Consumer complaint received 2026-05-21 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem using a debit or ATM card
Company: AXOS FINANCIAL, INC.
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was reviewing my Axos Bank statements online. I noticed that there were charges from " Merchant '' that looked unauthorized, because I did not remember spending money on those dates for that amount, nor did I recognize " Merchant ''. There were XXXX charges over 2 months totaling {$50.00}. I submitted a message to Axos Bank regarding the transactions. In that dispute form, I was able to type into a box describing my issue. I do not have access to a copy of this text, but I essentially asked Axos to let me know if there was any other information regarding " XXXX '', because all other transactions had more details re the company other than just listing its name, and XXXX itself is just a generic placeholder. I then asked if a hold could be placed on JUST THIS MERCHANT SPECIFICALLY. Instead of actually responding to my request for information, my entire account was immediately frozen, and my debit card was shut off without my permission. I did not request for this to happen, and it has caused me a huge burden in getting access to my funds again which I find completely unreasonable. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I am still unable to access my funds due to my debit card being shut off without permission. The real violations I think occur in how this mix up was subsequently handled by Axos. I called multiple times AND WAS LIED TO ABOUT THE STATUS OF MY DEBIT CARD AND ACCOUNT. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Axos bank, and asked them why my account was shut off when I did not request for it to be. They offered no answer, other than it was their protocol to shut off the accounts ' debit card. I told them I did not want that nor ask for it, and they said there was nothing I could do, because MY DEBIT CARD WAS PERMANENTLY DEACTIVATED. They told me the only way I could get access to my account again as requesting anew debit card be sent. They told me it would take XXXX business days to arrive. I said this was unacceptable, given I did not request the account to be shut off, I requested an INQUIRY INTO ONE SPECIFIC MERCHANT. Again, this request was completely ignored. They told me to wait for the debit card to arrive. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and the card has still not arrived. They also tried to charge me {$50.00} to have the card sent within XXXX business days. I said they should do that for me free of charge since I did not request this, and they messed up everything. They refused, and did not actually give me the option to select 3 days, which I would have liked to do, given it is now weeks later and I still have no debut card for my account. For context I just graduated this week and have numerous bills to pay and this is causing severe time hardship. I then called Axos again XX/XX/XXXX, to attempt to see if someone else could help me access my account, because I really needed to pay expenses using my debit card, not via ACH as they suggested I do. I was then told THAT MY DEBIT CARD WAS ONLY SHUT OFF TEMPORARILY AND COULD BE TURNED BACK ON IMMEDIATELY if I just called this other internal Axos number, and provide a case number. I hung up after a XXXX min call to call the provided number, AND THEY WEREN'T ABLE TO TURN THE CARD BACK ON AT ALL, now they said the card was again, SHUT OFF PERMANENTLY. At this point, they had lied to me about the status of my account multiple times, and were simply getting tired of working on my issue, and telling me to call someone else essentially and start from scratch. Getting nowhere, I had to wait and call someone else, I had to wait the whole weekend until they opened again on XX/XX/XXXX. This time, I again was told that my card actually could be turned back on, but I had to wait until the dispute was finished processing, but THAT THEY COULD TURN ON MY CARD THAT WAS ONLY TEMPORARILY SHUT OFF ( third lie ). Now that I had received XXXX completely different answers about the status of my account, I did not trust a word they said. I demanded to speak to a supervisor. They told me none were available. I said I would not hang up until they put me on the phone with XXXX. After a XXXX minute standoff, they completely refused to transfer the call to anyone else, and eve just sat in silence doing nothing for some time. I was baffled at this point. In order to not hang up on me completely, they told me they " had to go '' and I would be " receiving a call back from a supervisor '' within XXXX business days. To this date, I have received no call back whatsoever. I called back XX/XX/XXXX and told my bank I needed to speak to someone, anyone with authority to get me access to my account. I was told by the rep to just wait for the dispute process to finish. I said I need to speak to XXXX about turning my debit card on. THEY SAID IT WAS PERMANENTLY SHUT OFF because a new card was sent. I still have not received my debit card. I am at a complete loss of what to do other than abandon this bank. I think this constitutes an unfair restriction of access to my funds, because I never authorized any of this to happen in the first place, and my pleas to fix the situation were completely mishandled. HOWEVER -- now I am worried that those unauthorized charges were actually fabricated by Axos bank in order to steal money from my account. I previously banked with XXXX XXXX, and their fraudulent charges used the same pattern of an unmarked merchant charging a small amount of money XXXX month, and then charging larger amounts in subsequent months. To be clear, Axos did actually process my disputed transaction for the {$50.00}, and refunded me on XX/XX/XXXX. My issue is that I AM STILL LOCKED OUT OF MY ACCOUNT USE and their lying during the process is unacceptable. In their response letter to my dispute, they still never told me anything about this " XXXX '', or what likely happened to my account, how to prevent this happenening again by providing a likely source, etc. The other piece of info is that I am the one who caught this issue, not Axos. I only found it after reviewing my statements personally, their system did not detect it. Then, when I asked about info for that merchant, I was completely ignored, stonewalled and never given that info, on top of my entire account being frozen and them not letting me speak to anyone who has any clue what is going on. I now suspect Axos created those charges and is refusing to give me information because it would reveal that they were the ones to create those charges on my account for themselves. Ideally I request 1 ) compensation for the unfair restricted access to my funds because Axos is going against their duty as a bank to provide me access to my funds and 2 ) investigation into Axos role in creating these charges, which I have no choice but to request from you since they refuse to provide me with requested information about what happened to my account ( on top of lying to me about my account status by contradicting themselves multiple times, so I couldn't trust their answer anyway ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation