Consumer complaint received 2019-03-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
I opened a Bank of America rewards credit card in the fall of XXXX. The card had set percentages of rewards based on categories such as gasoline, stores, travel, etc. it promised an initial {$200.00} cash back if a certain amount was charged within a certain amount of time. I hit the required amount and had no issues getting the reward as a credit to my balance. 

In XXXX of XXXX I received a letter from BoA stating beginning XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX I would be able to chose where I wanted the reward percentages to go, on a month to month basis. Since the current largest reward of 3 % was set to gasoline and I dont use much gasoline, I wanted it to go to the online shopping category. On XX/XX/XXXX I logged into my account, hunted all over where to change this category and couldnt find it, so I made a phone call. I was told that BoA had underestimated the amount of time to roll out this new program to all its customers and could not do everyone at once so I would have to wait. I was irked because my understanding of the letter about the program was that one could receive a maximum of {$2500.00} in rebates/rewards in a calendar quarter, and I had two large bills to pay with looming deadlines, so I missed out on getting those points. 

Finally in mid XXXX the program came to me and I changed my rewards to on line shopping since thats how I do most of my shopping. I had a couple of questions so I called BoA and talked with XXXX on or around XX/XX/XXXX and she informed me because I had a XXXX XXXX account with the minimum balance required, I could receive a bonus of 75 % extra points if I opened up a BoA checking account so I did. I know the extra rewards were confirmed because I got a welcome on my online account. 

Soon after that I called again because I wanted to make sure I understood something about how these 2 reward systems worked. We are going on a cruise next year and I have to make the final payment the middle of XXXX, one that is quite large, around {$15000.00}. The cruise line offers a 3 % discount for using an echeck vs. a credit card. I wanted to find out if I when the month came, switched my rewards to travel and used the credit card to pay for the cruise, would I get both the 3 % and the 75 % additional points on top of that, and I was told a resounding yes, that I could add around {$400.00} additional on top of what the 3 % would be from using the credit card. This was then a planned to do for me. 

This week on Monday XX/XX/XXXX we decided to purchase our own airline tickets for the cruise, because the airline offered them cheaper than the cruise line. The cost was {$8600.00} ( business class ) but I called BoA first to make sure I could indeed switch my rewards category of 3 % to travel, and that this amount would qualify, and I was told yes. 

I switched the category, received an email confirming the switch and that it was effective the same day so I bought the tickets. 

Then going through my emails a couple of days later looking for ones to delete, I reread the one from BoA on XX/XX/XXXX before I made the airline purchase and thats when it seemed ambiguous about how the purchases worked with the rewards. I again called the company and asked if I would be getting XXXX points plus the extra 75 % points which would be XXXX. Total of XXXX points, or {$150.00} in rewards. After being switched to several different people and getting XXXX she told me the program only allows {$2500.00} in *purchases* per quarter, not {$2500.00} in *rewards* per quarter and I was way over that. I told her that was not how I understand it and was told by several people on several different calls that my understanding was indeed correct.

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 non-monetary relief