Consumer complaint received 2020-02-14
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
SUMMARY : I believe that Bank of America is engaging in unethical or even illegal double billing practices. When I set up a payment with Bank of America and the initial payment does not go through, they attempt to withdraw the payment a second time. This results in my being charged insufficient funds fees by my bank, which creates a snowball effect : less money in my account means continued insufficient funds means continued fees means my continued inability to pay the credit card bill. When I called BoA and asked to see in writing where I was informed of this process of double billing and when I had agreed to this system, they could not produce that documentation. When I searched the BoA online Bill Pay FAQs, this information is never listed there. When I read the emails BoA sent me about the insufficient funds issue, those emails indicated that I had time to check my account & reschedule the payment, actively hiding the fact that they themselves had already scheduled a second attempt to collect the payment. I believe that what they are doing is exploitative and illegal since they're not informing customers of of their payment system, are actively misleading customers about double billing in writing, are not giving customers the ability to agree or disagree to this payment system, and are causing customers to suffer financial loss due this double billing system. Therefore, whether my personal issue is resolved through BoA, I believe this billing practice should be thoroughly investigated for all customers of BoA. 

PERSONAL FINANCIAL LOSS & RESOLUTION : This is a summary. Details to follow. So far, I have been charged {$110.00} in insufficient fund fees by my bank and {$28.00} in returned check fees from BoA. That's a total of {$140.00} in fees on a payment of {$210.00} which I still have not been able to make. When I called BoA, they refunded me the fee amounts and also refunded me the amount of one of the payments. They are currently in the process of trying to stop a third payment that would result in an additional {$58.00} in insufficient funds fees from my bank and an additional {$28.00} returned check fee from BoA. I have been told that they can not guarantee that this third payment can be stopped, but they are trying. As I write this, I am waiting on an answer. 

NEED FOR INVESTIGATION : THREAT TO ALL BANK OF AMERICA CUSTOMERS : I believe that the only reason that BoA is trying to resolve the issue is because I know my rights and threatened to speak with a lawyer or even sue them over these practices. I have a history in politics and law, so I'm especially well-versed on these issues. If I had not been well-informed and confident myself, I would not have received this resolution. It took me at least two hours on the phone over two different days to get these refunds. It also took me insisting on my rights, forcing call center workers to send me to supervisors, and then insisting that supervisors resolve my issue. In the course of these conversations, BoA employees tried to manipulate me into believing that nothing could be done, refused to attempt to resolve the issue until I insisted and threatened legal action, and still did not inform me of further attempts they would make to withdraw money from my bank account. ( Details to follow. ) So I do not believe this problem is limited to a single call center. I believe it is an exploitative institutional practice used against BoA customers. An investigation is especially necessary because regular consumers without extensive legal knowledge of consumer rights would not have received a resolution in a similar case. 

DETAILED TIMELINE WITH CONTEXT I live overseas and keep one XXXX XXXX account and one US credit card to use for online purchases and airline ticket purchases that require a credit card. I send money back to my XXXX XXXX  every month for a single purpose : to pay my BoA credit card bill. This means that there is a set amount of money in my account for this payment and no other deposits are made there. BoA has known this since I first became their customer. I have asked customer service employees for years to ensure that there is a note on my account indicating that I live overseas. In addition, my official address on the account is an overseas address. 

My overseas status is important because it takes time to send money to my XXXX XXXX account to pay my bills. Sometimes this can result in the money arriving a few days later than expected, which results in there being no money in my account to make a payment. This was the start of the problem in this particular case, and I accept full responsibility for not putting a long enough buffer between the time I sent the money and the time I scheduled the payment. Everything that happened after that, though, falls squarely on BoA 's shoulders. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : I send {$210.00} to my XXXX XXXX  account through XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : I schedule a {$210.00} payment with BoA for this date. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : In the morning ( European time ), I receive an email from BoA saying that the payment did not go through. ( The email was sent on the evening of the XXXX. ) This is the wording of that email : " Unfortunately, we were unable to process your scheduled payment for the following Pay To account, due to insufficient funds in your account : [ personal info redacted ] Action Required : This payment is still due to the Pay To account. Please deposit adequate money in your Pay From account and reschedule this payment using Bill Pay or  make the payment using an alternative method. '' I'm confused, so I first check my bank account to see what happened. I find that the money has not arrived from XXXX, which I don't understand. I also see that BoA tried to withdraw the {$210.00} on XXXX XXXX. I incurred a {$29.00} insufficient funds fee, bringing my balance to - {$27.00}. I then visit XXXX, and see that the money has not been sent. ( I still do not know why. ) So I resend it. Since it is Friday and XXXX needs 1 full business day to send the payment to my bank account, I know the money will only arrive on Monday, XXXX XXXX. 

As the BoA email instructed me, I rescheduled the payment for Tuesday, XXXX XXXX, just to be safe. This time the payment is for {$170.00} because of math : {$210.00} deposit - {$27.00} negative balance due to fee = {$180.00}. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : Thinking I had done what I needed to, I then left that afternoon for a weekend trip to the mountains to celebrate my birthday. Over this weekend, I did not receive any further emails from BoA, so I thought everything would be fine. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : After a long week during one of my busiest times of the year, I finally have the brain space and time to check my account to make sure that everything worked out. It had not. 

I see that BoA tried to withdraw the {$210.00} a second time on XXXX XXXX, the same day I'd scheduled the {$170.00} payment and one day AFTER I received their email asking me to ensure I had sufficient funds in my account and to reschedule the payment. This resulted in a second insufficient funds fee, bringing my bank balance to - {$56.00}. 

When the {$210.00} arrived on the XXXX, then, my balance was {$150.00}, {$11.00} short of the {$170.00} payment I had scheduled for XXXX XXXX. So when BoA tried to withdraw the {$170.00} on XXXX XXXX, I received a third insufficient funds charge of {$29.00}, and my balance is now {$120.00}. 

BoA sent me the same form email on the XXXX as they had on the XXXX. But I'd received no emails about these double billings coming back unpaid. 

I call BoA. The first woman I talk to after a long hold refunds me around {$60.00} to make up for the bank charges, but I'm still owed another {$28.00} in returned check fees from BoA. She doesn't have the authority to do this, so I ask to speak to a supervisor. He also tells me that it can't be done, at which point I insist, ask to see the agreement where it states that I will be billed twice for the same payment, and he can not produce that documentation. I tell him that I think what they are doing is illegal and I tell him that I am willing to contact a lawyer and sue over it. ( Things had obviously gotten tense. I'd been on the phone for nearly an hour with no resolution. ) He now threatens to end the call. I deescalate the situation. I tell him that {$28.00} is not enough money to put BoA at legal risk. I tell him that refunding this amount is the easiest way to make this all go away. So, very unhappily, he does this. 

Immediately after this call, I schedule a third payment, this time for {$120.00} because {$210.00} deposit - {$87.00} in insufficient funds fees = {$120.00}. 

XXXX XXXX, 2020 : I check my bank account first thing in the morning to make sure that the {$120.00} payment I'd scheduled the previous day had gone through or was being processed. Instead, I find that after I talked to BoA about the double billing issue, they had AGAIN billed me for the {$170.00}, leading to another fee, and leaving my account balance at {$100.00}, now {$20.00} short of the {$120.00} payment I'd scheduled for today. 

I am now livid. I call BoA and warn the person I talk to that I am frustrated and ask her forgiveness in advance for any frustration I might take out on her. I ask her to cancel the {$170.00} and {$120.00} payments, explaining that there is no way for me to get money into this account for another 4 days because I live overseas. She immediately contacted a supervisor and refunded me the {$170.00} payment, telling me it would take up to 10 business days to arrive. I was very happy to have some type of financial resolution.

Then I asked her to confirm that the {$170.00} and {$120.00} payments had been cancelled so that I would incur no more fees from my bank. She said this was not her department and forwarded me on to the Bill Pay department. After another long hold, I spoke with a second customer service assistant. She tells me that she can not cancel the payments because they are already being processed. When I tell her that I'll incur {$58.00} in new fees that BoA will owe me, and insist that BoA can stop the payments since they are the ones collecting them, she repeats the same line. 

I then ask her the same question I'd asked the day before : When was I informed and what agreement did I sign allowing BoA to pull the money out twice. She said it was standard procedure. I said that was not a sufficient answer : I asked her for the information in writing. She put me on a long hold and could not find it. In the meantime, I check BoA 's Bill Pay FAQ, which states this : " When is the money for the payment withdrawn from my account? If the payment is sent electronically, the money is withdrawn from your account on or after the payment date, within two business days. If the payment is sent by check, the money is withdrawn when we deposit it. '' When she came back on the line, I informed her of this. She continued to say there was nothing she could do. 

I then tell her I want to speak to the highest ranking person in her office, whoever her supervisor 's supervisor is. She hesitates, puts me on another long hold, and finally gets a supervisor on the line. He apologizes for the people I spoke with yesterday. He tells me that they should have informed me that a second attempt to withdraw the {$170.00} would be made. He then tells me the same line as his colleague : the payments are being processed and there's nothing he can do to stop them. I tell him that this answer does not deal with reality : they are the bank withdrawing the money, so they are the bank that can stop that withdrawal. I said he might not be able to do it on his computer, but someone, somewhere at BoA could. I inform him that no one can produce any information about this double billing in writing, that that they've already lost me as a customer, that I would be filing this consumer complaint, and that I would send this story to every journalist and big newspaper I know because I believe what BoA is doing is illegal. At this point, he takes me seriously. He tells me that he can cancel the {$170.00} payment, but he'll have to ask his escalation department if they can cancel the {$120.00} payment. He gives me his direct phone number and full name, and I am told to call back in 3.5 hours for an answer. He tells me again that the people I spoke to yesterday should have informed about the double billing issue. 

I then call my bank and ask how I can stop payments to BoA. I'll have to pay a fee of {$25.00} to do that + print a form and send it back, which will require me to go to my office since I don't have a printer at home. I decide to wait to see what BoA says before spending the money since, either way I'm going to be paying a fee : {$29.00} for insufficient funds or {$25.00} for the stop payment. There's also no guarantee the stop payment will go into effect before BoA tries to withdraw the money for the {$120.00} payment. 

I then come to this website to write this complaint. As I said, whether BoA resolves my particular issue is of little consequence. They're clearly not informing their customers of an exploitative double billing policy and are sending emails that actively hide that policy and falsely lead consumers to believe that they are in charge of when and how money will be taken out of their accounts. This results in real financial loss in addition to real time lost. So I want to say thank you in advance for taking the time to investigate Bank of America 's aggressive double billing practices. 

I am attaching a few screenshots : ( 1 ) The insufficient funds fees I've incurred so far from my bank ( 2 ) The transactions from the BoA account, starting with the first attempt to withdraw the initial {$210.00}. ( You'll notice that as I send these on XXXX XXXX, my BoA online banking indicates that the {$170.00} payment has successfully gone through. Yet another very deceptive thing considering that they sent me an email on the XXXX saying that it hadn't gone through. There, you'll also see the all of the refunds BoA made to my account to try to make up for the fees I've incurred from my bank. ) ( 3 ) Two form emails from BoA with deceptive wording that hides the double billing system. This wording indicates that I have control over how and when money is withdrawn from my account.

( 4 ) Screenshots from BoA 's Bill Pay help page about how and when money is withdrawn from user 's accounts. Nowhere do they indicate that returned payments will be double billed.

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