Consumer complaint received 2026-03-07 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I noticed on XX/XX/XXXX that my Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card account was put on a temporary restriction, and it gave me a number to call. So I called the number, and they said this was the wrong department for resolving my credit card hold, and transferred me to another credit card department that basically said they couldn't do anything about it and had no information about it, except that I was getting mail on the situation and I would need to send in a XXXX form. For context, on XX/XX/XXXX I had called and asked for a credit limit increase because I'm currently moving apartments and knew I would need to spend a little more than usual on some. I reported that my income is currently around $ XXXX and rent is {$850.00}, and they immediately approved me from {$4500.00} to {$9500.00}, which is way more than I needed, but they came up with that limit themselves. They DID NOT warn or tell me that using the credit card with the new limit would later result in needing to submit a XXXX income verification form later on just for using the card with the new limit. Fast forward back to XX/XX/XXXX, I had used the card for some purchases, and as I recall I the balance never even went over {$6000.00}, so keep in mind I was still {$3500.00} under my limit, and that's when I got the temporary restriction on my account. So, after talking to a few unhelpful representatives on the phone, I learned the account was restricted due to " unusual spending activity '', which is strange for a number of reasons : 1. ) It's not unusual because I asked for a credit limit increase a couple weeks earlier, so obviously that means I intend to spend more than before, why would I get the increase if I wasn't going to use it? and 2. ) If they do think it's unusual, why did they not just pause the card and check with me to verify the spending, that's what every other credit card company has done in the case of unusual activity. They had no answer for these questions. I also learned from this call that I needed to submit a XXXX form to verify my income, I went into the Wells Fargo branch in XXXX XXXX XXXX and spent over an hour there explaining the situation, which eventually got escalated from a banker to the VP of that branch, who was still unfamiliar with this situation and confused why this was happening to me. At this point, I was extremely fed up with wasting so much time on this issue, I just asked to revert my credit limit back to the previous limit, as I had already paid off the extra purchases by that point and my balance was below my previous credit limit of {$4500.00}. The VP of that branch tried to help me do that but was unsuccessful, which is ridiculous that this is not possible since I was already at that limit previously. So, all she could do was help me fill out the XXXX form and fax it for me ( I have a copy I can provide ), which basically verifies my last 2 years of tax returns/income I believe. At this point, I said to the VP, " This doesn't make sense because my last 2 years of income ( provided by XXXX form ) was different than and won't reflect my current reported income that I reported to Wells Fargo to get the original credit limit increase. So obviously the XXXX form records won't match up with what I reported. '' The VP AGREED with me and said that this is still all I could do in this situation, so they faxed it for me and I hoped they would restore my account in a few days. THIS IS MAJORLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE WHY IS WELLS FARGO GOING BASED ON MY PAST INCOME AND NOT CURRENT INCOME TO VERIFY MY INCOME FOR THIS CARD, I WAS A XXXX XXXX THE LAST 2 YEARS, SO I DID NOT HAVE THE SAME INCOME. I MADE IT A POINT THAT IT WOULD NOT MATCH UP BEFORE SUBMITTING IT, BECAUSE MY INCOME HAS CHANGED. A few days later, I check my Wells Fargo portal, and my Active Cash Credit Card is completely WIPED from my account, gone with no trace. At this point, I just wanted to be responsible and pay off the remaining balance on this card and be done with it, but I couldn't even do that because I could not see my statements, balance, pending returns, rewards, etc. I called to inquire why it was gone, and once again, I got escalated to several different higher-up representatives who all told me the same thing : there is nothing they can do and they can't tell me anything about the situation. They said I need to call them and ask over the phone anytime I want to know/do anything about the account, which is a major inconvenience when I'm just trying to be responsible and pay off the balance, and they are making it extremely difficult for me to do that, so it's not very motivating to give them their money back like this, especially when the customer service has been so incredibly poor throughout this process. I then called the rewards department because I thought, AT THE VERY LEAST, Wells Fargo should be able to apply my {$65.00} of saved up rewards I had on that credit card to my balance that I still have to pay off. Instead, they told me that I forfeit all rewards when the account is closed, and they just kept saying that to me over and over. That makes no sense because I didn't decide or ask them to close the account, they closed it themselves, they decided to forfeit it for me. If I had known they were going to randomly restrict my account, I would have applied the rewards beforehand. I tried to see if maybe they could understand my situation ( that I asked for a limit increase, my account got restricted the moment I used it, the account was closed, and this was a very unfair situation ) to work around their policy possibly by applying that credit to a new credit card account or checking account, but they provided no help or other options on that end. At this point, I had tried almost everything, so I opened a case with Wells Fargo and was assigned a case manager to try to dispute this unfair case. I got a call from the case manager who told me the same thing that there was nothing to do about anything I had asked about ( reopening the account, simply being able to see my account in the app, or applying the " forfeited '' rewards ) since the account was already closed. I asked what his purpose was, since his job is supposed to be to help the customer and find a solution ( f course that did not happen ), and he could not answer that. So, at this point I've given up on the card. The customer service on the phone has been extremely unhelpful and unsympathetic, other than the VP at the XXXX XXXX Wells Fargo branch. Today, XXXX, I received the mail from Wells Fargo explaining why they closed the account, saying " Records provided do not match official IRS records. '' YES I KNOW THAT, I KNEW THAT WHEN I SUBMITTED THE XXXX FORM THAT IT WOULD NOT MATCH, OBVIOUSLY MY INCOME FROM 2 YEARS AGO AS A XXXX XXXX DOES NOT MATCH MY REPORTED INCOME THAT I USED TO QUALIFY FOR A CREDIT LIMIT. And I'm still baffled that they couldn't just reverse the credit limit increase once I realized what a hassle this was becoming, you would think they could do that instead of closing the account against my will. Very disappointed in Wells Fargo and their service is an understatement.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation