Consumer complaint received 2020-07-23
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
At the beginning of the Coronavirus epidemic, I contacted Bank of America seeking financial assistance with my HELOC. This contact was initiated by a phone call that I made XXXX XXXX, 2020. My account was placed into forbearance at that time according to the CSR that I spoke with. Online access to my account was restricted at that time as well. 

I never received any contact from B of A regarding the end of the forbearance, only weekly solicitations regarding further payment assistance. As the 90 day anniversary of my initial contact was rapidly approaching, I called B of A to arrange to remove my account from forbearance, so I could make payments online in the normal manner. I waited 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach someone. The CSR I spoke to at that time said that my account could not be removed from forbearance because there was an outstanding balance, so I authorized a payment of {$2300.00}, the total amount that was due at the time, by phone during that conversation on XXXX/XXXX/2020. I was told that the forbearance would be removed since my account had been made current. 

I continued to attempt to access my account info and begin to make payment arrangements online. I was told by a CSR in early XXXX that the forbearance was due to expire XX/XX/XXXX, which confirms information sent to me by their internal messaging system, that a Special Forbearance Agreements and Terms letter was sent to me XXXX/XXXX/2020, and that apparently is the date that forbearance began. I was still unable to access my account information, so with yet another payment coming close to 30 days late, I contacted them again by phone XX/XX/2020 in order to rectify this. I had been sent a statement showing {$1000.00} due, which included the amount of {$370.00} showing due as a past due amount. This {$370.00} amount makes no sense to me, I am not sure where I owe it. Anyway, I authorized payment of the {$1000.00} total amount during that phone call, and was told once again that since that was paid, and my account was now current, it would be removed from forbearance. The CSR assured me that this matter had been escalated, and that I would definitely hear back from someone the next day. 

It is now 3 days since that phone conversation, and has been 2 days since I should have been called back. I still can not access my account information online, so I called again today. I was able to speak to a CSR right away, pleasant enough, but it felt like the same run around. I was told that I must have been assigned a new account number, and I needed to search for a letter or email informing me of this. This suggesting that all issues were from something I did wrong, even though I was still able to access my account through the online dashboard ( just not able to proceed further ), and process payments by phone into that account. I was told variously that forbearance ended XX/XX/XXXX, that something unusual was going on with my account, that it would be taken out of forbearance once all kinds of different steps were completed. Passed around to several CSR 's. I started with a rep named XXXX. This was escalated to a supervisor by the name of XXXX  XXXX. I was supposed to be transferred to a Customer Relations Manager by the name of XXXX XXXX, whose voicemail conveniently hung up on me after an almost 2 hour session trying to get a resolution. 

All I asked for was confirmation in black and white that removal of this forbearance had begun. Nobody would take personal responsibility for initiating this procedure, claiming that the email address they have on record can't be trusted to be secure, that the Message Center feature of their website can't be trusted to be secure. I was just expected to go away, and when I didn't, I was transferred to a supervisor who allowed her voice mail to hang up on me.

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