Consumer complaint received 2025-08-30 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
My only credit card is with Fifth Third Bank. They use a credit card fraud algorithm that is the reverse of what it should be. It has never blocked actual fraudulent transactions. I have to monitor charges and flag fraudulent transactions myself. In XXXX case, when a travel agency in XXXX that I'd never done business with fraudulently charged my card thousands of dollars, the bank did not block the charge. I then reported the fraud, and asked the bank what it would do to the fraudster. The answer was : nothing. I researched the fraudsters and got all their info, then called XXXX Police. They said the bank was the entity that should ask for charges to be filed, but the banks never did that, they just wrote off the loss. I called Fifth Third repeatedly with the fraudster 's identity and address, and asked them why they don't go after the fraudsters. They said it's too much trouble. 

It's in this context that the bank repeatedly blocking my VALID transactions is so troubling. For example, several years ago I was going on an international work trip. The bank told me I had to provide a written itinerary to the branch personal banker or else transactions in foreign countries would be blocked. I did so. But when I was XXXX miles from an airport in a remote, dangerous region of a third-world country, the bank blocked my transactions and left me stranded. I had to WALK all the way back to the airport. Then, because my credit card was blocked, I was not allowed to board the plane. This is only XXXX of many times Fifth Third has grossly inconvenienced me or put me at risk of injury or death. In many cases, such as I was trying to buy a new XXXX camera from XXXX, the credit card block takes so much time to resolve that I lose a time-limited discount price. 

In the past month, Fifth Third blocked my in-person transaction at a grocery store I shop at all the time, leaving me without food, and the store taking a loss for items that could not be re-shelved. I had to go without food, and then had to consume gasoline to drive back to the store again when the card was finally unblocked. I contacted my local personal banker in writing about this ongoing problem and XXXX others, XXXX of which I just filed a CPFB complaint about. The personal banker tried to help, but said nobody from corporate would talk to me in writing about these issues. Here 's why : they don't want a written record. 

Then yesterday Fifth Third blocked me from buying a refrigerator because my existing refrigerator died. Again, this was a time-sensitive transaction. But the bank blocked it repeatedly. Worse yet, the generic procedures the bank uses in these cases are totally against the customer. For example yesterday : * For the first half hour of trying to purchase the item, I received no emails from Fifth Third about the card block. I do not have a cell phone and they know that if there is a " fraud alert, '' they are to send an email. 
* When I finally got a fraud alert email, I immediately called the number to clear the block. Unfortunately, the bank makes this ridiculously hard. First of all, several calls were dropped or sent to the wrong department. Then, the reps insisted that I had only XXXX options to get the card unblocked. XXXX ) They send a code via text that I have to read back to the rep on the phone. I keep telling them, I have no cell phone, so no text. Send the code by email. Until I had called nearly a dozen times, they refused to send the code via email. 
XXXX ) They say they will have to hang up from the call, call me back with the code, and then I will have to call back in and repeat the code. I have tried this many times before and IT DOES NOT WORK. 
XXXX ) Finally, to add insult to injury, the reps blithely say " too bad for you, you will have to go to a local branch to have the card unblocked. '' This is outrageous. First the bank wrongly blocks a valid transaction and disables my card. Then it refuses to unblock the block caused by its error. Then they require me to leave my work or home and go to a branch. But it does not work. I called the branch where the personal bankers are very competent and helpful, and they said they could NOT unblock the block. In past situations, before I realized how anti-customer Fifth Third is, I went to the branch, only to be told that they could not remove the block. 

Yesterday, after losing XXXX hours on phone calls, I finally reached XXXX Fifth Third employee who had the customer-centeredness to send the code via email so I could give it to her on the phone and she unblocked my card. Only XXXX rep out of a dozen helped me. But by the time the card was unblocked so I could purchase the item, the discount had expired, so I HAD TO PAY MORE MONEY. 

An ancillary problem to this one is that if you need a new plastic card due to card defect or when the card is expiring, Fifth Third automatically blocks your existing card so you have no credit card at all until you receive the replacement. 

Further, Fifth Third corporate DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR FROM ITS CUSTOMERS. The bank has no online contact form, no customer service email address. The only way to reach the multi-millionaire owners of this bank with complaints is via snail mail, WHICH THEY DO NOT ANSWER.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation