Consumer complaint received 2021-06-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Non-sufficient funds and associated fees

Complaint:
XX/XX/2021 was when I realize I lost my phone as I was out shopping with my husband, on vacation, out of town in XXXX Not even an hour later when I noticed my phone was missing, I immediately went to the nearest ATM with my debit card and took as much funds as possible. With third party ATM, it only allowed me to take {$500.00} with massive transaction fee. All while Im doing that, I called my phone company to lock my phone down and report it stolen. It is 2021 where technology is now different! With that being said, I had my debit card stored in my XXXXXXXX XXXX and they had access to it all whether the phone was off or not because all it needs is WiFi for the device to still be used. I always have a lock on my phone, but for the convenience, and the fact that I work front line, I wanted to avoid taking off my mask in certain areas when in public so I took the lock code off! When I called Bank of America, it first prompt me to my account summary they allowed a unauthorized transaction of {$5000.00} to XXXX XXXX As simple as a text from BOA asking did you use your debit card ending in **** and a reply back yes, they allowed that transaction to go through! Keep you in mind, I had all of my money in savings. The thing with BOA, when there are not enough funds in checking, they still allow transactions to go through but take money out of your savings to cover for your checking account! I immediately called the fraud department and informed them what happened. I also did a police report. Having that fall into the weekend, we arrived back home late that night of the incident. Monday I go into a branch to show them two forms of ID and my personal banker helped me enrolled back into my online account so I can upload documents to fraud to help my case. All of Monday, nothing went wrong. At XXXX Tuesday morning, I get a notification saying ANOTHER TRANSACTION of {$5000.00} for the same merchant ( Apple Pay ) went through! I only had a little over {$5000.00} in my account so not ONLY is my account under investigation for the first transaction, they allowed another one to go through which this time, left my account negative of {$4400.00} because this time i didnt have enough funds to cover the second transaction of {$5000.00}! Before the second transaction was made, I had {$570.00} in my checking account, not even thinking of having to take my very last out of my account because Im trusting Bank of America to protect me and my account! Who would of thought a financial institution already has a fraud claim open and allowed another unauthorized transaction to go through? Especially for the same amount? Especially for the same merchant? Its been a week and my anxiety is at ultimate high! I work hard for my money as everybody else does to! Calling them over the phone with ANY DEPARTMENT including fraud, is impossible because their excuse is we cant identify you you cant identify the account holder but yet you guys just allows two unauthorized transactions to go through? This is not a amount of {$50.00}, {$500.00} this is {$5000.00}! Total of {$10000.00} came out of my account. They are so helpless. I am prepared to give them all the documents! Two police reports. One for XXXX XXXX for lost phone and one here in Colorado for theft. I also have document showing I did a claim with my phone provider. Now they are giving me a hard time giving me a provisional credit. That is my money and bills do not stop! Thats how I pay my bills! I can not sit back and wait of of their time to get this straightened out for me. Telling me allow 90 days for them to complete the investigation i would not want to wish this on anybody but my experience with BOA is so stressful. All cards are recorded but as soon as they cant verify me, they pretty much show that they do not care! Imagine going through this and getting a response sorry there is nothing I can do so very unprofessional! I do not know what to do, I lose sleep, Im stressed, I feel so helpless.

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 explanation