Consumer complaint received 2019-02-09
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: VA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Credit inquiries on your report that you don't recognize

Complaint:
I had my Bank of America accounts ( several ) and credit cards ( 2 ) frozen because of XXXX compliance, where they asked me for documents. 
I obtained the documents from the government, and took them personally to a branch, spent more than 2 hours to have them faxed, verified and confirmed. 
I asked multiple times if everything was now OK, and was confirmed orally that it is, and both my accounts AND credit cards are going to be unfrozen in 24 to 48 hours. 

72 hours later, without any progress, I started calling Bank of America customer service. 5 consecutive days, each day I put calls that had me on hold for more than 2 hours each, juggling me around between credit card customer service, XXXX department, and other departments, and then hanging up in the middle and not following up. Rinse and repeat next day. 

After 5 days, I get to someone on XXXX department that says they have put it on my file, since day 1, that everything is clear and my cards need to be unfrozen. I connect back to credit card department and explain that, and they say 'oh yes here it is, do you want it reopened? ' to which I responded yes. 

Then immediately I see an email and an alert telling me that there is a HARD INQUIRY on my credit report. I did not give consent, and was not even asked for it, and would never agree to it in th at situation, to unfreeze a card that I barely use, in a situation where my accounts have been frozen for a month so I have not made proper payments, and I was full aware that this is going to terribly impact my credit score, which is very important to me having just estalished a small business and working tirelessly on it. 

As soon as I asked the agent if they did a hard inquiry, they panicked and started claiming that they had asked me and I had confirmed it. I called again and asked to talk to a supervisor, they were refusing to let me. After I got to someone who refused to introduce themselves, I explained the whole situation and said this is unacceptable and I do not consent to this inquiry. They said I do not need to give consent, but also said I had given consent, which sounded contradictory to me. Finally they said they can close my accounts and cards in a threatening tone, and then submit a letter to the credit agency to have them fix the hard inquiry. I asked if there are any guarantees that this will be fixed, and they said no, they will just submit a letter and I can follow up with the credit reporting bureau in 60 days. 

Obviously after so much dishonesty I did not trust them, froze all my credit reports and filed a dispute with XXXX. My credit score also dropped significantly by 50 points immediately after this Hard Inquiry. 
After days of " investigations '', TXXXX responded that they have frozen my report. I had already frozen it, and this is not helpful at all. 

I am at a loss, dealing with two big corporations that do not acknowledge the laws and my consent. They clearly have recordings of my phone conversations where I did not give any consent and they panicked when I asked why they ran it without my consent, as I could get other, better credit cards if I wanted a Hard Inquiry on my report, and I would definitely not agree to it in such fragile situation. 

They simply ignore me and drop my calls whenever I attempt to reach someone and follow-up with this. 

This hard inquiry has ruined my credit score and has significantly damaged my business plans, and this is not the first time Bank of America is dealing with me like that without any responsibility.

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