Consumer complaint received 2018-01-09
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: OR
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
1 ) Bank of America customer service personnel, including two managers, could not provide me with an address where I could write to dispute charges, as is required by the Fair Credit Billing Act.

2 ) BOAs security measures are ridiculously awful.

3 ) BOA is making it unreasonably difficult for me to dispute fraudulent charges. 

BOA sent me a new credit card with a different number because of potential unauthorized access on my previous card. I activated the new card and shredded and threw out the old card. 

On my last statement for the old card, I noticed 14 fraudulent charges from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX XXXX. I immediately tried calling BOA via the number on the back of the ( new ) card. As there was an hour+ wait, I decided to try calling back later, which I did, later that night. 

Before that call, I logged in to my online account and got a different phone number to call for the fraud department. The first customer service person I spoke to was unable to assist me because I refused to provide a cell phone number for him to text me to confirm my identity. As there is no cell phone number currently associated with my account, I fail to see how providing a new phone number in any way can confirm my identity. I was calling from my home number, which is the phone number associated with the account. 

I then tried to dispute the charges through my online account. It would only let me select one of the XXXX charges ( which meant I would need to go through the dispute process 14 separate times ). However, when I selected the dispute option that I did not authorize the charge, I got an error message telling me that I needed to call a customer service number for assistance, so I could n't dispute the charges at all. When I called that number, I was given a recording that the customer service agents are only available at certain times Mon-Fri and on Sat and it was currently closed. 

So, I tried calling back on the fraud line. This time, I verified the number of my new account and the three digit security code on the back of the new card ( since I no longer had the card associated with the old account ). However, this customer service representative was unable to assist me because I refused to provide him with my password for my online account. Customer service representatives should not have access to every customers password. I asked him for the address where I could send a written dispute, since I could not be helped by phone or online, and he said that there wasnt an address. 

He eventually transferred me to his supervisor. His supervisor also told me that she did not have an address where I could write to dispute charges. She checked with her supervisor, who also did not have an address where I could write to dispute charges. None of them had ever heard of the Fair Credit Billing Act. Her suggestion of how I could dispute fraudulent charges was for me to go to the nearest Bank of America bank and bring two forms of ID. Once the bank confirmed my identity, the bank would call the fraud department. 

It 's difficult for me to believe that BOA needs such strenuous " security '' in order to stop people from falsely challenging charges on someone else 's credit card. Instead, the system seems to be set up to make it difficult for someone with a statement ( and the reference number for each charge ) to challenge fraudulent charges.

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 non-monetary relief