Consumer complaint received 2017-03-15
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IA
Product: Credit card
Issue: APR or interest rate

Complaint:
I applied for a credit card in mid XX/XX/XXXX with Bank of America. My wife recently applied for a card with them, got a good credit limit and decent interest rate, so I decided to apply for one as well. The balance transfer offer is what really got us, 21 months 0 %. I applied for the card and upon submitting my application I received an email saying it was under review. That was fine, understandable. I was approved the very end of XX/XX/XXXX/beginning of XX/XX/XXXX. I received my new card and terms of my new card on XX/XX/2017. I was very suprised to find that they gave me an interest rate of 21.49 %. Again, that was fine ( for right then ) as I was focused on just using the 0 % balance transfer offer and paying that balance off before it expired. On the VERY SAME DAY I recieved an offer for THE SAME EXACT card from Bank of America. Same Balance Transfer offer - 0 % for 21 months, HOWEVER, the interest rate AFTER the balance transfer would be 13.49 %. Obviously, I had my wife call immediately to have my interest rate lowered to the 13.49 %, since clearly my credit qualified me for it. When she got a representative on the phone, however, they were ZERO help. My wife is an expert in credit cards and knows a lot more about them than me, which is why she called. They refused to lower the rate, said they could assist in helping mm apply for the offer I recieved and were rude and disrespectful to my wife. My wife explained we recieved an offer of 13.49 % and the representative - manager - and other manager - told her that they do not send offers out with a set interest rate, rather a range of interest rates, implying that she was lying to them. I 've attached the offer received, it clearly states an APR 13.49 % after the XXXX offer expires! They then tried to tell her that credit profiles change - this offer was received XX/XX/XXXX and we applied for the card in mid XX/XX/XXXX. From the time the marketing offer was created to the time the application was approved that big of a change happened? ( It did n't - we monitor our credit very closely. ) Also, she was initially hung up on after being on the phone for an hour and she had to call back and start all over again. She was on the phone for over two hours trying to resolve this. I have serious reason to believe that Bank of America is not providing customers the interest rates they qualify for if they are applying online. This is completely unfair and not at all a good business practice. Additonally, the service my wife received is unacceptable. It could be a coincidence, but everyone she spoke to was a man and they were all disrespectful to her and treated her like she did not know anything. If I would have called in would I have been put through so much of a hassle? Bank of America seriously needs to take a second look on how they review credit profiles. I will not put another hard inquiry on my credit to recieve the interest rate offered to me on the marketing offer, because I should have recieved that in the first place. This seems like a major UDAAP issue as far as I am concerned.

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