Consumer complaint received 2015-10-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: VT
Product: Credit card
Issue: Late fee

Complaint:
I am writing this complaint because I was mortified and humiliated when my credit card was refused at a store that I have done business with for more than 25 years. I live in a small town and the store was very busy around XXXX on Friday and I was incredulous that my card would be rejected for a purchase under {$25.00}. 

I have had my XXXX from Bank of America for four years and have always been prompt in payment. I have a {$2000.00} line of credit and never even approach that limit. I write my check within 2-3 days of receiving the bill and it is mailed from my husband 's law office at that time. 

Upon calling XXXX I learned that my previous check had not been received, and therefore not credited to my account and that even though I still had approximately {$250.00} available on my line of credit, the card had been shut down without any notification to me. Apparently Bank of America shuts down accounts that are two months delinquent without notification. It is hard to see how this account was two months delinquent as I had not received the second bill ( ie the bill for the next month 's cycle ). Ironically, when I dialed the Bank of America Consumer Line, the first thing I heard after learning that my payment was late, was that I had {$220.00} left on my line of credit. ( The {$220.00} reflected the interest and late fee that had been tacked onto my bill, thus reducing my line of credit by more than {$40.00}. ) I spoke to several different customer service reps to try and unravel this. My first concern was that there might have been some fraudulent use of the card and asked the rep to go over the recent transactions He would only review the most recent XXXX, and when he got to number XXXX it was an interest charge from Bank of America for my outstanding balance. I asked for the rest of the month 's transactions and he said there were XXXX, he could not do it. I said there were only about XXXX-XXXX and I needed to know why my statement was supposedly delinquent. Reluctantly he went through them after saying he did not know where to begin ; I suggested where the last statement left off. 

My next call was to a supervisor as I was upset over the interest charge of {$16.00} and wanted to write a new check covering both bills, but did not think the interest charge was fair. After much discussion he agreed to drop the interest charge and I wrote the check, planning to mail it first thing Saturday morning so that the hold on my card could be lifted quickly. 

At the post office I found my new statement in my mail box and was stunned to find that the total I had been told I owed included a late fee of {$25.00}. When I called yet another supervisor on Saturday morning I was stonewalled with reiterations of Bank of America 's policies to charge both a late fee and interest and to shut down a card after two months delinquency. They felt the fact that one supervisor had waived the interest in no way suggested that the late fee should also be waived. They also stated that the two month delinquency was appropriate although I had not received a second statement nor was the second month 's cycle complete. As far as my humiliation in a small town was concerned, it was irrelevant. They also did not see that I was denied access to my line of credit as clearly their policy was a correct one. 

In summary : I find it highly inappropriate that Bank of America could summarily shut off my line of credit without notifying me that they were doing so and why. There was no reason for me to think that the bill had not been paid and because my checking account statement with my local bank is on a different calendar cycle, I had no way of knowing that the check had not cleared. The {$25.00} Late Fee is of much less importance than the loss of my line of credit and the harm done locally to my good name.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief