Consumer complaint received 2022-12-24
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
My long term used XXXX XXXX XXXX card issued by BofA recently had some unauthorized activity charges, BofA notified me on XX/XX/XXXX to verify, the account was immediately closed and a new card was sent on an expedited basis. On XX/XX/XXXX, the card arrived at my CA residence and was successfully activated by me over the telephone. On XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to buy my college age son a new XXXX at our local XXXX XXXX. The transaction was declined 3 times and BofA never contacted my mobile by text or phone call even though my account has always had the alert feature activated ( which is how BofA contacted me on XX/XX/XXXX. ) My purchase was subsequently completed by my using my BofA debit card on an account Ive had in place since XXXX. In speaking with XXXX from XXXX he said when a new card is issued and first used for a large ticket and suspicious vendor ( in this case over {$1400.00} at XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, CA ) the card is placed on a high alert fraud status and no transactions are processed. After speaking with him I was assured the fraud alert status was cleared and okay to use the card. My wife and I then went grocery shopping- {$3.00} at XXXX was approved, {$9.00} at XXXX XXXX declined and {$56.00} at XXXX XXXX was declined. ( Again, these were covered by my BofA debit card. ) XXXX from Texas explained my card had a high alert fraud status and subjected me to XXXX minutes of various security questions, asking me to change phone numbers to prove my identity further and then informed me my credit card account never had the alert status selected by me and therefore BofA had no responsibility to notify me real time by mobile in order to verify my recent transactions. I then asked him if the alert status was reset to off each time a new credit card is issued, and he replied that the alert status applied to my credit card account and had not been selected by me and therefore these declines were my responsibility. Given the first transaction circumstances and a distinct prospect that BofA was going to continue to keep a high alert fraud status on this specific card ending XXXX, I requested that the card be suspended and a new card issued and sent to me on an expedited basis. In closing, I feel BofA was being deceptive in its fraud management practices, it did not make a good faith effort to contact me for any of the declined transactions even though my account has had alert status activated and was in fact working correctly on XX/XX/XXXX. I feel the fraud team did not care about how I was being treated ( this specific card program is only avail to BofAs super prime credit quality customers ) and put its own interests to avoid {$0.00} in fraud charges ahead of my contractual right to use the account for what were clearly my authorized and personally made transactions on a newly activated card. Further, it is XXXX ongoing and proactive responsibility to inform responsible and loyal account holders like me of any new or changed practices in card use versus using time consuming casualties and reputational harm so that consumers learn of a XXXX Banks willful and intentional fraud management practices after the fact.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation