Consumer complaint received 2017-07-26
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
I opened an HSA ( health saving account ) with Bank of America for me and my family a couple months ago. I deposited {$7700.00} into the account. I have since used it successfully two times to pay for out of pocket medical and dental services. When I log onto my HSA account at the Bank of America website, it shows a current balance of over {$7300.00}. However, when I attempt to use the card to pay for some dental work my wife had at our dentist office a week ago, I am told by the clerk at the dental office that attempts to use our HSA debit cards to pay for our dental balance are denied. I have called the Bank of America HSA account service line at ( XXXX ) XXXX several times since this first happened on XX/XX/XXXX and every time I talk to them I get a different story as to what is happening with our account. Here is the time line : XX/XX/XXXX : My wife goes to the dentist and attempts to pay our part of the dental bill with her B of A HSA debit card. The card is denied. XX/XX/XXXX : I call B of A and talk to a customer rep named XXXX. She said something about the card not being linked up. She said it had been activated just fine, but for some reason it just did n't work but she fixed the problem somehow and now its supposed to work. So I call the dentist and have them try both my wife 's and my HSA debit card numbers to pay for the bill and both are denied. So I called B of A again and talked to a rep named XXXX. XXXX tells me there was some sort of hold on the account but could n't tell me why. So she created a " case number '' XXXX and told me somebody is supposed to either call me or email me within 24 hours to let me know when they have resolved the issue. So I wait for the call or email. XX/XX/XXXX : Two days have gone by and I got no call or email. So I called B of A again and talked to a rep named XXXX. She tells me she does n't know anything about a 24 hour response time and that it always takes 3 to 5 working days to get the call or email and that they will call me when they have resolved the issue. She said I should call back on Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX if I have n't heard from them by then.
So I wait some more for the call or email.
XX/XX/XXXX : Its been more than 5 working days and I got no call or email so I call B of A again. Talked to a rep named XXXX. She looked up the case number and told me that the hold we lifted on XX/XX/XXXX and that thus I should be able to use the cards now to pay my dentist bill. She still could n't explain why the hold was placed to begin with. So I called the dentist again, had them try to use both card numbers to pay the bill again and again both cards are denied. So I called B of A again and talked to a rep named XXXX. She tells me the request to remove the hold was put in yesterday on XX/XX/XXXX but it takes from 24 - 48 hours to actually remove it. So now I am waiting again to see if this last story turns out to be the truth. But I do n't have much confidence at this point. Many complaints about B of A here : 1 ) Why ca n't their customer service people give me an explanation of why the card had a hold put on it to begin with? If I do n't know how the hold got put there to begin with, how do I prevent it from happening again? 2 ) Why does it take so long to get these holds resolved? It 's going on 10 days now and I still ca n't use the cards that have my money in them. 3 ) Why ca n't their customer service people provide a consistent explanation of if, how and when this hold will get resolved? Every time I talk to one of them I get a different story.

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