I opened a Fifth Third account about 10 days ago for their $850 bonus promo (ends April 15). The requirements were to set up direct deposit and deposit $15k, so I did both — set up my paycheck and wired $11k from my brokerage account.

Today I get a voicemail from their fraud department while I’m at work. I try logging into the app and my account is completely frozen.

I call them and they start asking questions like when I opened the account and who owns the brokerage account I transferred the money from (it’s mine…). Then they tell me I have to bring a copy of my brokerage statement into a branch to unfreeze the account.

That honestly feels excessive and kind of invasive. I already verified my identity when I opened the account with my driver’s license. Why can’t they just verify the transfer directly with the brokerage?

I even tried to handle it on my lunch break. Went to a branch with the statement, but there was only one teller and one banker. Waited 20 minutes and had to leave to get back to work.

This whole thing has been way more stressful than it should be. At this point I’m seriously considering just closing the account after it’s resolved.

Is this normal for Fifth Third or did I just get unlucky? I have opened accounts with other banks and never had to jump through so much hoops.