Consumer complaint received 2017-06-03
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Application denied
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (TX)

On Monday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I applied for USAA 's XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  through its website. While I was in the middle of my application, after correctly answering XXXX identity questions ( the color of my SUV, what address was associated with me, and the County where that address is located ) I clicked " Next '' and its system awkwardly took me to a login page, after I logged in, the page showed a two-line ERROR about it not being able to find the application or something in that regard, and that was it ... no message about the application, no email, nothing. Knowing that when you apply for a credit card the bank does a HARD inquiry on your credit report, I did not want to risk doing another application and getting another HARD inquiry, so I called USAA and a representative told me that he was able to see a pending application in the system, but no other information so he asked that I call back on Tuesday due to the XXXX XXXX holiday. Instead of calling, I sent USAA a message through its site indicating the situation I experienced during my application and asking for a status on it. On Tuesday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I received a reply from USAA saying that my application had been supposedly declined because they were n't able to verify my identity (!? ). Of course, this response surprised me because this has NEVER happened to me before and I did the application from within my USAA account where USAA even prefilled all my information from its system. I called USAA as soon as I left work and a female representative on the credit card application department answered. After I explained what had happened, she decided to transfer me to USAA 's Executive Resolution Team ( ERT ). " XXXX '' answered the phone at around XXXX XXXX CST or so and after I again explained everything, while adding that the only thing I could think of was an XXXX XXXX Alert I had placed on my report some months before, she told me that, indeed, the issue had been supposedly because of said XXXX XXXX Alert. She then assured me that USAA had not done a hard inquiry on my credit report and recommended that I apply again. That did not make any sense, so I called XXXX and sure enough they informed me that USAA had in fact pulled my credit report ( done a hard inquiry ) and that the XXXX XXXX Alert on my file was not active anymore ( it expired around XXXX XXXX ). So, essentially, I was provided misleading information on both fronts. <P/>I called again the same day and " XXXX '' from the ERT answered at about XXXX XXXX CST or so. Again, I explained my situation and she started insinuating that my application might have been declined because I did not properly answer the identity questions. That did not make any sense, since I am 1000 % sure I answered correctly ( very EASY questions ) and their system did not say anything nor provide any message indicating that they could not complete the application for y or z reason, it showed an ERROR, which is not normal. " XXXX '' then called USAA 's underwriting department and was supposedly told that the reason for declining my application was that there was a " FACTA Alert '' on my report and that I needed to call XXXX to remove it and apply again. That no matter what, I had to apply again. After I pushed on that nonsensical idea, she told me that the underwriter informed her that they had received credit information from my XXXX report, like my credit score, and that USAA had in fact done a hard inquiry (  contradicting the first representative " XXXX '' ). So, if I had missed any identity questions as she insinuated, how in the world would XXXX provide USAA with my credit information?? Did NOT make any sense whatsoever! Anyhow, just to be sure, since I had NEVER heard or requested anything called a " XXXX Alert '' for my credit report, I went ahead and called  XXXX again. XXXX representative " XXXX '' informed me that there was NO ALERT OR BLOCK of any kind on my credit report that prevented XXXX from providing my financial information to USAA and confirmed again that a hard inquiry had been done on my credit report by USAA on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. <P/>With this information, which AGAIN contradicted the information provided by USAA, I called USAA and  requested to talk to the ERT. " XXXX '' answered the phone at around XXXX XXXX CST. So, I again explained my ordeal to him and he, again, started to insinuate that it was probably me who answered a question incorrectly and that I would need to apply again and get another hard inquiry in my credit report for the NONSENSICAL claim that they were n't able to ID me!? Of course, I was NEVER going to apply again for that or any other USAA card and get another hard inquiry in my credit report, so I pushed, again, against these nonsensical claims and XXXX, kind on a dismissive way, said he would call underwriting again to hear from them directly since what I was telling him was supposedly not reflecting on the notes on my record ( nice way of saying he did not trust me ). So, he called and then he came back in the line and sure enough said he had " kind of good news. '' The underwriter he talked to actually said there was no such thing as a XXXX Alert on my record ( another instance of misinformation from USAA! ) and that after reviewing my file she ( the underwriter ) had noticed that there was actually an APPROVED card originating from the botched application " coming '' through their system for me that was not reflecting yet on my USAA account (!? ). XXXX said he had never had such a situation. The underwriter told him that he needed to contact the IT department to fix the issue with the card not reflecting in order for everything to be set. XXXX said that as soon as he finished my call he would call IT to get them to fix it and that he would get a TICKET NUMBER from them and add it to the notes on my account. He asked that I waited until Friday, and that if the card had not reflected on my account by then, to call the ERT again so that they could reference the ticket number and call IT again to follow up. He acknowledged after I asked him specifically that my application for the card had been approved and that it was only an issue with IT fixing the situation for it to be processed and to reflect in my account and be sent to me. All of this can be confirmed by listening to the calls that USAA recorded.
<P/>On Wednesday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I called USAA again after leaving work to make sure that the TICKET NUMBER that XXXX said he would add to my account was in fact there and the process was moving along. I called the credit card application department and explained my situation to the representative. She acknowledged that the ticket number was in fact added to my account and she then volunteered ( without me asking for it ) to call IT to find its status. She said IT was working on it and that she would call me later with any additional information. She called me at around XXXX XXXX  CST to tell me that ( surprise! ) the IT department had supposedly closed the ticket and told her that there was nothing they could do and that I needed to apply again and essentially take another hard inquiry from USAA if I wanted the card. I protested and requested to speak to  the XXXX. XXXX came into the line and after I explained my issue again and he read the notes, he repeated the same reasons and possibilities I had been given during this ordeal. He said the underwriting department was already closed ( it was around XXXX XXXX CST ), he called IT to see if they could reopen the ticket, but was told that they were getting the same decline reason of not being able to ID me and could not do anything about it. XXXX then tried to call XXXX himself to verify some information, but was unable to get through. The only resolution that XXXX offered was to show me a USAA Consumer Report Dispute Form and suggested I submit one to have USAA request to XXXX XXXXhat my hard inquiry be removed from my report. Although I can not get back the 3+ hours I have wasted on this ordeal in the last couple of days, at least USAA removing that hard inquiry would make things right for me and allow me to apply again with a representative to hopefully make sure that this does not happen again. I also want  to say that although sometimes I felt that I was being blamed by some representatives for this issue with USAAs site essentially botching my application, all of them behaved professionally and were respectful throughout my conversations and truly tried their best to correct this mess that was NOT their fault. Again, I also want to stress that I have NEVER been denied credit for the reason USAA claims they had to decline my application. I had NEVER had any financial institution tell me that they could not identify me. I checked my personal information on the XXXX report and all of it is up to date and correct. This was obviously a result of USAAs system botching my application because of an ERROR.