Consumer complaint received 2018-04-19
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
I have two Credit Cards with Bank Of America. I opened both cards in the Summer of XX/XX/XXXX as I had excellent credit at the time and was getting married. I made every single payment on time for over a year. Due to some unfortunate circumstances that befell my family, I was forced to choose between paying household bills or my Credit Card bills. I am filing a complaint against Bank of America for their unethical business practices surrounding my ability to get back on track with payments on one of my credit cards ; Including providing misleading information, on which I based my budget on ; Having a Policy which makes Late Fees non-reversible with no exceptions, and Refusal to take any responsibility or provide any recovery solutions after openly admitting making a mistake on my account. These practices have cost me almost {$800.00} in payments and hours of phone calls between my husband and I. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, my husband became ill. The various types of XXXX XXXX XXXX he was experiencing impacted his ability to work. After multiple Doctors visits and undergoing various XXXX, he was not getting better, and was forced to leave his job. As a result, our income was cut by more than half, as I suddenly became the sole breadwinner in our home. My income alone hardly covered half our bills. We were able to pay what my paychecks were unable to cover with money we had in savings, but had run out of those funds by XX/XX/XXXX. At that point, we were forced into the unfortunate situation where we had to decide which bills to pay, and both of my Bank of America Cards were among the ones that had to wait, as we had to choose between paying those or keeping our home. 

In an effort to prevent closure of my cards, I made a payment arrangement on the Cash Rewards Card by scheduling two automatic payments of {$210.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. I have remained current on Cash Rewards since then. I also made an arrangement by scheduling four automatic payments on Travel Rewards of {$190.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and on the XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. 

Based on my conversation with a Representative in late XXXX to set up a payment arrangement for my Travel Rewards Card, one option I was presented with was 4 payments of {$190.00} per month. I was told by the associate with whom I set this up that this card will be current after the XX/XX/XXXX payment. Today, I am disappointed to see that, not only do I still have a Past Due Balance of {$42.00} and a Current Payment amount of {$210.00}, but I was charged a late fee of {$38.00}. I have paid a total of {$780.00} over the past 4 months to bring it to current, and I find the fact that it is still not current very upsetting. Not only is this making getting back on my feet more difficult than it needs to be, but it is even more damaging to my Financial Reputation now that BofA is reporting 6 late payments on this card. 

At XXXX Pacific Time on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Bank of America to bring this to their attention, hoping that they discover a mistake and would be willing to work with me in removing the {$38.00} Late Fee or apply the {$42.00} toward next months payment and take it out of Past Due Status. No such luck. The associate who initially took the call tried to reason with me by giving me numerical figures and prove why I am actually not current. After telling her three times that I made the arrangement, she transferred me to another department. The gentleman who took the call tried to tell me about some Program I was supposedly enrolled in where it could possibly take 6 months. After insisting that I agreed to making 4 payments, he looked at my notes and was able to confirm what I told him. He placed me on hold for 20 minutes as he looked into it. He then came back on the line, stuttering, letting me know that I still owe the {$210.00} by next month and that the {$42.00} Past Due amount still stands, and that the fact that I was told 4 payments of {$190.00} was going to bring my card to Current was incorrect and that I should have been asked to schedule 5 payments instead. He then attempted to reassure me that if I make just one more payment of {$190.00} I will finally be current. When I asked him What about the fact that I owe {$210.00}? He seemed unsure of how to answer that question. I also asked about removing the Late Fees, and he would not even consider it a possibility. Since I was nearing the end of my lunch break at work, I ended that call and told my husband everything. 

Since my Husband is an Authorized Owner in the account, he called Bank of America just after XXXX Pacific Time on XX/XX/XXXX to see if he could get anywhere. He was able to speak to a Manager, who evidently admitted that the Bank made a mistake in misinforming me on how long it would take to make my card current, and that she will use this as an educational moment. She also admitted to him that I should not have been charged all those late fees, but can not do anything about it due to the banks policy. She also told my husband that, despite what I was told, one more payment of {$190.00} was not going to bring my account current. {$210.00} will.

My husband and I are both beyond frustrated with the Bank of America, and hope that an investigation with the CFPB will bring the desired resolution, including a prompt to change their business practices to Credit Card Consumers. If it were not for the non-reversible Late Fees and high Interest Rates, my card would be current right now. I have had to go through similar steps with XXXX and XXXX XXXX, and I have not experienced any level of difficulty remotely close to what I experienced with Bank of America. Both companies waived Late Fees and honored my commitment to follow the Payment Plans I set up. 

Thank you,

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