cem21

Hoping I can pick some brains here regarding a nightmare customer service issue I'm having with US Bank right now. I've had the Club Carlson credit card for a year or so-I had basically relegated it to my sock drawer with what I thought was when I got a letter in the mail in June expressing concern that my account was past due. Sure enough, when I logged onto my account, there were about $50 of fraudulent charges listed there that had been made in May. I immediately called customer service to report the fraud, thus beginning a nightmare like I have never experienced.

Unlike American Express, Chase, or any other card company I have ever dealt with, US Bank doesn't reverse the charges the moment you report them. They only do it after you send them a signed affadavit. Unfortunately, in my case, It took several months and multiple hour-long phone calls (where I was chastised for not paying my overdue balance) to receive said affadavit. I was finally received it, sent it back immediately, and the charges were reversed. Unfortunately, in the interim, the account was reported as delinquent to all the credit agencies, even though I was reassured multiple times that this would never happen since the account had a pending fraud investigation on it.

When I called back to express my displeasure and get this resolved, I was told that I needed to write a letter to the collections division to get this reversed, which I find completely infuriating. Furthermore, I find US Bank's customer service to be astonishingly bad. Each of the 20+ phone calls I've had to make for this ridiculous situation has subjected me to criticism, blame, and a complete lack of caring or sense of responsibility for the situation. No one was willing to look through the records to figure out the situation so I would have to re-explain it from scratch each time. Lots of "I'm just the x-department, so there's nothing I can do." Not a single apology. And mind you, I have done nothing wrong--this was a crime committed against me!

So, does anyone have any ideas how to repair my previously flawless credit score without being subjected to another two months of this? Any useful phone numbers or emails I should try? Or am I just out of luck and need to slog my way through this using the normal, infuriating channels?

Can't wait to get this resolved--I've never been so eager to cancel a credit card in my life . . .

guv1976

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"So, does anyone have any ideas how to repair my previously flawless credit score without being subjected to another two months of this?"

I don't, but how is it that you ignored the monthly statement on which the fraudulent charge first appeared? And there should be instructions on the back of your statement re: how to dispute a charge. Even if it took months for U.S. Bank to send you their affidavit form, that did not excuse your failure to dispute the fraudulent charge in writing in a timely manner. You have certain legal protections when it comes to fraudulent credit-card charges, but you must submit a dispute in writing within a certain period of time to preserve them.

Sorry to learn of your misfortune.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Useful information about credit-card disputes here:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles...t-card-charges

cem21

I think you misunderstand me--I initiated the process in writing well within the required timeframe. I was told by customer service at least 5 times that this would not be reported as a delinquent charge. I returned the affadavit the day I received it and the charges were reversed. The charges were still reported.

MSPeconomist

I think you should look at the regulations very carefully. I'm not sure that the bank is permitted to require the affidavit except for ultimate resolution of the case. I don't think your customer protections fail to take effect before an affidavit is filed, but you need to check this.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I think you misunderstand me--I initiated the process in writing well within the required timeframe."

I didn't misunderstand you; you just never mentioned in your OP that you ever contacted the bank in writing prior to submitting the affidavit.

I'd suggest looking into filing a complaint with the appropriate regulating agency; not sure if that's the FTC or the Comptroller of the Currency, but either of those agencies can probably tell you. And you might also consider speaking with a lawyer who is experienced in consumer-credit issues to see if the bank's conduct is actionable -- but I don't know how extensive your damages would be.

Here's a link to the Comptroller of the Currency's dispute resolution page; it includes a toll-free number you can call for assistance:

http://www.occ.gov/topics/dispute-re...omplaints.html

Good luck!

ctbarron

OP - first, stop calling USB and begin writing. USB's customer service is incompetent, so expect nothing from them.

I agree with the suggestion to file a regulatory complaint. It may also be the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). A call to any of the noted agencies will yield the proper channel. You should also dispute the info provided to the credit agencies. Again, do this in writing, not over the phone. The dispute directions are on the agencies respective websites.

Last, if the amounts in question are small next time, consider just paying the bill as a matter of convenience. No, you shouldn't have to, but for small amounts this ensures there is no damage.

flyerwanabe1

get the free annual credit report from each bureau and dispute the reporting using the online function. In addition, if you are not keen on churning in the meantime, contact each bureau and place a fraud alert and maybe possibly a freeze on your report. Take a bit of work but that will remove that account from the reports. I would just cancel the account after you have done the above.

garykung

No offense, OP. Even you are the victim, you still have to take most of the responsibility about what you have experienced.

1. At the minimum, USB should have issued statements. So even I agree that USB's customer service is quite incompetent, your ignorance took a major part in the big mess (unless you never receive anything).

2. Not only USB, but all issuers assume all approved charges are accurate that you must repay, unless you dispute.

Work with USB. Remember - it might be unfortunate that you have a fraudulent charge. However, not until you have reported, USB has done nothing wrong to report you past due.

Don't file a CFPB complaint or dispute credit reports unless you exhaust all options with USB. This will only make things worse.

tev9999

The other lesson learned is to monitor all of your accounts monthly. If you have them on e-bills, remove that so that you will get a paper statement in the mail if activity occurs. They won't send a bill if there is no activity so it should not generate too much extra mail. Also group your cards under single logins so you can scan the dormant ones when you check on the active ones.

tmiw

I'm not sure how that makes much of a difference since all of the issuers I've dealt with send emails when e-statements get generated. If you're worried about those notifications ending up in the Spam folder you can create filters to automatically mark them as not spam or otherwise white-list your issuers. Something that might be useful though is setting up auto-pay for each of your cards for the minimum payment, just in case something goes wrong and you never get a statement.

ymarker

The CRA will remove the entry only if USB instructs them too. They won't do a thing otherwise. Your best bet is convince them of such. Agree with no more phone calls. Email / letters (keep copies) are your best bet. Then cast a wide net with CFPB, FTC, your state AG.

Try to find a contact number for executive office customer care and go through them rather than the usual CSR channels.

tev9999

Primarily personal preference, but I am much more likely to ignore an e-mail than I am a letter from any bank. With the volume of e-mail I get I typically skim over the subject lines in gmail and only open things I need to. Letters I open in hopes of a juicy pre-approval, 0% no-fee BT or other useful communication.

Alexi102000

Probably not that helpful, but I had the same issue with one of my US Bank Club Carlson cards. Fortunately, I noticed the fraudulent charges while they were still pending and called US Bank. They were able to deny the pending charges and issue me a new card. They indicated that a database was hacked and credit card information stolen.

Going forward, I highly recommend getting all your accounts into something like mint.com and check it daily. It has saved me lots of times. Yes, some people argue against trusting mint.com, but honestly, they wouldn't be in business if their security practices wasn't one of the best in the industry.

cem21

Just wanted to post an update--sorry for the extended absence, my travel schedule has been crazy of late. So I signed and mailed in 2 affadavits and managed to get a supervisor to escalate a request to the collections division to correct my credit report. The charges were reversed and, according to phone calls to the 3 major credit agencies seemed to confirm that my credit report was back to normal. Big sigh of relief, until . . .

Last week they re-billed the original charges and added two NEW fraudulent charges from the same company! Even a supervisor at the fraud department could not tell me why this had happened and could only offer to transfer me to the voicemail of the "investigator" in charge of the case, who isn't in the office today. So I'm left with no way to to get this fixed today and back to square 1. And that is the biggest issue I have with this company, there is NO ONE in the entire customer service phone tree who is empowered to get to the bottom of anything and fix problems. You can only send requests to departments whose phone numbers aren't publicly available and hope for the best.

I'm really at a loss for how to proceed now--I feel like I've exhausted every avenue available to me with this bank. Honestly, have no idea what to do . ..