Banking woes

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Topic Author
viking112347
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Banking woes

Post by viking112347 »

I helped my 79 year old father setup an online acct at Bank A to take advantage of better interest rate than his existing account at Bank B (.01%). After Bank A was setup added Bank B as an external account and setup a transfer to take $ from Bank B to fund new acct at Bank A. 2 days later the $ shows as being sent from Bank B but he can't access Bank A because his account was locked/restricted (according to an email said was for suspicious activity). He/I call and they can only say the account is under investigation. A week later and today he gets an email stating his initial deposit has yet to be received for his new acct and if not received by 4/13 it will be closed. Call and they say the acct is under investigation but said the transfer that was initiated shows as failed and there is no $ in the acct. They said to call Bank B. Call them and they said the $ was sent but could provide absolutely no details. I assume any ACH transfer can be traced in detail. Not sure the proper steps to ensure he doesn't lose this $!. I am going with him on Monday to Bank B branch and hoping they can help. Any advice appreciated!
vaylie
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Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2022 7:51 pm

Re: Banking woes

Post by vaylie »

If the initial funding is a high amount and the transfer failed, that might have triggered fraud flags at Bank A. (That happened to me at Chase with a *successful* pull. Some banks just have stricter fraud detection.) One of the difficulties about being flagged for fraud is that CS is often *not allowed* to tell you things. So I would definitely pursue things with Bank B in-person to see if they can trace your ACH transfer.

If you can prove that the ACH was successful, then go back to Bank A with this information. Make sure to keep notes of all calls/times & the results of your calls.

If you still can't resolve the issues within a reasonable timeframe like 2 weeks, I would contact the CFPB.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Topic Author
viking112347
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Re: Banking woes

Post by viking112347 »

Thanks. Yes, the online banking reps for Bank A don't want to provide much information since it is restricted. Definitely hoping Bank B can help run the transfer to ground. If after meeting with them on Monday can't get anywhere then will definitely help him file a complaint with CFPB. I feel really bad because I am the one that recommended he transfer some of his savings to an online bank!
mega317
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Re: Banking woes

Post by mega317 »

Assuming this is a large amount--would a wire prevent this from happening?
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theac
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Re: Banking woes

Post by theac »

I've never had this happen to me but read about it in another thread a while back.

I'm wondering if in the future the way to avoid this would be to make a small ACH deposit first, like say $100, just to test the account and make sure it's open and accepting your ACH deposits.

Then once it clears, do a few more small ones.
If all goes well, then go for the larger ones?

Or who knows, maybe that would still be seen as a red flag?
"We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well...and live." Ben Hur...and The Taxman! hahaha (a George Harrison song)
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typical.investor
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Re: Banking woes

Post by typical.investor »

viking112347 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:56 pm I helped my 79 year old father setup an online acct at Bank A to take advantage of better interest rate than his existing account at Bank B (.01%). After Bank A was setup added Bank B as an external account and setup a transfer to take $ from Bank B to fund new acct at Bank A. 2 days later the $ shows as being sent from Bank B but he can't access Bank A because his account was locked/restricted (according to an email said was for suspicious activity). He/I call and they can only say the account is under investigation. A week later and today he gets an email stating his initial deposit has yet to be received for his new acct and if not received by 4/13 it will be closed. Call and they say the acct is under investigation but said the transfer that was initiated shows as failed and there is no $ in the acct. They said to call Bank B. Call them and they said the $ was sent but could provide absolutely no details. I assume any ACH transfer can be traced in detail. Not sure the proper steps to ensure he doesn't lose this $!. I am going with him on Monday to Bank B branch and hoping they can help. Any advice appreciated!
I strongly suspect the money will reappear.

In the meantime, perhaps you may want to look into what type of info you need to file a complaint.

https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/assistan ... laint.html
lakpr
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Re: Banking woes

Post by lakpr »

Is Bank A Citibank?
Topic Author
viking112347
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Re: Banking woes

Post by viking112347 »

No it is Ally and the other is BoA. On Reddit I found similar horror stories with missing transfers between banks and Ally. Based on what I gleaned we will dispute with BoA and with the 15 digit ACH trace ID (they should have) hoping they can pull the $ money back to BoA. Another person did this with Chase to Ally transfer and $ was back in 2 days. Also lots of stories of Ally locking/restricting accounts with no explanation.

Hoping to get this resolved soon and will update this post along the way!
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celia
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Re: Banking woes

Post by celia »

viking112347 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:56 pm I helped my 79 year old father setup an online acct at Bank A to take advantage of better interest rate than his existing account at Bank B (.01%). After Bank A was setup added Bank B as an external account and setup a transfer to take $ from Bank B to fund new acct at Bank A.
. . . I am going with him on Monday to Bank B branch and hoping they can help. Any advice appreciated!
You didn’t say which bank you used to initiate the transfer, but that’s the bank you should contact. The other bank may not know anything about the transfer.
mega317 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 6:12 pm Assuming this is a large amount--would a wire prevent this from happening?
I would have requested a paper check.

OP, You didn’t say how each account was titled. If either or both are trust accounts, you first need to do something to link them.

I recently opened a trust account at a new bank and had to give them a week for my paperwork to go through the bank’s legal department. The bank offered to open an account in my name only, accept the deposits, then transfer it to the new trust account later. But I wanted a clean audit trail, so just went back to the bank after the trust account was opened to deposit my checks. I haven’t yet linked this new account to anything. The link should be easy, but something could always go wrong. But I plan to start with a small transfer amount going in both directions.
Topic Author
viking112347
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Re: Banking woes

Post by viking112347 »

So the transfer was initiated at Ally (requesting they pull from BoA). Reading elsewhere it seems that since BoA is the one sending the $ (and they showed the debit) that they would be considered the originating financial depository (OFDI) and Ally would be the receiver. Regardless I am sure this will get worked out in the end but frustrating along the way. Will definitely take the lesson of going slowly with any account.
Topic Author
viking112347
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Re: Banking woes

Post by viking112347 »

Went with my dad to BoA today (spent about 2 hours there) and he was able to finally submit a formal ACH dispute for the missing $. The employee was super patient and helpful as he had to spent lots of times dialing internal departments, waiting, going through voice prompts, etc to eventually get to the right department. We got back to his house and he logged in and there was already a pending credit for the missing $. Assume a provisional credit for now but definitely looks promising. Also Ally sent him an email about an hour later that his account was unrestricted. He had called them earlier and they mentioned one of the reasons they restricted the account was because the account was brand new, my dad had no previous history with them, and there was a large transfer. Guess need to go slow with new online accounts but seems kinda crazy since the purpose of opening up a new account at a place like Ally is to transfer decent sums of $ to get a better rate.
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