Consumer complaint received 2019-06-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern, On XX/XX/XXXX, I was making a purchase at the XXXX   XXXX  and tried to pay with my Bank of America debit card. It was declined. I asked the vendor to please run it again. He tried five times and it was declined each time. There is a long line forming behind me and the temperature was in the 90s. I was both embarrassed and infuriated. I called my husband who handles all our banking matters for us. He said he had personally used the card twice earlier that day and that there was {$4500.00} in the account. I asked him to find out what happened. 

When I got home, he was on the phone with Bank of America Customer Service and had been for 63 minutes. He finally was told my card was suspended for failing to update my profile. When he informed them that he had done so several weeks prior, they said he did but I had not. I had never been asked to do so in the 40 years weve had this account. He stated it was a joint account and he was the only one that did the online banking. He then informed them that we have been a customer with the same account for 40 years. When he tried to get my profile updated by answering a few questions, he was told that I had to call them myself. 
I immediately called them once I got home. I was asked to answer numerous questions like my name, address, date of birth, and social security number, etc. I was not at all pleased to do so as I had a few questions of my own. Why did they suspend the account without contacting us? They stated they had called, sent an email and a letter. However, the number they called was a landline we no longer have, the email address was an XXXX account established in the XXXX. Neither of these means of contact had been used for years. I can never remember them requiring me to update anything which is made clear by the extremely dated contact information they had. While occasionally, when my husband would sign in to our account, they would ask him to update or correct information they had never ask me to do so. This did not seem usual to us as it has always been a joint account. Finally, they said they mailed something to our house which my husband does not recall ever receiving. We have been living at this current address for 20 years and my husband is in the bank multiple times a month. Why did the teller not simply ask him? Could they not see how much this account is used by simply looking on line or by the statements? Why was his update that he had done not sufficient as I had never been asked for this information before? They know in this day and time phone numbers and email addresses change. Also, they had never asked me before for this information previously. Why would they not send another letter before they froze the account? Finally, they asked about my income. I replied we were seniors. They further asked what type of income we had. Was it Social Security, annuities, investments, inheritance, etc? I answered all of the above. Then, incredibly, they wanted to know specifically which ones. I had had enough. My patience with this exercise was gone and I said I was done answering your questions. After a prolonged back and forth, a supervisor got on. 
When he proceeded to go down the same road, I stopped him and stated I am not applying for a loan, just trying to access MY money in MY account that Ive had with them for 40 years! He said if I did not answer this question our checking account would be frozen and then shut down the following Thursday and that it included not only our checking but savings account. I repeatedly ask was this bank policy to ask these questions, and did I sign something agreeing to this. He stated repeatedly that it is the law and they are required to ask the question about income to keep my checking account open to me. So then I repeatedly asked what the name and statue number of the law was and neither person we spoke with was ever able to answer the question. 
By this time, it was very late on Friday XXXX. Monday was a Holiday so first thing Tuesday I called our local BOA branch and asked the Branch Manager, XXXX XXXX, to investigate. I called him back that XXXX  and his attitude was both arrogant and dismissive. He just repeated what the customer service department had stated about the account being frozen and after Thursday I would have no access to my accounts and it would be very difficult to get it all straightened out after that. He then continued to try and bully me into answering the question. He was not only unhelpful in any way but his tone was both pejorative and threatening. 
Needless to say, this 40 year relationship was now horribly broken. My husband was now trying to not only open a new account but change all the direct deposits, drafts and said banking operations so that all bills would still be paid on time and not suffer any disruptions all under their self imposed deadline. We closed said accounts that following Thursday. Unfortunately, the Manager was out to lunch as both my husband and I wanted to express our feelings of their unprofessionalism, hurtful and in our opinion, callous behavior. 
We have now repeated this story dozens of times to friends and folks who work at other banks. They are ALL literally dumbfounded by the actions of BOA and their blatantly uncaring responses. We are asking that this be investigated and proper complaints filed. No customer, let alone one with accounts dating back over 40 years, should be subjected to such crass and insulting treatment.

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