national union fire insurance company NUF INS New York City, New York

After filing the report about US Bank and their rip-off scam with National Union Fire Insurance Company (NUF) and continuous phone calls to the bank and NUF, they settled the case.  It wasn't easy and took a lot of non-stop effort, but they finally capitulated.

To recap:  US Bank claimed they had "expressed authorization" to make withdrawals from my bank account for NUF Insurance.  This was the result of a phone call they made trying to get me to sign up for the insurance.  After seeing withdrawals on my bank statement for $29.99 for something notated as "NUF Ad Ins 888" I called the bank.  I was never asked for any account information and wondered how this company got the information to make these withdrawals.

I started calling the bank and they told me I had to call the insurance company.  I did that, too.  In the end, I called every day for over two weeks, made four trips to the bank in person, called the bank's fraud division, called the Better Business Bureau, wrote a couple of letters, filled out two forms and faxed them to the bank and NUF, and got receipts for everything I did in connection to this, took notes and found out who I was talking to every time I made a call.  I was rudely spoken to when I went into the bank for a face-to-face, transferred to 5 to 8 diffferent people/departments during almost every phone call, always talked to people who didn't either know the answers to the questions I was asking or wouldn't answer them, was told it was my fault on several occasions, and hung up on five times.

But I stuck with it.  I asked to hear this recording they had where I gave my "expressed authorization".  They finally produced it after two weeks and not at any time during that conversation where NUF was trying to get me to sign up for their insurance did they ask specifically, "Do you want to buy this insurance?" nor did I ever say, "Yes, I want you to sign me up for it."  In fact, every time they remotely hinted about my desires, I kept saying, "No, I'm not really interested." or "I don't think so."  After listening to that recording, US Bank and NUF decided they could not "conclusively say that I agreed to buying the insurance" so they refunded my money.

Not only did NUF return my money, but US Bank refunded the overdraft fees for non-sufficient funds that resulted from their withdrawals that I didn't know was happening.  I want to let everyone who has had problems with this type of scam run by their bank to not give up.  They just want the problem to go away--meaning you.  If returning your money will get you off their backs, they will finally give in but YOU have to be PERSISTENT!

I want to thank US Bank for seeing things my way and doing the right thing, but it was nice to be recognized by name every time I called or went into the bank.