Consumer complaint received 2022-01-10
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Non-sufficient funds and associated fees

Complaint:
Bank of America kept deducting {$5.00} from my savings account since XX/XX/2021. They started doing this after apparently changing their minimum balance requirements, about which I was never informed, neither through a notice in mail or email or account message or phone call or by any other means. I was kept completely in dark until I noticed this in XX/XX/2021 just by chance when I logged in to my account. I am a resident of XXXX and I do not use my USA account often ( used only when I am travelling to USA, which is even more reduced during pandemic ). 

As soon as I noticed these monthly deductions, I called their customer service ( XXXX ) and explained all this, requesting to reverse these charges. They refused to do that saying that it is beyond a certain timeframe for reporting and reversing a charge! Frustrated with arguing with the representative, I transferred enough money into this account to avoid fees, paid up the pending fees ( {$35.00} for 7 months of charges ) and asked to close this saving account. I checked my account again today and lo-and-behold, not only had they not closed the account but charged {$5.00} AGAIN! This, despite them moving all the remaining balance from this saving account to my checking account, as a precursor step to closing the account! So once again, I am being charged unfairly ( maybe fraudulently ) by BofA despite me making all the efforts to resolve this issue promptly. I am writing this message to you while I am waiting to speak with BofA to resolve this AGAIN ( I waited for 45 minutes when a representative answered and after I explained all this, she asked me to hold and after 2 minutes the call was disconnected! ) So I am calling AGAIN while writing this message!

By the way, BofA online systems ( mobile app as well as their website login ) has no means for me to close an account on my own OR dispute these transaction! They don't even have a message center where I can send them a message with my request. Calling them on the phone ( and waiting for a longggg time to catch hold of a representative ) is the ONLY way to do get such issues resolved! And they make it really difficult, indicating that this is deliberate tactic to make money from such practices! It is public knowledge that BofA is at the top of making billions every year from such fees! Please do something about this. It is beyond frustrating. There is no BofA branch near my residence in XXXX that I can visit to resolve this! 

So, in perspective, I was on call with BofA for more than 1hr on XXXX, XXXX minutes today ( XXXX ) before being hung-up on, and already more than 30 minutes on my second effort today, just to be able to close my account! I, along with millions of BofA customers, are being charged " account maintenance fee '' for a service that BofA is NOT providing! Maybe it's a ground for class action.

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