Yes sir! but you might want to make sure and wait for another person here to confirm my answer as I am not very confident. Better yet, why don't you give a call to the Discover Card guys because they can give you help better...

I am impresed, I might give more of my business to USAA..

OP, you have to prove your inncence in the court of law, not by bickering with bank clerk or looking for sympathy on public forum (even if owned privately)..

Cut the crap. I don't think he's looking for sympathy, just answers as would you or I if in the same situation. Personally, I think it took some guts for the OP to post what happened. And he was owed an explanation from USAA as to why his accts were closed...

If ANYWHERE on their application they had stated "A criminal background check may disqualify you from acceptance" I would have stopped right there and never applied..

But they didnt and that is what I was upset about...

This surprises me too. but embezzlement is a financial crime so I can understand USAA about this decision...

REPLACE ALL THE PRODUCTS AND TOTALLY DUMP THEM.

(not that I encourage crime).

This post has been edited by.

GEORGE.

: 18 January 2010 - 09:15 PM..

+3.

I know that USAA, for their checking accounts, uses EWS-Early Warning Systems, which gathers Telecheck information, not Chexsystems...

Is there an.

OPT-OUT.

Or.

FREEZE.

For that company???..

No, it's like Chex systems - it tracks checking account histories. You can get the info and dispute it, but you can't freeze it or opt out. There is a lot of info about these companies in our chex systems help forum. Regulars in there know which banks use chex, EWS, etc..

This problem was the result of a conviction, which is a public record, and cannot be avoided, not the fault of a reporting agency. It didn't involve EWS...

Just wondering....

You can't even get.

POOPY SQUIRTS.

With-out some agency some place knowing all your dirty business..

Luckily for you, you have accounts with other good institutions..

I'm not sure I would admit on this forum what you did, that took guts IMO..

I would get a copy of your LN report and see what they are looking at...

I admitted it and talk about it because it's something I live with. I don't try and hope it goes away. But I must admit it made me a much better person today. I don't take things for granted and because of it I have to work harder and it makes me better and better at what I do now because of that..

Today I have a great reputation in my industry and I am well known for my work and highly sought after. I make well over five times a year then I made when it happened. I don't see it as holding me back as much as it pushes me forward...

There is an enormous difference between making a mistake, learning from it and moving forward, and just continuing to make the same mistake..

Congrats on being in the former group!..

+1.

I don't have any advice on what your next move should be, but I just wanted to wish you good luck going forward...

I have nothing to contribute to your USAA deal, but kudos to you for making the best out of a shitty situation. It's an easy trap to fall into, folks would be very surprised to know the amount of people that actually do what you did. Id say dump USAA all together. There are other fish in the sea..

Yep. In most cases the intellectual property (software) belongs to the contractor unless the contract specifies otherwise. Decades ago this wasn't the case but laws change. Most all companies with significant software IP are cognizant of this and have altered their contracts accordingly. However, if the programmer is an employee and not an independent contractor, then it belongs to the company by default and the programmer has no rights to it nor rights to "modify" it for others. The OP stated it was modified to be more "generic" and then he sold it to ten other companies.

White collar crime is not usually prosecuted unless it was considered important. That it was bought by ten other companies is an indication it was..

I had no idea this would be classified as a "financial crime" as opposed to just a theft of non financial assets...

That's a great attitude. Sounds like you really turned it around. We all do stupid things at one time or another and we just have to learn and go forward. Marinating in the past is generally a mistake (unless one is a steak)..

Congrats on your progress!..

Nice attitude to have. Much better than my ex-wifes new husband who is still blaming his inability to get a job on his felony conviction...despite the fact that he has no skills, education, ambition, drive, etc..

Everyone makes mistakes...unfortunately not everyone learns from them and then puts that knowledge to good use...

+1.

We all make mistakes. That is why pencils have erasers..

Good luck OP..

It was a very messed up situation really. I was an employee, not a contractor at the time. It was my first programming job our of school. The application in question wasn't even what I was brought in to do. They were using some very crappy software to track support issues etc so after about a year I recommended to them to let me just write one for them. I had actually been writing on behind the scenes off and on.

After a few months I thought it would be a nice way to make some side money. So I changed the code a fair amount and then put up a website and sold it to a few companies..

Honestly I didnt even think about it, one day I told a fellow employee that I was making money on the side and showed him the website. He really liked it and we talked about him even helping me sell some. Well I guess word got out from that. A little while after that I had some detectives show up at work wanting to talk to me. They asked me if I knew anything about yet and I told them yes it was mine. They said that I had to write confession right there or they were going to arrest me and book me.

I was then fired and I went home..

I didnt know what to do, didnt have any money really so I went home and within a few weeks found another job programming. About 8-9 months passed and nothing happened and I thought it was in the past. Well I got a call from the detective at work telling me I needed to turn myself in so they can charge me. Finally with some cash I went and got a lawyer..

I had to pay 7k up front for him to even take my case. He did a few things and got the detective to wait a few weeks so he could figure out whats going on. He called the company and researched it all. He said the company came back and told me they would drop the charges for $75k in what they said was loss of revenue. I talked to my family and I came up with about 25K. Well he went back to them and they said no..

At this point I was like screw it and went with my lawyer I turned myself in. I didn't actually go to jail or anything just the magistrates office and he released me on my own with no bail and just a court date. My lawyer told me I had only one real option and that was to make a deal. Because I wrote the confession he told me there was almost no chance I would win and that a trial case would cost me 50-125k in lawyer fees and if I lost I would go to jail for at least 2 to 5 years. He talked to the DA and got me a deal of a felony h and probation and I was ordered to pay 10k + probation fees which was about an extra 2k total..

To this day I still don't know why it was considered embezzlement and not just theft. To make matters worse for some reason they convicted me of 10 charges, one for each I sold and split the case into 5 each so when you look at my background you see two convictions, they are the same thing and the same date but it list twice. I honestly cannot tell you why they went so hard after me. One of the main guys was a former cop and the detective who did all of this was his friend. Maybe because it was I was a cocky sob at the time who thought he knew everything and needed to be brought down a level. I did hear from a former employee who I worked with there at the time who told me they thought I had sold hundreds of copies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and I was hiding the money somewhere.



This turned out a little longer then I thought it would.. sorry about that...

IMO, the company used criminal procedures to resolve a civil dispute. Some companies do that. It's a shame they couldn't have handled it in some manner that wouldn't give you a permanent felony record. You are doing the best thing possible - facing it head on, and just deal with it when it comes up. I always liked the description "boulders in the landscape of our lives" describing things in the past that will never go away. They are just there, and the only constructive thing to do is accept the fact, and deal with it..

I also like the expression "falling up" - sounds like that's what you did...

I totally feel your pain and frustration. I reopened a USAA account I had bank when I was listed as a teen account under my brother 6 years ago. I have not really spoken with my brother, even though we leave close by. They keep on asking me his Birthday which I don't know and never gave me the option to setup a phone pin or a security question yesterday..

They are completely worthless is how I feel. Because I didn't know it, they now want me to send in all of this crap to "verify my identity". Which is a load of crap. I am being punished for something they didn't even ask me what I wanted to set, they just automatically assumed I declined to want to specify anything..

They wont close my account without those documents, they wont give me a online access ID without those documents and they wont give me my damn money back without them either. They completely lack any kind of proper training and communication skills within the credit union..

If I was to give them a score of how well customer service is on a scale of 1 to 10, I think I would go with zero as they do not qualify to even receive 1...

Do you want to get it resolved or not? They are not asking for unreasonable information. Call your brother and get his DOB. If you don't speak to him, then send in the docs and be done with it. Ask to speak with a supervisor and work with them on what you need to do...

Exactly..

Either call him or other family that might know..

Heck, you can probably google his name and find out..

It just seems completely unreasonable in terms of they were given the information the last time. Now they want it again. The only thing that has changed from what was giving to them and what I have now is I look older on my passport as I had to get a new one when I lost it abroad..

The problem of them having it now already and wanting it again seems unreasonble to me. If NAvy FCU called up and asked for it again when it hasn't changed, I would tell them to probaly take a hike. Now if they want a Few pay stubs because income changes, employer changes etc. That is entirely different, but my stuff like SSN or etc isn't gonna change, it's the number I had issued to me from birth..

Plus the know it's me, the do "Account Reviews" on my Credit report all the time. Not like they know I got no credit or something..

I jsut have a hard time seeing why I need to reproduce information thats on file already..

This post has been edited by.

EvilMan.

: 20 January 2010 - 03:22 PM..

Huh? How do they know by looking at.

Your.

Credit report that the person they are conversing with by phone or online about modifying.

Your.

Accounts is really.

You.

? For all they know, they could be talking to me. Not cooperating with them will only make things worse, IMO...

My dad is my "sponsor" (or "in") to USAA..

They have asked me HIS birthdate before, and once I got it wrong (26th? 28th? doesn't matter in our family) and they would not release information to me over the phone..

I don't know why you're so adverse to giving a TINY piece of information that can solve your problem..

Truly baffling..

Don't say USAA rates "zero" in customer service, when you're making their job as difficult as possible. Have you thought about honey rather than vinegar?..

I had the same thing happen to me this past week. I opened an account last Monday. Opened a checking and savings account on Tuesday, attempted to login Friday and was told to call. I called on Monday and was told the account was closed and not given any explanation. I do not have anything in chex and bankruptcy was discharged in 2003...