The Lending Club review: Savings account

On October 27, 2023, I opened a savings account with The Lending Club. I started with a minimal deposit of $100.

I opened this account with the intent of replacing three other savings accounts at three different banks.

When I applied online, I included my wife as a co-owner.

Several days later, I logged on to see how convenient it was to navigate my account site. All was well until I noticed my wife was not listed as a co-owner. I wrongly assumed the fix would be easy. It was not. Even though it was their mistake, I had to fill out several documents, sign them, have my wife sign them, scan them, and e-mail them back.

The next afternoon, I checked, and nothing had been done. I called customer service, and after getting no answers, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was put on a lengthy hold, only to be told that the supervisor was busy and would call as soon as they were off the phone. No return call was ever made.

The next day I called customer service again and was again told that the supervisor was busy and would call as soon as they were off the phone. Again, no return call was ever made.

I then decided that if it was this much trouble to get a simple answer, Lending Club was not for me. I initiated a transfer of my deposit back to the originating bank (Wells Fargo).

I had already set up a weekly $200.00 transfer from Wells Fargo to Lending Club. I couldn’t stop the transfer, so I initiated another transfer, this time for the $200.00 back to Wells Fargo.

The Lending Club saw this as a fraud, stopped the transfer, and froze my online access. This was not $200,000.00 or even $20,000.00. It was a paltry $200.00. I was not at their brick-and-mortar location, demanding cash. The transfer was to go back to the same bank it came from. I have run into the same incompetence trying to get my $200.00 returned.

It has now been three weeks, and I cannot access my account online (it has been frozen) or get a supervisor to call me back.

I have now contacted the Federal Reserve Consumer Help Center, which referred me to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). We’ll see if they have any better luck getting The Lending Club to return the $200.00 they confiscated from my account.