Consumer complaint received 2018-08-06
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I deposited a check in the amount of XXXX dollars. I had a very difficult financial month and really needed this money. I deposited my check into my Bank of America account, which is the only bank I use and have used them since I started banking. Normally their policy is to approve and clear a portion of the funds ( usually half the check ) and then within 2 business days ( sometimes more depending on if its a weekend ) they will clear the rest of the funds. Not only did they not do this but they placed a hold on my account, the atm ate my card, and they said theyre withholding the check funds until XX/XX/XXXX. This was frustrating for two reasons. It went against their normal policy ( Ive deposited checks before and it never does this ), and they put my account on hold and took my debit card. Leaving me stranded all weekend with no way to buy food or make any necessary arrangements. I also drive for work so this prevented me working because I couldnt purchase gas. When I went in Monday, the banker assured me my check would clear by the next business day and assigned me a temporary debit card while a new one was being mailed to me. Tuesday comes and not even a portion of the check has cleared. Wednesday rolls around and nothing has cleared. And on top of that not clearing they have approved an automated payment for which I had insufficient funds to cover. This puts me into overdraft and charges me a fee. Finally Thursday comes and half the check has cleared. This put my account in good standing but of course I lost money on fees that werent returned to me. I took my car in to get repaired. They put a hold on my account that Friday because they said the transaction was too large for a temporary card ( despite the fact I had sufficient funds to cover such a transaction ). I go into the financial center the next day right as they open. I notice something strange when speaking to the banker. I notice it said I had over 800 dollars in my account but on my online banking app it said I had XXXX. I felt that was odd but I didnt press it at the time. I should have. But I deferred to what my online banking app said and used that as my reference point for purchases. The banker gave me a new temporary card and told me that the remaining half of my funds will be delivered on XX/XX/XXXX. Now at this time all transactions that went through that past week including clearing half of my check had all processed and cleared on my online banking app. I was even charged overdraft fees for the automated payment on Wednesday. None of that was returned and all transactions had cleared. Well much to my surprised early Monday morning I again had to cut Work short because I was unable to pay for gas. Why? I check my online banking app and its like revisionist history. Now my online banking app said that they initially cleared the entire check ( which as I mentioned earlier initially they cleared nothing ), and that later the following week I believe it was Thursday ( the day when my online banking app said half the check cleared ) that they declined the entire check and it was put on hold. It also said that all funds will be released XX/XX/XXXX. But they had already released half of my funds the previous Thursday so why theyre claiming that the check had been returned is still a mystery to me. They also claim that the previous Thursday ( the day after that automated charge threw me into overdraft and charged me a fee ) that they declined that transaction and returned those funds to me on Thursday maybe Friday but it was within 2 business days. However they never did this. None of this was reflected on my online banking app at the time. In fact I was checking it 2-3 times per day to try and prevent further overdrafts and according to my online app everything cleared. So now you can imagine my surprise as I now see my online banking app showing a completely different story. And now Im in overdraft again. Why? Because that initial automated payment has gone through again, but this time theyve also withheld the XXXX dollars from my check that they had originally cleared. This created insufficient funds and now Im in overdraft with fees again. I want them to reverse that charge and I want them to return the check to me so I can cash it someplace else.

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 monetary relief