Consumer complaint received 2025-03-26 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly — Talked to a third-party about your debt
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: UT

Complaint narrative:
Approximately 6 weeks ago a company named XXXX XXXX started calling me several times per week. I never answered because I don't answer phone calls from unknown numbers or people due to the amount of fraud that is going on recently. After several weeks of them calling several times a week, I decided to answer the phone once, and the person on the other end of the phone asked me who I was and I asked them who they were. It was a woman on the phone who did not identify herself, but said that she needed me to verify my name and address and phone number, which I refused to do because I had no idea who this person was and stated this. And she told me she was attempting to collect a debt, and I said how am I supposed to know? You have given me no identifying information you just asked me to verify personal information which you should already have if you are a debt collector of a debt that I supposedly owe. And she said if I wanted to know who they were, I should call Navy Federal Credit Union. And I asked her why I would do that, and she told me to contact Navy Federal credit Union and then call her back. I did not do as she instructed me to do because I could not see a reason to do so. Several weeks later I received a letter from XXXX. Since I had already had a run-in with them, I decided to hire an attorney to handle this situation. The attorney I hired sent XXXX XXXX a cease and desist letter, stating that I had only social security retirement and XXXX  XXXX income, and for them to quit trying to collect the debt. 2 days later, I went to the ATM to withdraw money from my NFCU account into which my XXXX and retirement are direct deposited, and found that I was locked out of my account. Apparently, XXXX forwarded the cease and desist letter to NFCU, even though they are a debt buyer and not associated with NFCU. And NFCU therefore froze my checking and savings account, along with the credit card XXXX was trying to collect on. My attorney did not send NFCU a cease and desist letter as the debt had been sold to XXXX XXXX. As far as my attorney and I are concerned, NFCU was completely out of the loop by now. My attorney said that no letter was sent to NFCU and therefore no action should have been taken by NFCU, none of my associated counts should have been frozen, but when I called NFCU to speak to them, they had changed the address on my account to my attorney 's office, and told me to contact my attorney if I needed any further information. I have not been able to access my account, I can not touch the funds that are in it, and my direct deposits are going in there on Monday XX/XX/XXXX, and I don't have enough time to change them to another bank account. Again, I verified with my attorney that no letter was sent to NFCU. NFCU was never contacted in any way by my attorney, and NFCU was never sent a cease and desist letter. According to XXXX, XXXX XXXX is a debt buyer, and has no association with Navy Federal credit Union. How they were able to affect my Navy Federal credit Union accounts and freeze them is beyond me, but I want this harassment to stop. NFCU should never have stopped my access to my checking and savings account which are completely separate from the credit card, and they have already been censured for this in the past, and had to pay restitution to people to whom they did this. The credit card, my checking account, and my savings account are three separate entities and one should not affect the other. And that is aside from the fact that no cease and desist letter was ever sent to NFCU, from my attorney, at all.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation