Consumer complaint received 2018-01-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX XXXX ( according to XXXX XXXX ) I applied for an XXXX XXXX card from Bank of America. I 'd first like to complain about their offer and advertising for this card. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX If you apply and are approved for the XXXX version of this card, you receive a generous bonus and benefits. If instead you are approved for the XXXX XXXX version of the card, you receive a fraction of the benefits, almost nothing. You receive only 5K bonus miles with the XXXX XXXX, compared to 30K bonus miles and a companion ticket with the XXXX. BofA states " For more information on the differences, see the Features section accompanying the application. '' Complaint # 1 : They should n't do this. They should clearly offer the people the chance to apply for one credit card, to enter into one contract, rather than to play a lottery to enter one of two contracts. When I apply for a new apartment, an apartment which I choose, and send in my first month 's rent, it would be egregious if the landlord said " you 've been approved for ... this apartment instead, and your rent begins now, we 're applying that check to this apartment. '' One should clearly be able to exempt oneself from consideration for the inferior XXXX XXXX card. 

Complaint # 2 : The above quote is actually incorrect. The prominent and clear Features section of the front page does not disclose that the XXXX card will earn 30K while the XXXX card will earn 5K. That information can be found by clicking on the tiny hyperlink " rates and fees. '' The 30K miles and companion ticket are not rates or fees, they are features, and should be listed under the list of features, rather than tucked away under rates & fees. Once again, the 30K bonus and companion ticket are features. They should be listed under features, but are not. BofA 's claim that the differences are highlighted in the Features section is not correct. 

-- -- -- -- -- -- - I 'm sure many people have made that claim before. BofA is being unethical there, but strictly speaking they do disclose their bait and switch somewhere ( even though not where they say they do ). My main complaint goes further. 

Main complaint : I applied, and the application went to pending. Soon after, either that day or the next ( XXXX XXXX ) I called the reconsideration line, aka credit services. It 's very common for consumers to call over the phone and ask for their application to be approved right then and there. Many times, a bank is unwilling to extend extra credit, but may consent to move around credit to approve you for a new card. For instance, I called XXXX this year and they said " if we move XXXX credit from one of your existing cards to this card, then we can approve a new card, is that OK? '' If you say no thank you, the account is n't approved or ever created. 

Well a similar thing happened on the phone to BofA. An agent looked at my application, and said, it looks like we ca n't approve you for a XXXX credit line ( as needed for the XXXX card ), would you like me to approve you for XXXX? As a side note, they also lied to me, saying that as a student, I could not have a credit card with credit line over XXXX. Just months before I had had two credit cards at BofA with credit line XXXX. If they do have that policy, they should disclose that students are ineligible for the XXXX card on the XXXX card page. 

I said no thank you, I do not want the XXXX XXXX version of the card. The account should never have been created. As far as I know I did n't have any other communication with BofA on this ( I might have called again to try again for approval ) but I was clearly asked whether I 'd like an account approved for XXXX and I said no. I never received a card, nor a welcome package, nor did it show up on online banking. It never should have been created. 

However, I now see that on XXXX XXXX, there is listed an account for me, opened on XXXX XXXX XXXX and closed XXXX XXXX XXXX. I see this under both XXXX and XXXX through XXXX XXXX, and XXXX. I think that 's a little silly, an account opened and closed on the same day? No, I was asked whether I 'd like to open it ( at XXXX ) and I said no. I noticed this a few days when going through my records and realized what had happened. I contacted them through XXXX, spoke over the phone to a social media rep, who gave me the number to credit services. I spoke to them, and they refused to remove it. They asked me whether I did apply for the card, which I did, and said that was that. But given they specifically asked if I wanted to open a card at that credit line and I said no, they certainly should not have opened anything. 

Now this account shows up as a closed account on my credit report. This does have consequences for me. Lenders do n't like to see that many recently opened accounts, even if they have been closed. XXXX for instance, has a 5/24 rule that it will not approve anyone for certain popular cards who has opened 5 credit cards within 24 months ( even if those are now closed accounts ). I 'd like them to remove the closed account from my report.

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