Consumer complaint received 2022-08-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
About 3 months ago, my wife and i decided to apply for a HLOC with BOFA. we scheduled a meeting with the person at our local branch, in that meeting we got to start the process, it was explained to us how the process works, lenght, stages and what to expect. i have to admit that everyone at my local branch is nice wiith the exception of the Home Mortgage person, seems like he can't wait to retire, not a people person. 
We submitted every document asked from us, each time we're asked to provide documents, we drop everythig we have and jump on it. the aime was not to waste time and do our part in streamlining the process. Requests for documents usually comes like once a week, and each week we try to convince each other that it'll over soon. One day, we received a phone call from the person handling our application, his name is XXXX XXXX, he informed us that another person will be calling us soon to go through the offer, few hours later, a lady called. She went through the whole process step by step, during that phone call, she infomed us that due to our new established " accounts '', our requested amount will be dropped from XXXX to XXXX, we agreed. two weeks went by, and early friday morning, XXXX contacted my wife to announce that they turned down our application for reason of " Income to Debt Ratio ''. I took the phone from my wife and asked XXXX to explain to me in numbers, he made no sense. He had to put the Underwritter on the phone, she couldn't explain it herself, however she asked if we have any additional income, i said " we do ''. we were asked to upload all documentation, which we did. we waited two more weekds, few exchanges of emails, we were promised to someone is going to call with a counter offer. after 4 days of waiting, again. a lady called with a XXXX offer, part of which will go to pay off a personal loan, we agreed. An appointment was set up for an appraisal, a day before the appraisal, a friday, a gentlmant called me claiming to be an underwritter, he informed me that due " Income to Debt Ratio '' the bank is refused our application, i asked him for the reason, numbers? he still wasn't able to explain it. Remember the proof of income we were asked to upload, he had no idea it existed and knew nothing about. a government issued proof of income. 
here is my issue with Bank of America, both my wife and I have : - Close to 800 credit scores - Equity in our home is close to seven digits - 7 years of paying our mortgage on time, not once late - income is beyond what bofa requires - all of our banking is done with bofa, therefore they have access to all of our accounts- the amount requested doesn't represent 25 % of the equity - our house is in an area that rarely gets affected by economic donwturns. 
Prior to applying for the HLOC with Bofa, i have heard stories from community members, muslims to be exact. they all had similar stories. I didn't belive it at the begining. But now, with the experience and information i have, i am inclined to believe, strongly believe that a new red lining is part of Bofa 's dealings with minorities. 
as my wife put it " You do everything by the book, then you receive a wake up call ''. 
Please do not let this be brushed aside by an eloquant letter or response from Bank of America, you're our last line of defense. 
There is no way on XXXX that my numbers won't qualify me for a HLOC, structured discrimination should not be tolerated.

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