Consumer complaint received 2022-10-30
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Problem with a check written from your prepaid card account

Complaint:
MY unemployment benefits were seized back in XXXX of XXXX paid through the Arizona XXXX and has yet to be returned to us as promised by either the banking institution or the state agency during a time when we were homeless and about to attain a residence the money was taken abruptly from our accounts and we went without reasonable explaination for some time. 

The benefits are still showing as paid in our XXXX unemployment online account and were included on our 1099 from XXXX, reported as paid income however they never adjusted the balance to subtract the money that was seized from the benefits paid amount. XXXX assured us that they never seize benefits back from filers and would simply send out an overpayment notice or bill if thee was an issue. They also stated that have no record of ever receiving the benefits back from Bank of America and therefore did not adjust the benefits paid amount from our payment history. 

Bank of America still say they sent the money back but has failed to provide any additional proof to trace where the money actually went. The amount taken from Bank of America prepaid benefits card account is approxomately $ XXXX and approximately $ XXXX was seized from my fiances ' account, he will file a seoerate complaint and my partners account and was never adjusted on our unemployment insurance records to remove the money they seized from our XXXX balance. 

I am trying to obtain a status update on how and when the bank is suppose to be contacting harmed customers about repayments and to check if we were included as harmed customers because neither myself or my fiance ' have received any information from the bank and they are just as unhelpful today as they were when we reached out to them 2.5 years ago when the incident first occurred. 

I attempted to seek resolution by filing a complaint through the CFPB but the representative from the bank failed to follow up after I received their initial contact email. 

The company 's only response was that they were looking into the issue and needed more time, and that was from a member of their complaint or regulations department. They included 1 initial email and voice mail from the person which included me a phone number with an extension #. I have since left several voice mails and sent 1 or 2 follow up emails to the contact person and received not one single response thereafter. They havent addressed any of my concerns or provided any type of update ; nor have they reached out to me regarding the CFPB order to address a repayment to me under the imposed order on XX/XX/XXXX, whereas the CFPB fined them for wrecklessly seizing unemployment benefits from claimants during the pandemic. 

The XXXX  still have no record of ever receiving the money back so I have been basically billed for a product never received and taxed on it too. 

They haven't provided any information to me except a request for more time dated back in XXXX. They didn't return any of my calls or emails. They left one voice-mail and sent 1 email asking for me to contact them and that was it. When I reached out I received no follow up so I thought the issue was still under rveuew because I have a few other complaints filed with the CFPB and I didn't realize this case had closed because there was no information provided by Bank of America to my knowledge, so I assumed my emails from the CFPB were regarding other cases.

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