Consumer complaint received 2020-09-09
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
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:
Today is XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. I received several calls over the past few weeks from bank of america about the COVID deferment of my payment ending in early XXXX. I received 3-4 calls about this from people claiming to be BOA. When I spoke to BOA on the phone BOA asked if I still needed financial assistance because of covid in the form of payment deferrals. I told them no, I had autopay already setup as of XX/XX/XXXX for the minimum amount on the " due date '' which was XX/XX/XXXX. BOA acknowledged what I said and we disconnected. 

Today XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at my account and it was past due by 2 days. I checked my autopay in my phone app and on a desktop browser. I was able to confirm that autopay was still scheduled to pay the minimum payment on the " due date ''. I went ahead and paid the balance due immediately. 
I setup my autopay 26 days ( XX/XX/XXXX ) before the next due date ( XX/XX/XXXX ). 
I talked to BOA ~4 times about it being setup. 
Today I incurred a {$39.00} fee because I trusted that BOA would auto-debit my account. I am sure they are going to raise my interest rate now because I missed a payment. 

Today XX/XX/XXXX I called BOA credit card services, The woman that I spoke to on the phone named XXXX could not find a record of BOA calling me and then later she found that they " tried '' to call me on XX/XX/XXXX and they were only able to leave a voicemail. 
She cold transferred me to digital services who handles the digital services ( their online stuff ) .She provided me this number if I got disconnected : XXXX I told the guy on the phone everything that I had mentioned above. He told me there was " maintenance '' on my account on XX/XX/XXXX ( his words for setting up autopay< -- I had to ask what he meant ) This maintenance was done in the middle of the " next cycle. '' So technically the payment would not apply until XX/XX/XXXX ... 56 days later. Even though the forms in the billpay area use the terms " due date '' it is not applying it to the Payment due date displayed in other areas of the website/mobile app. He was able to confirm that I made a payment today using the Billpay system manually. While on the phone with him I noticed a new fee on my account that wasn't there when I was talking to XXXX. The {$39.00} fee I mentioned before. He said he didn't have the authority to do anything about the fee but he can send me to someone that may be able to do something about it. 

I was cold transferred again. They guy in the fee department could not see my payment. He tried to collect the money from me again ... that I had already paid online. He asked me how I set it up, I told him when I called the credit card services line there is an automated message that instructs me to use my mobile app or online banking website to set it up, so I did it that way on XX/XX/XXXX. He said it is better to call in and have them set it up with someone on the phone. He also informed me that there was also nothing he could do with the late fee. Shortly after that, he mentioned that since I setup the autopay on XX/XX/XXXX ( with the people that left a voicemail and that I never spoke to ) that it wouldn't apply correctly. I reminded him that I set up the autopay 26 days before the due date. I told him that with that time frame I do not acknowledge that these late fees are my responsibility. These seems like faulty program language or a direct attempt at defrauding customers. He still refused to do anything about the fee. 

I am submitting this to the CFPB because I am sure I am not the only person running into this problem and it occurs to me as deceitful and unethical in the way that it was handled. How many people are they doing this to?

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