Consumer complaint received 2025-09-26 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: WEBSTER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I opened an account with Webster Bank ( who was XXXX, then Sterling ) back when I was in college over 20 years ago. I have been a loyal customer for many years. I recently was laid off from work in XXXX of XXXX, and applied for XXXX XXXX, which I was approved for, and I received it for a few weeks, while I applied daily for jobs, before it stopped abruptly. I contacted the DoL and they told me my previous employer was contesting my payments. They told me to keep submitting my weekly benefits but that they wouldn't release them until they made a determination. They ultimately sided with me and released the few weeks that had been withheld, but he contested them again, and then payments were withheld again. This started again in XX/XX/year>. XXXXDOL said again to keep claiming weekly benefits, they couldn't release payments until I had a hearing in front of a judge this time, and now as of XX/XX/year>, I'm still waiting for that hearing date to be mailed to me. I even had to contact my local congress and senator 's offices to try and help me, but neither could help this along. I have since returned to work, but am still waiting on a hearing date for possible back payments if the judge sides with me in the hearing. But due to no unemployment payments being released while I was out of work while looking for jobs, my bank account became overdrawn by little more than {$100.00} ( I didn't have overdraft protection with Webster Bank, so they shouldn't have let it go below {$0.00} to begin with ), but as soon as I got a job at XXXX to make ends meet until I could get a job in my field ( I have a XXXX XXXX XXXX I cashed my check at work, went to the Webster branch directly to pay the overdraft amount and deposit the rest. The lady at the count informed me that my account had been forcefully closed and there was no balance she saw that was owed, so she couldn't take any money from me. I tried to pay the balance, but she wouldn't/could n't take it. 

I then opened a new account at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX so I could deposit my new XXXX checks and pay my bills. I had that account open for one week before I received a fraud alert text and was told to go into my branch The branch clerk called their fraud department and they were told I was being flagged as a mule. The branch clerk ( who was looking at my transactions over the week I had the account ) said I had just deposited my work checks and come into the bank to withdraw $ XXXX since I didn't have my ATM card yet. That is when I learned that it was probably due to Webster Bank flagging my account to other banks as having a forced closed account with an overdraft amount that wasn't paid ( that I tried to pay, and that I didn't know had been closed because they never notified me with anything in writing after being with them for over XXXX years ). 

Now, today XX/XX/year>, I opened a checking account with XXXX XXXX XXXX, who offers " Second Chance Accounts '' because of all this nonsense because I have no other choice. I need a bank account to pay bills and deposit my work check. I was honest with them about everything that happened when I opened the account. When I got home I started connecting all my online bill pays with my new routing number and account number. Everything was going smoothly, even the IRS for my income tax monthly payment, but when I tried adding the account information to my XXXX XXXX account, it wouldn't allow me to because of this block from the Webster Bank issue, wherever it is that they reported me as a fraud, the same place that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ran their report and kicked me out. This needs to be stopped because I tried to make it right with Webster. I tried to pay them back. This was an issue with me being out of work, unemployment was being contested, they allowed payments to go over when I didn't have overdraft on my account, and I was a loyal customer with no previous issues for over 20 years. Now they are ruining me with other institutions and making things hard when I'm trying to get my life on track after a hard summer when I was out of work. I need assistance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation