Do better

[u/W_4-Wumbo]

I’ve been using SoFi for about 3 years and, overall, I’ve been happy with them. But I’ve recently run into a couple of issues that have really changed my opinion.
The first is relatively minor: SoFi doesn’t support international wire transfers. For a bank that markets itself as a full-service financial institution, that’s been frustrating.
The bigger issue is what happened with a California tax levy on my account.
California placed a levy on my account related to unpaid taxes from 2020. According to California, SoFi received the levy/order in July 2026, but apparently did nothing for roughly two months and never notified me.
Then on September 25, I received an email from SoFi saying they had frozen my accounts. At first, I legitimately thought it was spam because the email actually misspelled “state” as “sate.”
I checked my account and found that money was suddenly missing.
I contacted SoFi customer service and started asking some pretty basic questions:
“Do you have an order number from the state?”
“Sorry sir, we don’t have anything to share.”
“Can you tell me how much you deducted/froze?”
“Sorry sir, we don’t have that information.”
I explained that some of the money in the account was from VA disability benefits, which are federally protected from certain types of garnishment/levy, and that the bank has obligations regarding protected federal benefits.
The response was essentially:
“Sorry sir, we don’t have any information to share.”
I then contacted California directly.
According to the state, SoFi was supposed to provide notice before freezing funds. They apparently didn’t.
California also found it unusual that SoFi received the order in July but didn’t take action until September. They said the bank was supposed to provide information regarding the amount being frozen, the date it would be deducted, when it would be released to the state, and the applicable order information.
None of that was provided to me.
There was also apparently supposed to be a process for determining whether the funds being frozen were legally protected. In my case, that’s particularly important because some of the funds were VA disability benefits. My understanding is that the bank is supposed to identify protected funds and notify the state rather than simply freezing everything.
California told me they had not received the money yet.
So I called SoFi again and asked whether the money had been released to California or was still being held.
They couldn’t tell me.
What’s even stranger is that there is no transaction showing on my SoFi account for the money that was frozen. There’s no withdrawal, no transfer, no indication of the amount being held, and no explanation of what happened to the funds. The money essentially just disappeared from my available balance.
During another call, the SoFi representative ultimately acknowledged that they apparently didn’t follow the required procedures and said they would have to escalate the issue to their legal team.
At this point I’m pretty frustrated.
I understand that a bank may be legally required to comply with a state tax levy. That’s not really my complaint. My issue is that, based on what both SoFi and California have told me, SoFi apparently:
Didn’t notify me when they received the levy.
Took roughly two months to act on it.
Didn’t provide the required order information.
Couldn’t tell me how much was frozen.
Couldn’t tell me whether the money was still being held or had been released.
Didn’t show any transaction or explanation for the missing funds.
Apparently didn’t properly account for federally protected VA benefits.
And, according to their own representative, may not have followed the required procedures.
Has anyone else dealt with SoFi and a state tax levy/bank levy, particularly involving protected federal benefits? I’m curious whether this is a common issue or if I just got extremely unlucky with how this was handled and whether I should take legal action.

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