Consumer complaint received 2019-06-27
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not received from closed account

Complaint:
I am a US citizen currently living in XXXX. On XXXX XXXX, 2019, I received an email from Bank of America regarding a joint checking account I held with my spouse. The email stated as follows : [ BEGIN QUOTE ] [ NAME REDACTED ], Were letting you know that due to changes in the status of your account, PERSONAL CHECKING/SAVINGS ACCOUNT ending in XXXX is no longer available to make payments in Bill Pay. 
Any pending payments and automatic payment plans set up in Bill Pay that would have been paid from this account have been canceled. Please ensure that alternative arrangements are made for any payments that are canceled. You may be able to set up payments and automatic payment plans in Bill Pay using a different Pay From account. Note that payments and payment plans paid from other Pay From accounts in Bill Pay will not be impacted. [ END QUOTE ] Upon receiving the XXXX XXXX, 2019 email, I logged on to my Bank of America account in an effort to determine the nature of the status change. I discovered that not only was I unable to pay bills from the account in question, but I no longer had the ability to transfer our own money from that account ( which contained {$1500.00} ) to one of my other Bank of America accounts. 

At that point I contacted Bank of America to ask why the bank was blocking my access to my ( and my spouses ) money. I was advised that Bank of America had decided to close the XXXX account ( but not my other two individual Bank of America accounts ) for business reasons, and that even though the account closure would not take effect until XXXX XXXX, 2019, the bank would not give us access to our money so that we could move it to a different account. They claimed that we should have known to move our money prior to XXXX XXXX, 2019, because they allegedly had sent a letter via regular mail to us in XXXX advising that they were closing the account. They claim to have sent that letter via regular mail in XXXX, 2019, but because they had my correct address in XXXX, and the letter never arrived, quite frankly I believe they are lying. 

XXXX in Bank of Americas account closure department advised me that the bank would not enable us to transfer our money to a different account, but that the bank would instead send a check to us in XXXX for {$1500.00}, and that it would send the check via XXXX. When I asked for a XXXX tracking number, she hung up on me. 

On XXXX XXXX, 2019, I received from Bank of America via regular mail an advice of debit in the amount of {$1500.00}, but no check. On XX/XX/2019 I spoke to Bank of America again to inquire as to why I had received the advice of debit but not the check. I was advised that the check would have been sent out after the advice of debit ; that they could not confirm when the check actually was sent ; that XXXX had lied to me when she told me the check would be sent via XXXX ; and that the check had in fact been sent via regular mail instead. 

The following week I received a final statement for account XXXX, but still no check. The last entry on that statement was account closing transaction in the amount of {$1500.00} on XXXX XXXX, 2019. 

On XXXX XXXX, 2019, I contacted Bank of America to advise that the check they claim to have sent to us via regular mail, much like the alleged XXXX 2019 letter they claim to have sent to us via regular mail, has not arrived. I have asked that Bank of America send us a new check for the money it owes us, this time using any courier service of its choice that allows the parcel to be tracked by the bank and by us. It has now been 44 days that Bank of America has been depriving us of access to {$1500.00} of our own money. 

XXXX, on XXXX XXXX, 2019, Bank of America just telephoned me to say they refuse to issue a replacement check until NINETY DAYS have elapsed since they ( allegedly ) mailed a check on XXXX XXXX, 2019. On the facts of this case, where the bank blocked our access to our funds without warning on XXXX XXXX, 2019, claims to have sent a check 35 days ago by a non-trackable method, and has already deprived us of access to our own money for 44 days as of today, I find it downright outrageous that the bank thinks it is entitled to wait until XXXX XXXX, 2019 to give us back our money. 

I would appreciate your assistance in obtaining from Bank of America the funds from our account that Bank of America is wrongfully withholding from us.

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 non-monetary relief