paint her a criminal ... That is also biggest reason I 'm filing complaint!!! I cant believe a bank has that much authority over police departments to make that assumption when proof states otherwise ... when I asked USAA why decision was made I was told because " crime unit can  legally make that decision ''. So essentially we have been victimized twice ... the first came from the criminals victimizing my daughter ... second came USAA victimizing not just her but my whole entire family which is far worse then the criminals themselves. I am so disgusted! first off after speaking with many people I know that own businesses ... they all state that an employer is ultimately accountable for what their employees do on job ... but instead of USAA taking responsibility for their lady telling us check cleared they lied about tapes and our calls. After all the unethical doings and crime stress got to us financially, physically, medically, etc. we decided to pay off debt to USAA so on XXXX XXXX I called USAA again and spoke with XXXX to transfer from our account to daughters and to close both accounts. she transferred money to clear daughters account but stated I would have to call in 24 hours to close. 24 hours later on XXXX XXXX I called and closed both accounts with USAA. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX accounts were closed and off my USAA App. You would think that would be the end of it but nope same ole USAA antics. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX USAA decided on own accord to reopen our account without our permission ( which seems a little illegal ; that seems like identity fraud ) and accept a debit from before all this started. Now if they could turn away all our bills that directly came out and return any debits/checks during craziness then they should have done same with the final debit not take own hands to open a bank account that we closed. Its so sad that USAA would rather be only legal with no sense of ethics ... that they would rather lose lots business then do whats right. Its sad that this had to come to this ... a little work and communication can prevent a lot of bad feelings and loss. Its sad that they do n't stand up to standards they claim to possess. The angry /devastated me had it set up to have 2 police officers escort me in XXXX XXXX at their offices to make them listen to me but the rational good me knows they have n't listened yet and that to would have gone on deaf ears. I need to protect families from this happening to them ... people need to know not to have USAA as only financial institution because they are at serious risk to lose everything ... things are n't always as good as seem on outside/ tv commercials ... An attorney told me that legally USAA is probably safe ( ill check into that here ) but ethically they are disgraceful and so unethical, he stated that sometimes they need to be reminded that just being legal and not ethical can have ramifications to business, I believe that people would much rather do business with a company with ethics/values then just getting by legally - That the devil can hide behind a suit/dress and desk. Someone said to me Karma will always win and they will one day mess with the wrong person but I want to stop these unethical practices before it comes to someone getting hurt, A friend of mine who has ties with a banking commission recommended I go this route first in order to invoke changes in laws and to try to try to make a difference before going to news /media outlets so here I am,