Consumer complaint received 2020-09-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
On the morning of XX/XX/2020, I found out through an email I received from Bank of America that my MasterCard credit they issued to me was closed. On XX/XX/2020, I made a payment that brought the account to current. Concerned about the impact of the closure, I called my bank and spoke to two Bank of America representatives. They said that the bank can choose to close any customer accounts based on inactivity, delinquency, poor credit, and based on other factors. 

They recommended I wait for the letter to know the reason to the closure. On XX/XX/2020, after finding out my credit score took a signification hit due to the closure, I reached out to Bank of America again. I have not received the letter at this point. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke to two agents They gave me conflicting information and every representative contradicted the one prior. Each two individuals who also contradicted one another. XXXX ID number XXXX and XXXX XXXX. XXXX assured me that his supervisor, XXXX ID - XXXX would contact me in 24-48 hours. On this call and also on the XX/XX/XXXX call, all representatives told me that the credit could not be reactivated. Once credit cards are closed, the closure is final. I was told that the bank does not close accounts based on 4-month inactivity, that it usually takes a year or more.

Same day I called Consumer Finance and filled a formal complaint regarding the lies Bank of America representatives were telling me.  The complaint number is XXXX. I have not received any response from the bank as of XX/XX/2020 and it is my belief that they do not intent to contact me to resolve the issue. 

One XX/XX/2020, I once again called Bank of America and asked why I have not received a call back. They did not give me a response, and my call was transferred to the collections department and then the credit card department. They told me I can have my credit card reactivated and all the information I have been given by the other representative were once again false. 

I asked the representative why my account was closed, and he told me that it was due to a 4-month inactivity.

I asked whether the reactivation of the credit would undo the damages to my credit score. He said no.

I have two other credit cards with Bank of America, and I had paid the third one off so I would not fall into debt during covid. I have been diligently working on my credit score to prepare for homeownership. The closure and the lies from Bank of America employees have  harmed me financially. They have harmed my purchasing power and financial resiliency. 

Bank of America made it clear I am not the type of customer that they could be honest with, they took no accountability for the information they are giving out to their customer. By the end of the call, the agent made it clear that I was disposal and they will not mind if I closed all my accounts. 

I have banked with bank of America since I was XXXX years old and it has been 15 years since then. I have stayed with this bank because of the importance of banking history and working towards better credit score. About two or three years ago, bank of America had refused to cash a check I wrote to my brother for my dad 's car repairs. They refused to cash the check for my brother and insisted that it was a fraudulent check and there was no money in the account. I called the branch and they refused to cash the check. Only and only after I called a friend who works at Merrill Lynch who called her boss and escalated the complaint was the branch manager called and the check was cashed. The bank manager racially profiled a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX as a thief and lied on the status of my checking account. 

Despite this experience, I stay because I did not want to move all my banking needs and all most of my life expenses are electronically paid out of the account. It has been 15 years so there is a lot of activity tied to the account. 

I believe Bank of America is creating an atmosphere during the Covid pandemic to force their clients to incur credit card expenses and increasing customer debt with the practice and threat of credit account closures that directly erase payment history which impact credit score health. 

I am gauging the viability of a lawsuit against Bank of America in order to protect myself financially and their predatory banking policies. 

It is XX/XX/2020 and I have yet to receive the letter detailing the reason for the account 's closure even though each representative hypothesized to the reasons.

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