Consumer complaint received 2016-08-18
Product: Credit card — 
Issue: Unsolicited issuance of credit card — 
Company: U.S. BANCORP (MO)

A US Bank agent called me and said ( paraphrased ) " I see you 've had a regular cash rewards card with us for over a year now ... would you be interested in " upgrading '' to a cash plus card? '' I said yes, the agent took my work/salary information, etc. and after a few minutes she told me that " you were approved ''. The only additional information she provided was that I was not approved for visa signature just the regular visa. She did not say anything about the credit limit or interest rate. Since she very clearly stated several times it was an upgrade and did n't inform me of any change in credit limit or APR I assumed that she 'd upgraded the existing card as promised. I received the card about a week later and went online to active it. When I logged in my account summary page showed that this was a brand new credit line, not an upgraded account. I called the credit card customer service department and asked if it was a display issue or if it would display as XXXX accounts for a short time since it was an upgrade and the person I spoke with informed me that the cash plus card was NOT issued via a credit card upgrade and that the agent had opened a brand new credit line ( without my consent ). I spoke with a supervisor who advised me to contact the agent who put in the application to have the action reversed. 
I called the agent the next day and inquired as to how this had occurred and what I needed to do to get it reversed so the account would be closed and the inquiry removed before the new ( unauthorized ) account was reported to the credit agencies. She refused to acknowledge that she had made an error and that I did not give consent to open a NEW credit account and she had misrepresented an " upgrade '' as an " application for a new credit line ''. I asked her to please look in to what could be done on the Bank 's end to rectify the situation without submitting a dispute/complaint with an outside agency. The agent eventually called me back stating she had a form that would take care of it and to sign and email it back. The agent never acknowledged receipt and did not provide any updates on the situation over the course of a month. I called 3 or 4 times for a status update, each time she assured me that she had done something to look into or speed up the process. I received a letter dated XXXX XXXX stating that a request to remove the inquiry had been placed. Since that was not the resolution the agent promised and the Bank via the " Credit Bureau Inquiry Removal '' form - account would be closed and removed from my credit history as if it had never happened - I contacted the customer service number provided in the letter. The agent I spoke with said contrary to the official letter, there was nothing she could do to help me except close the account ( which would hurt my credit even more by having a closed account with an age of 1 month ) and to contact the agent who opened the account. 
At this point I feel as if I have done everything possible, in good faith, to get what I thought was a simple human error on the part of the agent corrected on US Bank 's end without causing any trouble. It has been over 1 month and I have spent several hours sorting through misinformation and everyone telling me they ca n't help me and to speak with some other person and this is still not resolved. 
US Bank submitted an application to open a new credit account without my consent under the false claim of " upgrading '' an existing account. At no point was I informed that the meaning of " upgrade account '' was " do nothing with your existing account, open an brand new account instead ''. I believe I have done everything in my power to work with US Bank on a resolution internally and they either can not or will not correct the error so I am appealing to a higher authority. Supporting documentation is attached to this complaint.