Consumer complaint received 2021-10-15
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
First, I must preface this by saying the Bank of America credit card website is by far the worst, most difficult to navigate, misleading, and convoluted of all the banking and credit card websites I have used. 

I do not use my Bank of America credit card anymore, and I keep it open just by having one monthly subscription billed to it and then set up automatic payments to pay the balance in full every month. 

Because I have had my identity stolen a few times and people have used my credit cards illegally and it took me months to get it back from the credit card companies, I set up, what I thought, was a do not pay over {$50.00}. 

I don't pay attention to this card because I don't use it and thought everything was set up automatically. 

Then, I discover months later that I was charged a {$25.00} dollar late fee and was just about to be charged another. I'm like what the XXXX, I set up automatic payments. I haven't had a late fee in like 12 years. Perturbed, I called Bank of America, wondering what was going on. I discovered that my yearly XXXX XXXX membership was billed to this card. They said that what I set up was a do not pay IF over {$50.00}. Why on earth does this even exist except to catch people off guard. If I had not called they would have continued not paying my card, even though I set up automatic payments, and charging me {$25.00} late fees every month and interest on that. 

Nobody called or anything to say that the payment wasn't going through. They said they sent an email so I searched my inbox and saw that they've sent me over 600 emails in the past year ; sometimes up to 8 per day. 

I explained my intentions with setting that up but they said they couldn't reimburse me because it would violate the fair lending act. 

Even if i knew what they meant and said don't pay if over {$50.00}, why on earth would they not take the minimum {$25.00} dollar payment when I gave them the OK to take up to {$50.00}. I know this was contrived in some boardroom as a way to squeeze money out of people and the person who thought of it probably got a raise. I always pay all my payments on time and feel violated that they would do this to me when I told them what I thought I was signed up for. This is all because of the word IF. They were not sympathetic at all and did not do anything to remedy the situation, or even compromise. It isn't about the money, but the principle. They could easily have an option for paying the entire balance, but not if it is over a certain amount, but still taking the minimum payment or up to that amount. None of my other credit cards even have that ridiculous do not pay if over option and their websites are clearly worded and easy to navigate. 

This has been my worst customer service experience, not just with banks, but with any company in my lifetime.

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