Somerset Trust Company

RE: ID#[redacted]To Whom It May Concern:Customer came in on February 29,2016 for a mortgage pre-qualification. A pre-qualification is a request for a preliminary determination on the amount of credit for which an applicant would likely qualify. It is not a commitment. I had told them the amount they...

would likely qualify for. I reviewed the paperwork and I realized we made a mistake. I called her and made her aware of it. I told her the new amount they would likely qualify for. He came to the Bedford office to talk about his options. After a long discussion he said he wanted to wait. So when he left, I told him to tell her and he said he would. She called around the last week in March to see what they would qualify for in an amount for the loan. I told her I talked to him about all this as he had some concerns, and he told me he would discuss them with her. We will send a letter to the customers confirming the amount that they likely qualify for, and for their records.SomersetTrust Company Jody W[redacted]

Review: This company has failed, on numerous occasions to provide security with the money I trusted them to protect. The first occasion was when my daughter ( with whom I had a checking account with) filed for change of address at he local post office. Somerset trust company proceeded to change the address on all of my and my husbands accounts, without our knowledge. The accounts were changed, not all at one time, but instead monthly. My account information was being sent to my daughters' boyfriends parents house. We called the facility no less than 10 times over 3 months and each month a different account was changed, even after they had been made aware of the problem. Finally, they figured out what was going on and fixed it. However, they told us we didn't need to change our account information, even though our statements were never retrieved and we have no idea who came into contact with them. The second issue: I had my debit card number stolen in April of 2012, I reported it to the bank and the state police. The bank issued me a new card and I destroyed my old card. 3 days ago, I received a call from fraud protection saying they had unusual activity on my account. When I called Somerset Trust, I was informed the card in question was the "hot" card that was to be removed from the account last year. That while the card had been only marked "hold", it was reactivated 5 days earlier. I was told that I had called in to reactivate the card! I most certainly did not. I was then told that the person that called in, knew " all" my personal information! I was not told exactly what I meant, as far as, whether the person knows my social security number or what. Now, I am terrified that someone will steal my identity. I feel this could very well be the banks fault. I have switched banks, but the damage may already be done. The head of the fraud at this bank offered me no assistance on what to do if someone has my information!! Luckily, the new bank told me what to expect and how I can monitor things myself.Desired Settlement: I have, to this point, not lost anything monetarily, however, I feel they blatantly disregarded my concerns and trust with my money AND my identity. Twice in a few short months, they let my private information go out for anyone to see.I just wanted to file a complaint, to show up if anyone is considering using this bank, they should think again, your money and information are not safe!!!

Business

Response:

I apologize for the tardiness of my response to the above referenced consumer complaint.

While we have not been prompt in responding to you, please rest assured that Somerset Trust Company has been very prompt in responding to the customer. I personally spoke with the customer on multiple occasions and the customer met with the bank’s auditor to discuss the findings. As of this writing, the customer closed accounts with this bank and has not notified us of any further problems.

Factually, we determined the following: The customer had a joint account with her daughter who was living at the customer’s house. The customer’s daughter moved. The bank’s mailing subcontractor picked up the change of address which the daughter filed with the postal service. The mailing service forwarded the change of address to the bank. When the joint account was changed to the daughter’s new address, the bank’s internal systems then picked up the address change and proceeded to change all of the accounts including those in the customer’s name and the customer and her husband’s name. Somerset Trust Company operates a separate credit card system and the address change was also picked up on that separate system. As a result, when the customer determined that the statements were not being sent to the correct address, the bank had to correct not once but twice (once for the deposit system and once for the credit card system) the error. On notification to the bank, the corrections were made.

The second issue involved not one but two check cards. The customer notified Somerset Trust that the check card had been compromised. The bank promptly hot carded that card. Approximately six months later the bank was again notified of a different check card on the save account having been lost. The bank immediately proceeded to hot card that card also. A couple of days later the customer called in and indicated that the card had been found. The clerk inadvertently reactivated both cards that had been hot carded as opposed to only the most recent card.

At no time did the customer lose any money.

Somerset Trust Company did not reveal or release any pertinent identity information to any third party.

The customer suggests that someone called the bank with her social security number to activate the card. That was in fact the customer who did this when reactivating their card. Both cards were activated as opposed to one, which was our mistake. The customer acknowledged in a phone call that they had in fact contacted the bank and properly reactivated one card.

The bank has advised the customer that we will participate in any credit monitoring effort which the customer wishes and that we will certainly indemnify the customer for any loss which may have occurred as a result of any error which the bank has made.

The clerk for the bank did in fact make an error in reactivating both cards. That error has since been corrected and we are unaware of any loss or exposure to the customer. We do stress that at no point is there any indication that the bank revealed any confidential information to any outside party.

If you wish to have any further information or clarification please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Review: My fiance and I are currently looking for a house and we contacted Jody W[redacted] at Somerset Trust Company in Fishertown about a mortgage. We contacted her around February 22, 2016 for help setting up a mortgage and seeing what we qualify for as far as loans go. She asked for our pay stubs and said she would have "her" run them. "Her" was a lady at another office who Jody never gave a name to. She never called us the rest of the week. SO on the following Monday, February 29, 2016, I called her again to get our information. We then met with her to discuss everything. She never gave us the amount we were eligible for but kept saying our payments would be around $750 a month. We continued to look for houses and found a few we wanted to view with our Realtor, who needed our pre-approval paper, which Jody never gave us. So I called Jody again on March 22, 2016 and asked for this information. She then told me that the first time "they" ran our credit, "they" messed it up. Not once did she tell us this in February or the beginning of March. So I asked her to please fix this and send me the email with our approval amount. I have not heard from her since then. It is now March 29, 2016.Desired Settlement: We would like our correct paper work, with the amount we are eligible to receive without our credit being dropped. Each time "they" check it, it is lowered. It is not our fault "they" messed it up.

Business

Response:

RE: ID#[redacted]To Whom It May Concern:Customer came in on February 29,2016 for a mortgage pre-qualification. A pre-qualification is a request for a preliminary determination on the amount of credit for which an applicant would likely qualify. It is not a commitment. I had told them the amount they would likely qualify for. I reviewed the paperwork and I realized we made a mistake. I called her and made her aware of it. I told her the new amount they would likely qualify for. He came to the Bedford office to talk about his options. After a long discussion he said he wanted to wait. So when he left, I told him to tell her and he said he would. She called around the last week in March to see what they would qualify for in an amount for the loan. I told her I talked to him about all this as he had some concerns, and he told me he would discuss them with her. We will send a letter to the customers confirming the amount that they likely qualify for, and for their records.SomersetTrust Company Jody W[redacted]