Consumer complaint received 2025-12-04 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MO

Complaint narrative:
I was brand new to Chase Bank and I opened a checking and savings account with them. I was banking elsewhere but their local branch closed so I wanted a physical bank and thats where I turned to Chase Bank. I used this bank account ( checking ) for about a month and a half with no issues at all. I received my first direct deposit from my employer with Chase on XX/XX/year> ( XXXX ). I was able to use my funds for the following 3-4 days. When I woke up Monday ( XXXX ) I had an alert from Chase that stated the following : 'Important : To protect against potential fraud, we restricted your account and may close it soon. 

Customer ( XXXX ) : At Chase, were always working to keep your money safe. Due to recent activity, or because we need more information from you, we have restricted your account ( s ) and may close it soon. This includes your account ( s ) ending in : XXXX checking XXXX checking XXXX savings We understand this is inconvenient, but protecting against fraud is a top priority. 

Please act quickly to better understand the restriction on your account. Please call us at XXXX to see if we can address the issue. You can also call the number on the back of your debit card or on your account statement. We look forward to speaking with you. If weve already spoken and resolved this, you dont need to do anything else. '' So I quickly called the number they provided and tried to see what was going on. I hadn't misused the account or anything like that and didn't get a fraud alert, so I was very confused. I talked to them and asked what the issue was and the lady took my information and checked to see what was going on. She came back on the line and said " Chase has decided to end banking with you, & you account is restricted & cant be used ''. I did not understand where this was coming from so naturally, I said " why ''. She put me on hold and looked for more answers and came back with absolutely nothing to help me. So, after that I asked for someone higher up that could help. Long story short and after waiting on hold for almost an hour, I still had absolutely no answers as to what was going on after even speaking to management. I asked if I would be able to go to my local branch in XXXX, MO and pull out my money. There were not going to allow me to, so I stepped inside of the branch and XXXX was tremendous and helped me. However, she tried to call customer support to find out what was going on and even after she ( A CHASE EMPLOYEE ) talked to them, they gave her the same exact response with no reasoning. At the time, I was only able to pull 34 dollars of my available balance in my checking account. I knew I was awaiting a refund from a store in the amount of {$190.00} ( or very close to this ) and did not understand why I could not pull this money out. After getting no resolution, I left more confused than ever. I let things go for a day, just to see if there would be a different response. On XXXX, I again called the customer service number provided to me and got absolutely nowhere. The wait times were so unacceptable, and the communication was terrible and VERY hard to understand. To this day, I don't have any valid reasoning as to why I could not bank at Chase Bank. 
WHY did the email state " Please act quickly to better understand the restriction on your account. '' Better understand the restriction? That is not what happened after any conversation I had that day. I left more confused than when it started. Its pretty sad when the employees at this branch mentioned " Sadly, we have had two people in here today for this very reason, with no response of reasoning ''. WHY is this happening to people who have done nothing wrong? WHY can we not get any answers as to what is going on? 
Also, " We understand this is inconvenient, but protecting against fraud is a top priority. " - Fraud? Thats even more confusing. I presented my Identification a few times in branch and even when opening my account. Why is this being counted as fraud? 

A lot of the money from my paycheck goes to my bills. What I don't understand was why did Chase Bank return all of the payments that I made to my bills and what not and cause all of my payments to " Bounce '' and in return I got charged fees ( Around {$130.00} ) because they thought I did not have the money and tried to make the payments, but that certainly was not the case. The money was there and from a verified source ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). WHY did Chase return something that was in that account and scheduled to be paid? WHY were debit card transactions allowed to be used but the ACH version that was made on XX/XX/year> not able to be processed. 

I now have to wait so called 10 BUSINESS days for them to close this account and issue a cashiers check to me with all of the money that is in my account. So I sit, around the holidays mind you, with no money because " Chase decided to end banking relations with me ''. Bills like my electric are not paid and it is currently is 11 degrees outside and I am being threatened of being turned off because of non-payment. And the same with my cell phone, again all because of CHASE BANK. 

So for Chase, I still have the question of 'WHY '.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation