Consumer complaint received 2017-11-02
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY
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 have held a Bank of America credit card since XX/XX/XXXX and had BofA checking and savings accounts since XX/XX/XXXX. Up until recently, I 've managed all three accounts under one BofA online account. On XX/XX/XXXX I closed my Bank of America checking and savings accounts due to inactivity at my local branch. I kept mostly minimal balances in each account ( less than {$50.00} in each at any time ) and had no direct deposits going into the checking account for well over a year. I was being charged $ XXXX/month for admin fees and decided to close the checking and savings accounts. I made sure to check with the branch manager on XX/XX/XXXX that I would still be able to keep my BofA online account so that I could pay my BofA Visa credit card online. She said I would be able to. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I logged on to my online account to pay my credit card bill ( which is due on the XX/XX/XXXX ). I saw that my checking and savings accounts were removed from my online BofA account, which I expected, but my credit card account was still shown. The " pay now '' feature on the website did not work, but by clicking on " bill pay '' I was able to make my monthly {$200.00} payment ( well above my minimum payment requirement ) with my XXXX checking account, which was already tied to my bill pay and received a confirmation number that the payment went through ( confirmation # XXXX ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email notifying me that my Bank of America Visa credit card line of credit had been decreased from {$16000.00} to {$7100.00} -- a significant decrease of nearly {$10000.00}, which will no doubt impact my credit rating/credit score. When I logged into my Bank of America online account ( the first time since I paid my cc bill on XX/XX/XXXX ), I was shown a overdue payment alert, stating that I owed payment on my credit card from the previous month. I used the online chat feature and chatted with XXXX XXXX who looked into my account and wrote : " OK seems that there is some glitch in the system that was caused when the other accounts closed. I can schedule that payment for you {$200.00} via chat today ... ''. He went on to reverse the late fee, as the error was the banks. 

XXXX told me I would have to speak to someone at the credit department to see why my credit line was decreased and he provide me with the phone number ( XXXX XXXX ). I spoke with XXXX XXXX, a Resolutions Manager for Credit decisions. I was told that the decision to decrease my limit was made on XX/XX/XXXX and the reasons were because of a history of late payments and a lack of direct deposits into my accounts.

1. I do not have a history of late payments, which my online payment history clearly shows. I make my payments on-time, early and payments are almost always more than the minimum payment amount.

2. I did not have direct deposits going into either my BofA checking or savings accounts before they were closed in the previous months and the balances were almost always below {$50.00} and always below {$100.00} for the past couple years ( hence my decision to close them -- inactivity ). 
3. During the last two years when these accounts were kept at minimal balances I have received credit line INCREASES on my Bank of America Visa credit card, forcing me to believe that the primary reason for the decision to decrease my credit limit was due to the late payment ERROR the bank made itself when I closed the checking and savings accounts. 

I will also point out that I never received one email about a missed/overdue credit card payment for XX/XX/XXXX, though I did receive multiple emails asking me to complete satisfaction surveys once I closed the checking and savings accounts. I also received an email notifying me that my credit line decreased on XX/XX/XXXX. There is one email address tied to the account. All emails received from Bank of America go straight to my inbox. ****Had I received an email alerting me of a " missed '' payment, I would have logged in much earlier to address this issue ( likely back in XX/XX/XXXX before the credit decision was made on XX/XX/XXXX ). ******* I was told by XXXX XXXX that the decision to reverse the credit line decrease can not be made without a formal credit inquiry being made by me. This is unacceptable. I do not want to subject my credit even further by opening up a formal inquiry, especially when the decision could be to decline my request for an increase. I would like the bank to review the process by which it made it 's most recent decision to decrease my line of credit and ultimately reverse the decrease, reinstating the credit line back to where it was before it 's own bill pay error in XX/XX/XXXX ( {$16000.00} ). I am not requesting the bank open a formal inquiry or formal credit review by which my credit standing may be further compromised.

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