Consumer complaint received 2024-11-15 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Can't stop withdrawals from your account
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC.
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
I have a Robinhood account.

I already had about {$600.00} in the account for a while and left it alone.

I transferred {$1300.00} from my savings account with XXXX  XXXX XXXX to my robinhood account. At the time of this transaction ( XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, I had {$1500.00} in the savings account, so there was more than enough funds. This was NOT an instant deposit transfer, however there are cases online of people who have tried to do normal transfers, but right as they tap the screen, a pop-up appears asking if they want are sure they want to do an instant transfer. Perhaps this happened to me. Here is proof : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX Nevertheless, the money was available to me to trade soon after. I used all of my buying power to buy XXXX. 

On the night of XX/XX/2024, Robinhood restricted my account, saying that an instant transfer was reversed. When I check my transfer history, there is a transfer for {$1000.00} labeled " reversed '' for XX/XX/2024, and above that is a pending transaction for {$1300.00}, dated XX/XX/2024. 

This {$1000.00} transfer was never requested by me, and does not show up in my bank statement. Even if it had, however, it should not have been reversed as my bank account had sufficient funds for the transfer. Due to this, Robinhood has removed somewhere about {$1300.00} from my portfolio ( the exact amount is unknown and it is also unknown if the stocks that were bought using that money were sold or not ), and has demanded that I transfer about {$1300.00} to my account to pay for the deficit. 

Robinhood claims that I no longer have access to instant deposits until this deficit is resolved, but does not list any other consequences. I am unsure of whether or not the money that is still being transferred to my robinhood account from my savings account ( the {$1300.00} ) is going to be stolen from me by robinhood, or if it will simply pay off the deficit, and I will be free to use that money as buying power, or withdraw it back to my account. I also can not stop this transfer anymore, according to Robinhood. It is in process and can not be undone. The money is neither in my bank account, nor in robinhood.

I also had some extra money in the portfolio, and attempted to withdraw this money to my bank account, however, due to noticing that the deficit increased to {$1700.00}, I cancelled that transfer, but I have noticed no changes. I was only informed that the deficit increased to that amount due to an email I received from Robinhood, as well as the account restriction notification on Robinhood mentioning both the {$1300.00} transfer, and an additional {$48000.00}. Upon cancelling this transfer, however, the notification has not changed, and no new email has been received.

At the moment, there is {$500.00} in my robinhood account as buying power.

After 9 hours of waiting for a text response from customer service, I was connected. I have 21 screenshots of a text conversation I had with a Robinhood support agent who did very little to answer my questions, and lied on several occasions. XXXX, the agent, stated " as per checking here there is no instant transfer happened in your account. The {$1000.00} deposit that initiated on XX/XX/2024 was reversed because your bank reversed it due to sufficient funds. So in the first place no funds were taken out from your bank since the bank doesn't have enough funds to cover the transaction. '' Again, not only did I never authorize any sort of transaction for {$1000.00}, but my bank account did in fact have sufficient funds for such a transaction. 

Then later in the conversation, XXXX explains " To reinstate your access to Instant Deposits, we have requested a deposit amount to cover purchases made with Instant Deposits. '' After stating there were no instant deposit transactions, he explains they have requested a deposit amount to cover purchases made with instant deposits. 

I also asked XXXX if I could transfer the {$1300.00} back to my bank account once it landed in my Robinhood account, and XXXX said " Once the transfer completed on XX/XX/2024, you'll be able to withdraw the funds back to your account unless they were traded with instant deposits or they covered a margin call or deficit. '' Later on, I asked XXXX if not depositing any money simply results in me losing access to Instant Deposits ( which is fine by me! ). XXXX said yes. Keep in mind, I can not cancel the transfer, and I still have not gotten an answer as to what will actually happen to the money once it lands in my robinhood account. 

When inquiring XXXX, he stated that " you are unable to withdraw the funds since this is to cover the purchases made with Instant Deposits ''. 

I never chose Instant Deposits. I never made a transfer for {$1000.00} which is the transfer that was reversed ( and according to Robinhood, it was the Bank that reversed it ). I always had sufficient funds in my bank account.

And now, Robinhood suddenly claims that I must pay them {$1700.00} for a fraudulent transfer of {$1000.00}?

I have been trying to solve this for over 8 hours. I have not called my bank yet because they are just now opening.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation