I had an Everwise business account as of Monday. That same day I called my local branch to ask if…read moreI could use my account to wire money to an account in Thailand to purchase property. After double checking, I was told that I could.
By Wednesday I had deposited $5,000 cash into my account. A Zelle transfer from a partner in the deal was made on Tuesday but was then delayed by Everwise in hitting my account until Wednesday.
On Wednesday I went into my local branch, where I've gone for years and had discussed the transaction over with in person and over the phone in the prior two days, and attempted to wire the money from my account to the property owner's account in Thailand. I was told that there was a delay 'from the back-office in South Bend' and that I should come back later in the day.
In a nutshell, the back-office person had frozen my account, stopped my access to the Zelle deposit, and denied my access to even the cash amount that I had just deposited. Where they initially said that they were investigating for fraud, for my protection, by the end of the day they offered to allow me to close my account and leave with a cashier's check (which I did not understand, nor were told would not clear for 6 days), or to leave without being able to even withdraw THE CASH THAT I HAD HANDED THEM 3 HOURS EARLIER and be investigated for fraud. I left with the check.
It is also important to note here that the back-office person who put a hold on my account did absolutely nothing to investigate whatever suspicion she had of me in the three days since I had inquired about this transaction. She did nothing and was caught off guard by telephone, 30 minutes before she left for the day, on Wednesday when the branch manager whose office I was sitting in dialed her # and handed me the phone. It's a very real possibility that she simply made this rash decision to throw me out and to knowingly delay any other possibility of completing the transaction, which I had expressed since my initial call on Monday was time sensitive, so that she could get me off the phone and go home for the day.
I am not business savvy. I opened an LLC a few years ago and a business account when it was still a TCU. For the few, small issues that I ever had, the local branch was always helpful.
This experience, where I trusted Everwise Credit Union to help me with a simple financial transaction, that they assured me they could do, turned into an accusation of fraud against me. Because of the delays and their conduct towards me, I am not able to wire the funds in time for my partner in Thailand to make the purchase. We will not be able to purchase the property before my partner has to fly back.
If you are a small business and in need of guidance in some of your financial transactions, I would advise using a larger financial institution that hires/trains people in how to go about this.
I left Everwise feeling like I had just tried to return some jeans with the tags missing to the Gap and the store manager decided that she was going to use her full power and authority to stop me. That's not the way banking should be. I'm an honest person who is attempting to make an honest transaction. There should have been an easier way to figure that out.