Consumer complaint received 2018-04-17
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
Hello. I really hope you can help me with this as I don't know what to do anymore. I suppose this is part complaint and part plea. 

My name is XXXX XXXX. Many years ago I was in a debt consolidation plan with a company called the XXXX XXXX XXXX. I believe I began the program in XX/XX/XXXX, For a few years they were helping me with paying down my debt with all my creditors. It was actually working pretty well. The problem happened when I made my final payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX per our original agreement. XXXX XXXX XXXX basically told me that they were done and that I had to do the rest on my own. This happened sometime in XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX said that the only debt I had left was a Bank of America account. 

When they told me this I panicked. I had been giving XXXX XXXX XXXX money for years and they had been making payments to all my creditors the entire time so I didn't even know where to begin afterwards. XXXX XXXX XXXX said they would send me documents that would show me what to do but I don't ever remember receiving them. According to XXXX XXXX XXXX, I had already made over {$3000.00} in payments and only owed about {$1500.00} left to Bank of America. Ultimately it seems that Bank of America was never finished being payed off. 

Now I am attempting to move on with my life as I have already spent years and thousands paying off my creditors and it seems like Bank of America is still affecting me to this day. I have tried calling them and attempting to work something out with them but they are unwilling to do anything for me. I have even offered to complete whatever agreement was made before but they refuse. After speaking with them various times I finally decided to hire another company to try and assist me with this situation. 

My representatives have been in communication with Bank of America and have found out a lot of facts for me. When I was with XXXX XXXX XXXX, my balance to Bank of America was {$8600.00}. It seems that the original agreement between XXXX XXXX XXXX and Bank of America was to make 12 payments of {$450.00} for a total of {$5300.00}. Once those payments were made, Bank of America would consider this a settlement in full. At the time that I had made my final payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX had already paid 8 payments of {$450.00} which totaled {$3600.00}. My remaining balance would have been 4 payments of {$450.00} leaving a remaining balance of {$1700.00}. 

I am not an unreasonable person. I understand that in Bank of America 's eyes I never completed the arrangement that was made. However, I am upset because I feel like I was victimized by XXXX XXXX XXXX. I did everything they asked me to. I came up with money to save. I gave them my routing and account number and all the necessary information to pay creditors with or even set up automatic withdrawals from my account. I also made all my payments to them for my services. If I had known that as soon as they received my final payment they would have quit on me before completing my case, I never would have hired them in the first place. 

Now that I am the one contacting Bank of America to attempt to complete this agreement, they are saying that they won't work with me and won't honor the agreement. I have even attempted to make a 1 time lump sum settlement with the money I have been able to save up just so they know I mean business but they will not budge for less than {$4400.00}. This is so upsetting I am at a loss for words. I can't afford {$4400.00} and I probably never will. Bank of America has already obtained {$3600.00} from me and to say they won't take less than {$4400.00} is to pretty much tell me that I have to pay what I owed in the beginning when the deal was being made. And although Bank of America may believe that since I owed that money I should have to pay it anyways, I feel it's wrong that I'm essentially getting screwed for doing everything I was supposed to. Please help me with this. I am just trying to pay Bank of America what we had agreed upon originally or something close to it. I shouldn't be punished for something that was out of my control.

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