Consumer complaint received 2019-09-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
I am an international student who arrived in the US on XX/XX/XXXX. I applied for a credit card when I opened an account with Bank of America. My credit card was issued with a credit limit of {$500.00}. Once I received the card, I decided to place an order in XXXX XXXX webstore with that card. The order cost around {$650.00}, so I made a payment of {$300.00} to the card, as it is a usual way to purchase things of a higher price than the card credit limit, according to my experience in using credit cards issued in XXXX and XXXX XXXX. The pre-authorisation was successful, but two days later, XXXX XXXX warned me that the transaction was declined when they attempted to charge the card upon shipping. I called the bank and the respond was I did not have sufficient credits for the transaction, and the overpayment could not increase the credit limit to purchase things. I had never ever heard about this before in any other country. Fortunately, the merchant broke up the order so I successfully received the most items in the order. After that, I used this card normally in the restaurants, on the vending machines, or calling XXXX until I got another transaction on the vending machine declined. The reason given was that I already exeeded the credit limit. So I made a payment of {$500.00}, because I saw on the app the available credit was {$0.00}, even though I spent only {$480.00} in all before that payment. After the payment, I was able to use the card again, unti XX/XX/XXXX, my transaction on the XXXX app was declined. My available credit then was {$180.00}. Also, the charge attempt made by XXXX XXXX upon the shipment of the last item of the previously mentioned order was declined as well. On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I spent more than four hours overall contacting the bank on the phone. The bank suggested that my card was not on a hold and I was not able to pay with it due to an overpayment of more than {$300.00}. I had been directed between the customer service and the fraud department back and forth for more than 5 times, and after each direction, I had to repeat all my stories again because the bank never shared my information and concerns with different deparments, even during a same call. Eventually a representative put an " override '' to my card, as I heard, maybe not precise, and I was able to use the card on XX/XX/XXXX at late night. Yesterday was XX/XX/XXXX. I tried to pay with the card on XXXX app, and the app suggested the card was declined. Then I made a payment to the card in the exact same amount of the displayed current balance, {$240.00}. Still, I could not use the card on the app. So I called the bank again. The representative told me, the XXXX transaction was not shown in the system at all and the {$240.00} was, again, an overpayment ... I totally lost my patience. To be honest, even if anyone else steals my money, it is extremely hard to be noticed in this messy system because I have no idea how much money or credit do I have in the real time. And upon the records displayed on the app, I can not find a justifiable reason to explain the holds on my card, i.e., why it showed that I exeeded the credit limit when my total spent was only {$480.00}. What happened to me and how the bank responded was apparently and absolutely not acceptable. Please stop Bank of America fooling me around!

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