Consumer complaint received 2024-01-19
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Payment process

Complaint:
As a result of a XXXX, that did not involve our home mortgage, we were informed by our attorney that our lender, Bank of America, may still charge us a fee even though our home mortgage was not a part of the XXXX. This fee was to be applied to our account, but would NOT be due until the COMPLETION of our 30 year mortgage. Unfortunately on XX/XX/XXXX Bank of America removed this fee immediately from our account by taking it from our monthly mortgage payment. As a result of this improper deduction our mortgage payment appeared late and so Bank of America assessed a late fee to our account. After realizing what happened I contacted Bank of America regarding the error. I explained the situation to an account manager at Bank of America who stated she is part of the team who has worked with these sort of issues. I was given an apology for the unwarranted mortgage deduction and was told the fee will be returned to my account as of the date it was removed. This would cause my account to be current again and the fees would automatically be removed. This manager was so helpful and apologetic, promising to follow up right away when my account was corrected, I felt very satisfied my account would be fixed. The problem is after several months went by I realized nothing had changed with my account and I was still being charged with late fees for a late mortgage payment! I called Bank of America again feeling a bit more frustrated this time. Again I spoke to someone who stated they were an account manager at bank of America. They read through all the notes and apologized again and again for my account not being adjusted the last time. I was promised once again the fee would be returned to my account and a note would be place in the account to not apply the fee until the end of my loan. Again I was told the return of this deduction would cause all of the fees to be removed automatically and my account would be current again. Again, I felt satisfied with the response I received and felt my account would be finally corrected. After several months went by I realized the issue was still not being corrected! Feeling very frustrated I called Bank of America again and spoke to another account manager. They reviewed my account and again were overly apologetic promising to escalate the matter and make sure this gets taken care of within the next few days. They said they would have their department manager handle this situation and I would receive a call directly from them when it gets fixed. I was told again the fee would be returned to my account causing my account to be current and all late fees would be removed. They were so apologetic and helpful I felt again the issue would be finally resolved. After several days went by I kept watching my account and waiting for it to be rectified, but nothing happened. Having been given the department managers name and phone number this time I called to see what is taking so long. I left a message and contacted the department again and was told they are still working on it. I called several more times, but still my account was not fixed. Several days later I finally received a call back from a different manager from Bank of America. She told me I would need to submit my request in writing and gave me an address. Feeling depleted I wrote a letter and submitted it to Bank of America on XX/XX/XXXX. I waited several months for a response from Bank of America, but one never came so I submitted another letter on XX/XX/XXXX. Finally after several weeks I received a letter confirming they got my letter and it gave a date for when I can expect to hear back from them. I few weeks later I received another letter stating they will respond to my letter at a later date. Finally after almost two years of waiting for my account to be fixed Bank of America responded to my letter. The letter basically just stated Bank of America has the right to charge the fee which was evidence to me the person from Bank of America responding to the letter never really read the letter or looked at my account whatsoever! I can not help but feel Bank of America has set up this system to wear down customers and profit off of them by charging fees! My situation is a very easy fix, but the obstacles Bank of America has put in place really have created a feeling of helplessness and overwhelming stress which I believe is completely unnecessary! I am simply asking for the fee to be applied back towards my mortgage making my account current and the late fees to be removed. I am not asking for the attorney fee due to my XXXX to be removed, just applied at the end of my mortgage as it should have been. Although it would be a kind gesture at this point to remove it entirely due to the hardships they have caused me, their customer!

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