Consumer complaint received 2018-09-21
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: BBVA FINANCIAL CORPORATION (AZ)

Complaint:
BBVA Credit Card On XX/XX/18 there were fraudulent charges made on this card in the amount of {$2500.00}. When the charges were made I received a push notification on my phone making me aware of the charges and requesting that I call if I did not approve them. I called and spoke to a gentleman and let him know that I did not approve/make the charges. He assured me that I did not need to worry, that the charge would be dropped and that no action was needed on my part. I let him know that I would like to cancel the card since someone obviously has my info and is using the card. The call ended and I thought it was resolved. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I received a billing statement in the mail asking me to pay the {$2500.00}. I called and after hours of being hung up on and transferred around many times I finally got a representative that told me that I had not called in to let them know that the charges were fraudulent. According to the representative the notes on the account indicated that I had only called in to cancel the account. I request to speak to a supervisor and ended up speaking to XXXX, a supervisor in BBVA 's XXXX XXXX office, who confirmed for me that the notes did not indicate that I had called in to let them know that I did not make the charges. I asked him if they record their calls. He explained that they do. I requested that he please listen to the call and add notes that accurately reflect what happened on the call. Specifically, I requested that he listen and note that I had in fact called in to let them know that the charges were fraudulent. He agreed to do this and we set up a follow up for the next day. 

I spoke with XXXX the following day and he confirmed that he had listened to the call and that I had made the representative aware that there were fraudulent charges made. He let me know that the representative should have taken action to stop the charges at that time as there was time to do so at that point but because he did not, the charges were paid and that I would now have to submit a dispute which would take 30 days to be reviewed. I let him know that this was unacceptable as I had been given confirmation from a BBVA employee that the issue was resolved. The charges were paid due to a BBVA employee error and not my own. I asked what could possibly be needed as far as a dispute investigation. He told me that it was just a formality. I let him know that I felt this was very deceptive and unfair on BBVA 's part. He let me know that there was nothing he could do about it. Again I let him know that this was unacceptable and requested to speak to his superior. he told me that his superior was not available but that he would have him call me within an hour. I agreed and the call ended. 

I did not hear from XXXX superior in the next hour. In fact I never did hear from him ever. I called a couple days later, spent an hour being transferred around, until I finally spoke with representative that told me that I had been transferred to the collections department and that I needed to make a payment. I tried to explain to this representative what had happened but they were unwilling to help and eventually hung up on me. I called back and spoke to another representative in the collections department who explained they had mailed me a letter confirming the dispute. I let this representative know that I had not received such a letter and requested that she email it to me. She agreed that she would email it to me ( To this day I still have not received a letter in regards to a dispute in the mail or in my email ). I then requested to speak with XXXX and she transferred me to him. 

He explained that he had told me on our previous call that he would have his boss call me just to get me off the phone. That he actually had no intention on letting me speak to this person, and that it was BBVA 's policy that customers not be transferred to anyone above a supervisor. Again, I let him know  that I felt that this was very deceptive, unfair, and now bordering on abusive on BBVA 's part. He again let me know that there would have to be a dispute review before the matter could be cleared up. He advised that he had submitted a dispute and that he would expedite the review of the dispute. He advised that it would take no more than a week for it to be resolved. I again let him know that this was unacceptable but that I would give him 1 week to resolve the matter. I let him know that If I did not hear from him with confirmation that the issue was resolved that I would be submitting a complaint with the CFPB. He seemed to understand and agree on this call that I was being treated unfairly and that BBVA 's actions had in fact been very deceptive. I ended the call thinking the issue would most likely be resolved. 

On XX/XX/18 I received another billing statement again asking me to make payment on this charge only now they have added a late payment fee of {$27.00} and a {$1.00} charge labeled as " minimum charge ''.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief