Consumer complaint received 2024-05-17 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OH

Complaint narrative:
I think my bank is trying to set me up. I called about three years ago to see if they would lower my interest rates being I had been a loyal customer for about 15 years and in all this time my interest rates had never gone down and I had never asked them to before but I had heard they are supposed to go down over time and mine never had. They responded by lowering my credit limit by $ XXXX within XXXX hours of the call. This threw my utilization out of whack and it took years to recover. They never lowered my interest rates, they never explained why, every attempt I made to understand why they did what they did was met with attitude, indifference or silence. Fast forward, Ive fully bounced back from this having managed to never missed a payment or even paid late. Ever. Paid off a $ XXXX car loan early in under 2 years to be exact and had maintained an average balance of over {$1100.00} for at least a year, credit utiliization around maybe XXXX % then i take out a loan for XXXX lose my job and start my own business. At this time ive got a XXXX XXXX of XXXX, $ XXXX availavble credit limit spread out across XXXX cards, about $ XXXX in cash give or take. I begin purchasing inventory and setting up shop. I get these checks in the mail from my bank presented in a way as to say need a hand or a quick loan? Write yourself a personal check to get by. I got to a point. Where i needed to do that. So i did, wrote myself a check for $ XXXX and paid for things that needed to be paid for. Week later my account is nearky $ XXXX negative. I call them up like what the XXXX, why was the check that you sent me not honored when i attempted to use it as it had been presented and advertised. They tried to play XXXX acting like they had no idea whay i was talking about. Yet it was mailed from their adress with their logo all over it, website, reference numbers, everything, we go round and round and they finally acknowledge, oh those checks, thats not what those are intended for. Theyre not? Well thats exactly what the letter that came with them says theyre for? Why would they say that if thats not what theyre for? Why would you send them to me if you were not going to approve it, just to have me thinking if i ever did need to use it, that it were there, only to find out they were not. They made up some excuses that never really explained it and never did approve it but did finally manage to get them to tell me that the amount able to be requested could not exceed my current available credit limit of the card i had on file with them as thats where the funds would be coming from. Even though thats not a loan or what the checks said, i figured that was the best answer i was going to get. I then asked if i could get a credit limit increase. They said they would look into it and get back to me, they never did and it never happpened, i paid back what i spent but they wouldnt waive the overdraft even though technically it was their fault it happened. In the time since its beenas though they are not willing to work with me on the most simple things and as though they hiked up the cost on everything. I requested a checkbook they wanted {$35.00} i asked them to waive it, they asked why angrily, i have overdraft protection in place suppossedly but when i have over drawn, despite having cash in my savings and available credit, they decide to go ahead and let it overdraft charging me an additional fee of either $ XXXX per charge depending upon what i can only assume is who happens to be working or how they feel that day. Because when i asked they would not give me a reason. They also would not waive the fees or explain to me what my overdraft prltection was protecting me against. Only that my account was not setup to pull from additional available funds in the event of an overdraft. I asked them again what it was that my current overdraft protection was in place to do. They said i could go ahead and set it up to pull from my other accounts if needed. So i agreed. However anytime it has done so i still get over draft fees and they charge my credit card as what they label a reserve chk with an additional {$12.00} charge theu calll over draft fee, most recently having done so for a sum. Of {$66.00} or so, yet in no way shape or form having notified me of this. I then notice theyve been charging me a late fee on my credit card every month despite always payiing over the minumum. Though even that had only been around XXXX or so though at times i even paid twice a month, regardless they would charge me over {$100.00} in interest, slap on a late fee and tell me to pay more. I contact them to explain im paying all i can but dont unddrstand why im getting late fees but that im not making any progress and requesting that they lower my interest rates because i have always paid what i could when i could and need them to work with me. They said the only way to lower the rate is to pay more. I point out theres all these transactions on my account that I dont recognize. They allow me to dispute them, yet request no further documentation then reject it stating I provided no further documentation. I call them up to ask why I have these charges, as Im suddenly over drawn over {$400.00} and they have no explanation. They say my account has been compromised. They ask if I want to put a freeze on the account. I transfer all of my available funds from my other accounts in order to to get it as close back to zero as possible and managed to get it to about XXXX with disputes on at least {$400.00} worth of unrecognized charges of which they say they will provide provisional credit until investigation has concluded. I say ok go ahead and freeze the account, within a few minutes my account updates and says I am now negative $ XXXX more than that actually, not exaggerating, I have pictures. I ask them what happened, they said that its because of the hold I approved. I said that makes no sense. They said its to protect against any additional charges that may be made on the accounts and that I could come down to my local branch to open a new account as that one had become compromised. I said I need access to all of my statements and Transactions history before I would be willing to close my account and open a new one. They agreed but then logged me out of my account online, I went to log back in and it says invalid username and password combination. I call them back and they say they need my account number everything on my end only shows me the last 4 digits of my account numbers, they want my social. I tell them Im not giving them my social because I already typed it into the automated system and I just needed to know why I can no longer log into my account online anymore or why the system no longer recognizes me as a user when Ive been with them over 15 years. They refuse to put a supervisor on the phone and insisted that I need to come down to a local branch in order to figure this out. Is it wrong of me to feel as though they may attempt to have me arrested on false charges if I go down to talk in person with them about this considering the way they have been treating me the last several years and all the other instances Ive encountered where they have ignored their own policies, lied to me, over charged me, refused to work with or assist me in anyway and in fact if anything have only made things as difficult and damaging seemingly as they could possibly manage in any given occurence, incudent or circumstance as they could possibly manage, while completely ignoring me and telling me no? Are there any other options? Should i call the police or write the attorney general? I mean i cant access my account, they took all of my money, refused to explain anything, canceled my credit and debit card and i cant even log in to review and now theyre telling me that i have to come down to talk to them in person. I do not feel like that is in my best interest but i am going to run out of money very soon.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation