Consumer complaint received 2021-11-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
Bank of America ( BofA ) is engaging in a misleading and unfair business practice by inaccurately treating timely remitted credit card payments on the statement due date as delinquent, thereby subjecting the account to unwarranted " collection status '', late fees and interest charges. 

BofA 's unilateral time shifting technique is a significant generator of unearned revenue from its cardholders and windfall increases from across its customer base, by imposing both late fees ( e.g., {$25.00} to {$39.00} ) and penalty interest charges ( e.g.,18.24 % to 29.99 % APR ) to consumer accounts. 

Specifically, this subterfuge is accomplished by BofA 's disregarding and invalidating the local time at which payment is made ( if outside the Eastern Standard Time zone ). For example, a cardholder for an account based in the XXXX XXXX area, who timely remits payment in full for the statement balance at XXXX ( PST ) on the due date, will be automatically debited by BofA for an unjustified late fee and penalty interest charge on their next billing statement, even though payment was verifiably timely remitted in the ( non-EDT ) time zone where the cardholder resides. 

Additionally, BofA may incorrectly report the timely payment as delinquent to consumer credit reporting agencies, thus misreporting their payment history and damaging their credit score, credit worthiness or standing to lenders, rental housing providers and others who may use such agency information and rely in their accuracy and completeness.

Please note on the attached BofA current credit card statement the words " Payment Due Date '' ( highlighted in yellow ), which includes no written reference to a specific time ( geographically somewhere else ) by which such payment must be received in order to avoid late fees and penalty interest. A reasonable person would intuitively interpret the stated payment deadline as up to XXXX on the due date in the cardholder 's time zone ( where BofA 's statements are respectively mailed ). Indeed, there is no objective basis for any other presumption, imputation or good faith rationale. 

BofA can easily cause its bookkeeping software to accurately log payments according to local time, as other credit providers routinely do. Local time payment validity has been BofAs longstanding policy, and the opportunism cited here is a recent policy departure from a more honest and conscientious standard. 

Of course, BofA can correct its misbehavior seamlessly, as it already knows the cardholder 's identify, the time zone where the cardholder resides, and the precise moment when payment is being made in the cardholders time zone. It is simply choosing to ignore it to gratuitously increase its own corporate revenues at the expense of consumers.

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 monetary relief