Consumer complaint received 2019-08-27
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
There are several things involved, some of which are more related to credit cards than others. What IS a unifying theme is the ongoing deception from Bank of America, both to convince me to transfer assets ( which is fraud to induce ) and to try to cover their behinds instead of admitting to their errors. We'll start from the top : 1. While discussing a transfer of assets, I was told by a Merrill Lynch representative ( XXXX XXXX ) that I could get two Bank of America Cash Rewards credit cards, which receive bonuses from having assets with Merrill Lynch. He was quite certain about this and even added " I have two personal Cash Rewards cards myself. '' Later, my application for a second card was rejected because " I already had one and they don't do two of the same product. '' This was in direct contradiction to what I was told by XXXX, and sorting out the disparity consumed easily a dozen hours ( partially because he kept saying that I could get a second one ). 

2. I was also given a Merrill Edge promotion promising that within Bank of America 's Preferred Rewards program, I would be promoted to Gold within 30 days and Platinum within 60 days. This did not happen and was the subject of a prior complaint that was not satisfactorily resolved. The person I spoke to simply declared the matter resolved based on more deceptive information ( detailed below ). I was promised {$100.00} ( which has yet to be delivered ), which is a trifling compensation for the dozens of hours of time that I sunk into dealing with it ( essentially, Bank of America is valuing my time at under minimum wage instead of taking responsibility for their failure to comply with the promises made by the Merrill subsidiary ). At every point, the Merrill people said the bank side was the only people who could fix it and the bank people said the Merrill people were the only ones who could fix it. 

3. The first deceptive information that was utilized to declare the previous case " resolved '' was that I was actually promoted to Gold status on XX/XX/XXXX. This is blatantly false. I did not receive an email on the subject until XX/XX/XXXX. Moreover, I can demonstrate that I wasn't given credit accordingly as far as rewards go. I can prove that their claim I was promoted on XX/XX/XXXX is false. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spent {$52.00} at a gas station, which would earn 3 % at the normal rate and 3.75 % at the Gold Preferred Rewards rate. I earned {$1.00}. $ XXXX/ {$52.00} = XXXX = 3 %. Contrast that with when I spent {$42.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, where I did earn the Gold Preferred rate. I earned {$1.00}. $ XXXX {$42.00} = XXXX = 3.75 %. So I actually lost out on money that should have been earned because of my Preferred Rewards bonus. They flat out refused to credit me for this, which is fraud. 

4. The second deceptive information that was utilized was the claim that I was not promoted to Platinum because I had fallen below the $ XXXX threshold because I had made {$11.00} of withdrawals. This is absolutely inaccurate. My daily balance NEVER fell below $ XXXX. What they are neglecting is that I earned interest. I withdrew the interest but never touched the principal. Moreover, even 100 days after my initial deposit, when I had qualified for Platinum through the normal non-promotion mechanism ( which uses the 3 month rolling average ), I was STILL not Platinum. The made-up claim that I had fallen below the threshold is simply a smokescreen to cover up the failures of Merrill and Bank of America to communicate.

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