Consumer complaint received 2018-05-12
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was in XXXX, XXXX and made a purchase with my Bank of America credit card there using the chip.

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notification from BofA that they suspected fraud on my account. I immediately called BofA and they notified me that three charges had been made to my card on XX/XX/XXXX in XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX. ( I later found out that one of these charges had been made within 55 minutes of the time that I used my card in XXXX, XXXX. ) I confirmed to BofA that my card was in my possession and that the three charges in XXXX XXXX   were in fact fraudulent. BofA issued me a statement credit.

On MXX/XX/XXXX, I logged on to my BofA online banking and noticed for the first time that the credits BofA had issued me for the three fraudulent charges had been reversed on XX/XX/XXXX I immediately called BofA to find out why, and was told that they reversed the charges because their internal investigation had revealed that my chip was used in the three XXXX XXXX charges so I would be liable. The person I spoke with indicated that BofA 's position is that it is impossible to counterfit a chip. At this time, I explained that on XX/XX/XXXX I was in XXXX  and had my card with me and had in fact used it in XXXX on that day. I asked the representative to pull the time stamp of the charges and he at that time confirmed that he was able to verify that my chip was also used in XXXX onXX/XX/XXXX and that the charge in XXXX, XXXX and one of the charges in XXXX XXXX were made within 55 minutes of each other. I explained that with air travel it takes over 3 hours to get from XXXX XXXX to XXXX, and that it is not possible for my card to have been used in XXXX XXXX 55 minutes from the time it was used in XXXX, XXXX. The representative said he would ask for the investigation to be reopened and for the fraud dispute credits to be reissued in the interim while it was being reinvestigated.

On XX/XX/XXXX I logged back on to my BofA online banking and the fraud credits had not been reissued. I called again and spoke to BofA who confirmed the fraud credits had not be reissued. The dispute department was unable to help me on my call.

Unless the laws of physics do not apply to Bank of America 's chip cards, my card was not in both XXXX and XXXX XXXX within 55 minutes. Either ( i ) the chip in my card was counterfit, in which case Bank of America ( and other US card issuers ) have a big problem on their hands that they should be working to solve ; or ( ii ) BofA is lying to me ( either intentionally or because their investigation was performed negligently or incompetently ) when BofA tells me that my chip was used in the three fraudulent XXXX XXXX transactions. The credit for the fraudulent charges should be reissued to my account.

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