Consumer complaint received 2025-01-10 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account — Fee problem
Company: OPTUM BANK, INC.
State: WI

Complaint narrative:
My employer has an HSA through Optum Bank. My employer automatically deducts contributions from my paycheck and deposits them into Optum Bank. I also have an HSA that I manage through XXXX. I regularly transfer money ( XXXX every year or XXXX ) from HSAs managed by my employer into my XXXX HSA. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Optum Bank and asked them to initiate a transfer of all funds from Optum to XXXX. I also stated I wanted to keep my Optum Bank account open. I did not want to close it. The representative I spoke with said this could be done, and that there was no fee for this transfer. She further stated that she would email me the appropriate forms to submit to Optum to initiate the transfer. After ending this call, I waited a long time for them to email me the correct forms. This representative never emailed me the forms, though. So instead I called XXXX and asked to initiate the transfer from them instead. Again, I asked the representative to hold my hand as I worked on the form so I filled it out correctly. I also specifically stated that I wanted to keep my Optum account open. The XXXX representative confirmed that I had correctly filled out the form after I submitted it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email stating that my HSA with XXXX was closed even though the XXXX representative assured me that the account would not close. I also noticed that I received a {$20.00} transfer fee in my account even though the Optum representative assured me there was no fee for account transfers. I spoke with an Optum rep after receiving the email, and they stated that the email was actually sent to me in error and my account was actually still opened. They also stated that there is actually a {$20.00} transfer fee. I was frustrated after ending the call with this representative, so I immediately followed up and called them again on XX/XX/XXXX to speak with another rep. This rep stated that my account was indeed closed and the previous rep gave me incorrect information. She also stated that because the account was closed as part of the transfer process, I received a {$20.00} fee. If the account remained open, there would not have been a fee. I explained my situation to the rep, and that I had done everything in my power to not close the account as part of the transfer. She escalated the call to a manager. The manager stated that they would create an internal case and forward it to the appropriate department to investigate if the fee could be refunded. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a secure message in the Optum portal stating that the case the manager created was reviewed, and that they would not refund the {$20.00} fee. The message contained no details about the investigation or the fact that reps from both Optum and XXXX gave me incorrect information, and I asked them not to close my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Optum bank again and complained about the {$20.00} fee that happened due to no fault of my own. Again, the support rep was unhelpful and stated that she created another case and escalated it to a different department than the first case they created. Again, no details were provided, and they did not understand that all of their support reps have given me incorrect information up to this point. 

At this point, I have waited on hold for hours talking to various support reps which have all given me bad information and not understood what was happening. I don't know where else to go to get the fee refunded and complain about my account being closed in error despite me explicitly asking everyone involved to keep it open.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation