Consumer complaint received 2026-01-21 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem using a debit or ATM card
Company: CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION, THE
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I logged onto my Charles Schwab account and noticed multiple fraudulent charges which totaled {$4200.00} on my checking account. I immediately made contact with Charles Schwab 's customer service. During the interaction I was still in the process of investigating the exact amount of fraudulent charges and the dates that they began. I asked the representative to initiate the claim to Charles Schwab 's financial crimes department and I proceeded to make contact with the merchant ( XXXX ) to understand what took place as my XXXX check card was not lost or stolen thus I deduced that the merchant had a breach in their mobile application. I traveled to XXXX XXXX in XXXX of XXXX but returned back to my residence in XXXX on XXXX XXXX. Charles Schwab moved forward with the investigation and proceeded to correspond with me via email and confirmed that the unauthorized charges from XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX that I escalated were in fact fraudulent. Charles Schwab 's Financial Crimes Sr. Manager stated that there was a problem with recovering the total amount of {$4200.00} due to my reporting timeline and only refunded a small portion of my losses while simultaneously advising me to reach out to the merchant to recover the remainder of my money. I reiterated my emotional distress in initially finding the fraud that had taken place on my account which led to the Sr. Manager curtly reprimanding me to read the fine print guidelines of the big banking institutions for reporting fraudulent account activity ( Federal regulation E ). I contacted the merchant ( XXXX ) several times over the period of 5 months and was unsuccessful in recovering any of the stolen money. I reinitiated contact with Charles Schwab on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with the Sr. Manager of the Financial Crimes Department only after I stated that I would be escalating to the corporate office to reopen my case. On XXXX XXXX I informed the Sr. Manager that the merchant ( XXXX ) did not help me and essentially gave me the run around in their customer service loop. The Sr. Manager took no additional action even after I pointed out that while I understand my responsibility related to Federal regulation E, Charles Schwab failed to notify me about the unusual spending activity on my account between XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. Before the fraudulent activity took place my normal utilization of my checking account was intermittent at best. The fraudulent activity was consistent charges across the span of XXXX months. How could Charles Schwab not at least send a verification alert of the unusual activity taking place on my account? XXXX at least sends an email when a new device is logged into! The Sr. Manager pushed back again on the federal regulations for reporting which are supposed to protect consumers but it seemed as if it was being weaponized for the bank to justify not recovering the remainder of my stolen funds. I requested my case to be escalated and also informed him that I would be seeking external help through filing a police report and seeking legal aid.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation