Consumer complaint received 2025-03-28 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: OK

Complaint narrative:
Subject : Unjust Account Closure and Unreasonable Fund Hold Discover Financial Services To Whom It May Concern, I am filing a formal complaint against Discover Financial Services due to the unjust closure of my account and the withholding of my remaining balance for three months. The entire situation was caused by Discovers mishandling of an automatic payment, despite my prior communication with their customer service. 
My payment due date was XX/XX/XXXX, and my minimum due was {$0.00}, with a total balance of {$200.00}. Wanting to make a payment toward my balance, I manually paid {$110.00} on XX/XX/XXXX at around 11 PM. However, I had an automatic payment plan set up, which I assumed would not process since my minimum due was {$0.00} and I had already made a payment. Despite this, Discover still attempted to process a second payment of {$170.00}, which, when combined with the {$110.00} already paid, was far more than my actual balance. 
As a result, my Discover account went into the negatives ( - {$86.00} ), which was actually money Discover owed me. Seeing this, I contacted Discover through the app and spoke with a representative. I explained that I had already paid {$110.00}, and I asked them to cancel the {$170.00} payment, as it was unnecessary. The representative acknowledged my request but told me that since I had tried to cancel the payment after 5 PM on the XXXX, they could not cancel it manually. Instead, she reassured me that if my bank rejected the payment a second time, Discover would automatically stop processing it. I was relieved to hear this and believed the issue was resolved. 
A few days later, I logged into my Discover account and saw a {$0.00} balance. My credit card had also been automatically deleted from my XXXX XXXX app, which confused me. I called Discover to ask what was going on, and they informed me that my account had been closed. When I asked why, they said I should have already received a letter in the mail explaining the reason. However, the representative I spoke with could not tell me why my account was closed and said I needed to wait for the letter. 
When the letter arrived five business days later, all it said was : Closed for unusual activity. There was no explanation, no detailsnothing. I had to call Discover again to get more information. After speaking with multiple representatives, I was essentially forced to put the pieces together myself. Eventually, they said my account was likely closed because my bank declined the {$170.00} charge twiceeven though I had already informed Discover not to process that payment in the first place. 
To make matters worse, Discover is now holding my remaining balance for three months, even though : * I had already paid {$110.00} toward my balance before the payment issue. 
* The payment issue was caused by Discovers own automatic system, not fraudulent activity. 
* I contacted Discover immediately when I saw the issue and was told that my bank rejecting the payment twice would not cause further problems. 
* I received no email, message, or warning before my account was suddenly closed. 
* The explanation I eventually received was vague and unhelpful. 
I also requested that my account be reopened, as this situation was due to miscommunication and an automatic system error, but Discover refused. 
At this point, Discover is unfairly holding my funds for three months, even though I have no outstanding balance and no disputes. The lack of transparency, poor customer service, and failure to provide a valid reason for closing my account have caused unnecessary stress and financial inconvenience.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation