Consumer complaint received 2019-08-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
My wife of 44 years passed away suddenly on XX/XX/2019. I contacted Bank of America ( BOA ),  on XX/XX/XXXX to advise. I was transferred to their estate department, where they advised that her personal account would have an ACH Hold put on it, and it was, no problem. I was assured that was all that would take place and that all other accounts would be accessible. I followed up with a note of understanding and asked again if there was anything I had to do, I received no response. 

Back in the XXXX 's her online id was set up by a helpful Banking person at a branch office. That setup included an ID which had my email address tied to it, our joint account, and our joint savings account was tied to it as well. Also tied to the online ID was her account which had an ACH hold put on it. We both used the ID for XXXX transfers, Ebills, and Bill Pay. We both participated in paying bills from the single account. This was simply because BOA can not link online ID 's together such that bill pay status, repeating transfers, autopay, all associated transaction history, and ebills are visible from multiple ID 's. This design feature makes collaborative budget, impossible across multiple ID 's. Notably, I live in a community property state. In addition, my wife was a self proclaimed computer illiterate person and my domestic chores included managing her online accounts. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice from BOA stating that her online id had been disabled by my request. As a result, this rendered Bill Pay and eBills useless and put me in a position of not being able to check on bill pay status, and not being able to see ebills in general such that I could cancel them. 

My 3 hours of phone time resulted in apologies, some concern, but the only action available was for BOA to list the Bill Pay vendors so that I could set them up under a different Account ID. They refused to reactivate the Online ID, and refused to migrate the account information tied to vendors, history, ebills, etc. 

I have copied in the text of my note to their estate department. 

Letter follows : -- -- -- -> Please see the screenprint below. 1st, I didn't request this action, and 2nd, I  was assured when I called in on XX/XX/XXXX that only my spouses ACH account ending in xxxx would be put on an ACH hold. That hold would be in place pending the necessary probate information that is pending a court date in late XXXX. 

To my surprise, the note on the screenprint below states that I requested the online ID that we both used be disabled. I have escalated similar issues with BOA prior. The state I live in is a community property state, we both participated in household budgeting and bill pay. We did this through the online account that was shared between the both of us. Without this sharing, there would have been no ability to have joint vision into which bills were scheduled for payment, had been paid, and who the vendors were, and any associated payment history. 

Because of the action BOA initiated which I did not request, I can not access any of my bill pay functions, and I can not see any bills that show up to the Joint online account which had my online id of xxxxxxxx ... .3, and my email address of xxxxxxxx XXXX. I can not see anyone I had set up for transfers, and I have no visibility into anyone set up for XXXX, further, it appears I will lose any transfer accounts set up. One of which was my ... ... ... .. 's account. 

Further, because of this action which I didn't request, and I wasn't told about, I also have no way to disable autopay functions which I have set up through Bank of America. Further, I can not disable ebills, I can't even see who I initiated ebills with, And again I have lost any history of Bill pay by vendors. 

I would encourage BOA to take a critical look at this process. Budgeting is a collaborative process, or was in our household, and at this point, I'm grateful that I wasn't using any brokerage services of BOA. No telling what that would do for automatic withdrawals.

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