Yikes!

I'm an expat American living in Paris, France. I had a number of CDs with NetBank, and since they've been bought by ING, I've been informed that the latter will not accept a 'foreign' account (ie, no permanent U.S. address). Fine. I transfered out a matured CD back into my principal bank in SoCal with no problem. A few weeks later, after receiving the message from ING asking me to terminate my CD accounts, I requested that the two remaining CDs (about $44,000) be wired into the very same account in the same SoCal bank.

"No problem, Sir!" came the cheery reply from the guy at the other end of the line: "Your money will be on its way as soon as we can wire it out!"

And that's when the trouble started. The listings of my CDs totally vanished from my active accounts page on the old NetBank website - with the mention "Accounts Closed."

In the meantime, I received a message informing me that I would need additional identification to prove my identity for a wire transfer of the now-invisible CDs. I faxed them what they asked for. No response or communication since.

After a cumulative four hours or so and many different calls from Paris to the CRS people handing the NetBank/ING transition (you speak to a different CSR person each time, and you have to take the story from the top each time) I was finally told that ING doesn't do domestic bank wires. Huh? Yes, the best they could do was to mail the funds as checks to me in Paris. No discussion as to whether the identity verification worked out, since that was not their department- and there was no way they could communicate with the people handlng my case - if anyone indeed was.

Somehow, this came as no surprise, since from the very start, each CRS person I've spoken to has given me a slightly different version of what is and isn't possible, as well as their personal take on the situation...

When I asked to speak to a ING CSR with an actual name that I could work this process through with, I was told that the people handling the closing of the NetBank accounts were somehow hermetically sealed off from ING CSRs. Communication between the two entities was long, if not actually impossible. Right!

When I asked what had become of my CDs, I was assured that "ING had them." That was a great relief, particularly since I can't speak to anyone from ING.

At present, I have no idea if ING has accepted my identity as valid; whether they plan to wire the funds to the SoCal Bank or send them by mail to France, or if and when - if ever - any of this will be done.

It's been nearly a month since I tried to initiate the wire transfer - with the intention of re-investing the funds in new CDs at my home bank - and all that's happened is that the SoCal bank's interest rates have gone south.

I've been extremely patient and polite (after all, I'm over here in France and these guys are calling the shots from an office somewhere in the U.S.) but I'm getting the feeling that it's time to try to speak to a single individual at ING who can sort the situation out - instead of having to call a different anonymous CSR person each time - who depending on the day, say that they do (or don't) actually work for ING.

You can't access any of the ING CSR contact info if you don't have an account with them, and despite the fact that they're holding $44,000 of my money, I don't have an account...since ING doesn't allow foreign accounts! Simple as Catch 22.

So...are there any ING account holders here who could give me a number - or even better, a name and a number of someone competent enough to look at the givens of this situation and resolve it intelligently?

I'd like to reiterate that the first CD was wired with no problem. The two others were stopped on the pretext of the need for identity validation, even though the same person (me) was requesting that they be wired to the same account (mine) at the same SoCal bank. If someone had checked further, they would have seen that the funds had originally come from this very account when I opened the NetBank CDs. I feel that it would be a unusual form of fraud if someone was trying to return funds to the bank from which they had originated, but perhaps I haven't lived long enough to fully understand this.

Live and learn, I guess, but in the meantime, all I've learned is how much money I've lost while waiting for someone to free up my funds.

Any suggestions - or better yet, the magic name and number of someone at ING who could resolve the endless spiral of complications that have arisen - and which continue to arise -each time I attempt to resolve them myself?

Many thanks

Have you considered contacting the FDIC to ask them why ING Direct will not give you access to your Netbank money that was insured, as indicated that they would in the press release?

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/NetBank.html

Another avenue would be a formal complaint with the Office of Thrift Supervision (you'll have to google for that one).

Thanks for the suggestions and leads - I tried to Google 'ombudsman' for ING Direct in the U.S. and never found it: Canada, ok; UK, ok; Australia, ok; U.S.: ziltch.

As I mentioned above, you can't even access the fully-featured ING website if you don't have an account number - or an established customer identity to log in with, so there's probably lots of useful conflict resolution information that I'm not seeing. The old NetBank site just contains a lot perfunctory information about the ING buyout, plus the number that I've been calling whenever I try to clear things up. My best guess is that it's some sort of temporary call-center manned by temps - at one point I even asked one of the people I was talking to if they were located in Bangalore - who don't really seem to be connected to either ING or the old NetBank. Their decision-making powers are clearly limited: they apparently mop up the easy part of the mess, while ultimate decisions are somehow forwarded to real ING employees in a totally different part of the U.S. Those are the people I keep asking to speak to, and who I never can - for reasons I still don't get.

I can assure you that I'm not trying to create problems either for myself or for the people handing this: it's just that I feel I've fallen down some procedural hole due to being a 'foreign' client, and that something is preventing someone from pressing the right button to get me out of it: inexperience and/or lack of empowerment of the (possibly temporary and/or sub-contracted) staff working on this project; inaccessibility of higher-up ING managers; etc., etc.

Incidentally, the total amount of my CDs with NetBank did not exceed $100,000, so it's not a question of insured/uninsured money being returned.

Once again, thank you for your input!

that's crazy. they do wires.

you're not the only one that has had trouble, rest assured. ING has made a real mess out of this transition.

NetBank screwed up on the investing side. But on the customer service side they were really quite good. ING completely trashed that.

Their nonsense lost them my mid five-figure + deposits and those of a lot of other people.

btw access usa is a good place to get a us address while you are overseas.

ryyannon,

Don't know if I can help you with the lack of a permanent address issue, but I can sympathize with you about the whole Netbank to ING Direct transfer. I had some Netbank accounts and have gotten conflicting information from ING Direct. I understand their desire to move accounts over as quick as possible, but their timeline is extremely accelerated. They gave us less than a month to change all our direct deposits and standing ACH authorizations. While my sallie-mae change went through in one day, I'm still waiting for confirmation from my employer. I've told my HR rep to switch me to paper checks immediately if they can't get it done in time, but you know how people are when you tell them what to do. A few other ones I had to update came with notices to allow up to 60 days for the change to take effect. I know that standard boilerplate, but some small organizations need that time to keep up with their workload (my municipality has ONE person that handles the ACH setup/changes for the water bill).

Oh well, good luck. I still say send the formal complaint, because ING Direct accepted that responsibility when they accepted the accounts. The FDIC is responsible for making sure you get your insured deposits and technically, you have not gotten them yet.

$44,000 is a lot of money to not be earning interest on.

I would think that my first phone call would be to the FDIC, if not for the sole purpose of asking who is responsible for handling such problems.

I can call at local rates, for the same price as if I were making a Paris to Paris call.

If no one comes through with an appropriate ING number, I guess I'll have to start calling the FDIC.

(Profound sigh).

UPDATE:

I gave up waiting for news and called the usually-useless ING/NetBank Terminators once again. After another thirty-five minutes, they determined that the funds had been mailed to me in Paris. Nevermind that again and again, I explicitly asked them to be wired to the bank in California - while giving all the routing infomation each time.

Go figure. Poo happens.

End of story, I hope.

My sincere thanks to those who contributed info and input!

I'm just glad you posted updates OP, as many people come here, ask questions, then move one, which really doesn't help anyone else out.

thanks