SunTrust Bank cancelled all my accounts with 5 days notice

[littlemisssunshine]

I received a certified letter from my bank, SunTrust, informing me that after an account review they were cancelling all my accounts effective 3-6-15. However all debit cards would be cancelled within 10 days of the letter, which was dated 2-4-15. Also all deposits would be refused within 10 days as well, essentially crippling my account on 2-14, 5 days after I received notification. I have tried talking to their 1-800 # (useless and hung up on me), my branch manager who said it was out of their hands and they had no information, and the vice president who was listed on my letter who said the decision was final and she couldn't tell me why. When I pressed for answer she also hung up on me. I am livid, have no idea why, and have 5 days to get everything sorted out with a new bank. Oh, and I leave for vacation on Saturday. 

in addition to all my personal accounts, I share an account with my father (I manage 10 of his rental homes) that I use for paying maintenance issues and deposit all rent in there. We have had this account for almost 5 years. I also withdraw my fee in cash. His tenants have the account number and maybe 5 of them go into the bank to deposit the rent in cash or a check made out to me. It's a total of $8000 that is deposited, half of it goes to him, I take my management fee and then the rest stays there as maintenance money. That's the only thing I could think that SunTrust didn't like...maybe they thought I was laundering money, or doing something shady? They also cancelled my father's personal accounts and his credit card he has through them. 

What the heck?! Any one with banking knowledge know why they did this? Can they really cancel my account with 5 days notice? I filed a complaint with Suntrust but I don't expect that to go anywhere. I just want to know why. It is going to be a massive pain to move everything over with my personal accounts, and even more of a pain to let my tenants know they can't deposit money into the account any more. 

I used to like Suntrust, now they are on my bad list along with Wells Fargo and Bank of America. 

[lime]

How sucky. Sorry you are dealing with this.

www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/suntrust_bank.html

This site lists a few complaints that are similar and it seems like some commonality is a decrease in credit score.

Because I have been through ID theft (courtesy of a negligent Fortune 500 employer) I am paranoid as fuck about my credit report. So, go get a free credit report just to make sure that there isn't some underlying issue you aren't aware of.

GL and keep us posted.

[rubytue]

My brokerage did this to me once, except I had 30 days and they froze my account, It took 28 of those days and a lawyer to sort out. Was an identity theft situation, 5-years prior, that they found out about.

Check your credit report ASAP. If nothing looks amiss, escalate until you can find out why.

Good luck! Honestly, I'd focus on setting up new accounts asap, bc you don't have as much time as I did. What a crappy situation.

[craftyone]

Is the accounts in a personal name?
It maybe it just is viewed risky by Suntrust. For instance alot of cash deposits that are just under 10k (the limit where you have to report it to the IRS).

money.cnn.com/2014/05/07/pf/bank-account-closing/

[LoveTrains]

Sorry to hear about this.

One thing I was recently reading on a landlord site is that you should never give the tenants your account numbers so that they can deposit your rent. With those numbers its easy for electronic fraud/theft from that account.

It is possible that something happened with that account (others having access to the account by knowing the numbers) that caused the issue.

[imojoebunny]

We run similar amounts through suntrust, if not more. I find that to be a weird reason. I would go down to the bank and ask for answers. I would also run my credit. Is it possible that one of your tenants could be involved in drugs? In our state, the DEA agents have some crazy broad powers.

[littlemisssunshine]

Feb 10, 2015 20:22:27 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

We run similar amounts through suntrust, if not more. I find that to be a weird reason. I would go down to the bank and ask for answers. I would also run my credit. Is it possible that one of your tenants could be involved in drugs? In our state, the DEA agents have some crazy broad powers.

I ran my credit and there is nothing on it. I doubt my tenants are into something, but maybe. But how would Suntrust know? The tenant comes into the bank, puts my name and account number on the deposit slip and deposits money. Suntrust would never know who my tenant was. 

My local branch says it's a corporate decision and there's nothing they can do. They don't know why it was closed either. Its so frustrating not knowing! If I knew maybe I could prevent future banks from closing my accounts! 

[LoveTrains]

Yes but if tenants have routing and acct numbers plus your name they can steal your money from your accounts. I know it sounds far fetched as anyone with a check you wrote has those numbers, but why risk it? Especially on this day and age.

It's probably the cash deposits.