Consumer complaint received 2024-12-31 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account — Problem accessing account
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
My complaint is that JPMorgan Chase unreasonably denied me access to my online accounts, and did not unlock the accounts when provided with valid identification. 

On the morning of XX/XX/year> I logged in to my online savings account with JPMorgan chase using 2 factor identification. My purpose was to transfer funds that had recently been deposited there from my XXXX account from maturing XXXX. I chose Chase to receive the funds because it does not have the daily and monthly limits on ACH transfers that many smaller banks have. I made two transfers within seconds of each other. The first was for {$50000.00} to my account with XXXX XXXX and a second to XXXX XXXX. Both external accounts that I own and that Chase had verified by their own methods and to which I had previously transfered funds. I checked the status. Both were pending. A few minutes later XXXX was approved and XXXX still pending. I logged out to do other things and logged back in to check on the transfer status. I got a message that my account was locked for security reasons and gave a number to call to unlock it. I verified the certificate that this was Chase. 

I called the number and got in the queue to speak to a representative. After a couple of minutes I got one who told me that she would have to transfer me to security. Then the call dropped. I called again. After some minutes I got a representative who actually did connect me to security. She asked my name, account number and birthdate and said I would have to answer a question from public records to verify my identity. I have done this in the past, we all have. She asked in what state was my social security number issued? I answered correctly. She said I failed. I know what state I lived in. Unlike babies today who have their SSN assigned at birth, I filled out the forms myself. I have passed this same question in the past. I told her her data was wrong. She said there was no second attempt. I could call in later and try again and hung up. I called again. After some more minutes I got a representative who connected me to security who said he could not verify my identity. My fourth attempt when I spoke to the person is security she said that I would she couldn't do anything, I would have to go to a branch and wanted to hang up. I told her no, I wanted to talk to a supervisor. After a hold she transferred me to someone who claimed to be a supervisor. She asked for my passport number, which I gave her, and said she would have to verify my identity by calling the phone number in my profile. She put me on hold. I put her on hold and answered her call and told her that I was the person she was speaking to. She said that she would return to the previous line. After a few minutes on hold she told me that the system would not let her verify me. 

This took 1 hour. After a fast lunch I drove to the nearest Chase branch where I was told nobody could see me for 2 hours. I could make an appointment. I drove to another branch. Someone was available. I showed him my US passport and birth certificate. He also wanted to see my drivers license. He typed on his computer for quite a while and said he was sending security an email. He said he could call, but they would just ask him the same questions they asked me. I told him to call. He was put on hold. Eventually he got through and after a while told me my account was unlocked and the transfer was denied. I could try again. That took half an hour. I started at XXXX XXXX  and returned home at XXXX XXXX. 

To summarize : A transaction on a two factor secured login locked my account while a similar transaction from the same session on the same device a few seconds later was approved. Telephone support that I was directed to had invalid data and was not authorized to do their jobs. Staff at a physical bank was not authorized on their own to unlock my account. 

While my account is now unlocked, there is no reason to believe that Chase will not arbitrarily and without notice lock it again. They are also still using the same bad data for verification with no appeal. The previously approved transfer to XXXX has now disappeared from the transaction history without notification. This has to be fixed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation