Consumer complaint received 2018-09-12
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
In shortI applied for a card that was advertised to me, got approve and received a completely different card, different name, rewards, annual feed, everything. Bank of America is claiming this isn't unfair since the duality of this card is explained somewhere in the terms ( even though not explained in the advertisement materials ) and they are refusing to fix this. 

XXXX XXXX ( and Bank of America ) is regularly sending promotional emails and letters about their XXXX XXXX Visa  Signature credit card. 
Promotional material states a number of bonuses : SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER XXXX 's Famous Companion Fare + XXXX Bonus Miles Buy one ticket, get one for just taxes and fees ( {$0.00} fare plus taxes and fees from just {$22.00} ) plus receive XXXX bonus miles with this special offer. To qualify, make purchases of {$1000.00} or more within the first 90 days of opening your account. 

which all sounds very appealing. Sometimes you get letters telling you that you are already prequalified for this card. However, somehow hidden in terms there's line explaining that there are actually two different cards not one, Signature and Platinum, and above-listed bonuses are for Signature cards only, rewards for Platinum cards aren't listed. 

After applying for this card you get a message confirming that you're approved and a couple of days later you receive a card. Now this is when you find out which card you actually got, and to your surprise you might have gotten the Platinum one. At it is now that you find out what are the rewards this card gives you : XXXX miles instead on XXXX, no companion fare and a yearly {$50.00} discount for Alaska flights ( at a annual fee of {$50.00} ). 
This is what happened to me, I applied for one card and got a completely diffrent one that I'm stuck with. I don't want to close it and decrease my credit score, I also don't want to pay a {$50.00} annual fee for essentially no benefit. 

I ended up contacting Bank of America and it gets better! A customer support agent told me at first that the link I used to apply is outdated and that was an old promotion ( I used a link from a referral email generated by XXXX ) that isn't currently supported. Then his story changed and he said that the url was fine, it's actually because of the credit line. Apparently to get the Signature card you have to be approved for a line of $ XXXX and I only got approved for {$4200.00} so they send me a Platinum. And then to top it off he said that if I just go on Alaska 's website and apply from there I will end up getting the Signature anyway because the {$5000.00} credit line requirement is old too and they are just giving Signature cards to everyone. 

This is incredibly unfair, I used an url that advertised a Signature card and ended up giving a card I never applied for or wanted and now I'm stuck with it. Bank of America refused to help claiming that I've agreed to terms, their best solution was to offer to close it while trying to downplay the potential effects of closing a week-old card.

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