vsftpd 530 permission denied CentOS6.7

I'm running CentOS 6.7 and I'm trying to successfully establish an FTP connection using vsftpd. Please point me in the right direction!

Status:         Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response:   220 (vsFTPd 2.2.2)
Command:    AUTH TLS
Response:   234 Proceed with negotiation.
Status:         Initializing TLS...
Status:         Verifying certificate...
Status:         TLS connection established.
Command:    USER testuser
Response:   530 Permission denied.
Error:          Could not connect to server

I tried checking /var/logs/messages and /var/logs/xferlog but the log is empty. I also checked the home directory permissions of the local user and made sure that the user was listed in the userlist and not in the denylist

config:

local_enable=YES
pasv_address=108.41.178.133
pasv_min_port=40000
pasv_max_port=40010
pasv_promiscuous=YES
pasv_enable=YES 
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
xferlog_file=/var/log/xferlog
xferlog_std_format=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
chroot_list_enable=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list

listen=YES

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem
ssl_tlsv1=YES
ssl_sslv2=YES
ssl_sslv3=YES
require_ssl_reuse=NO
ssl_ciphers=HIGH
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem

ssl_enable=YES
allow_anon_ssl=NO
force_local_data_ssl=NO
force_local_logins_ssl=YES

dirlist_enable=YES
download_enable=YES

Made sure that the user was listed in the userlist and not in the denylist

I think you are referring to user_list which by default is a list of users who are denied access without even password prompt

If that is so, you must add userlist_deny=NO to vsftpd.conf

i.e. echo "userlist_deny=NO" >> /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf