Consumer complaint received 2016-08-10
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: AZ
Product: Credit card
Issue: Late fee

Complaint:
Bank of America habitually misapplies payments intended for a current statement to the prior month 's statement when those payments are made within a couple days of a statement closing date, charges late fees, requires customers to make a second monthly payment, and requires repeated call backs, CFPB complaints and related efforts to get the problem fixed. For example, if I get a statement on the XXXX, log in on the XXXX and schedule a payment to occur on the XXXX, they apply it to the PRIOR month statement instead of the statement that just closed on the XXXX, and then they say late. This has happened on an estimated ten occasions in approximately the last two years. They tell me that if I initiate a payment on the date my account closes, even if I am setting it to pay in the future, it will be credited the day I institute it. And the troubling thing is, they will then apply it to the PRIOR month, not the month whose statement just closed ( i.e., they will not apply it to the now due bill, but will apply it to the account balance, leaving the now-due bill unpaid, then at the end of the payment period, saying it was not paid, the payment was missed, and applying a late charge ). So they then say I am late on the current month, even though I paid the bill a day AFTER it posted. So that is problem one, they continually fail to correctly apply payments and instead say payments are missed/late when they were paid within 24 hours of bill issuance. Problem 2, they have to be called repeatedly to fix it. I have filed more than one CFPB complaint on these very same issues, and they continue to get it wrong. This all happened again with my statement that closed on the XXXX of XXXX. I scheduled a payment on XXXX XXXX to hit XXXX XXXX for the XXXX XXXX bill. The payment, scheduled on the XXXX to occur on the XXXX, hit my bank account on the XXXX. And I had long since paid XXXX so did not have a payment otherwise due. The payment posted on XXXX XXXX, the day after the statement closed on XXXX XXXX. The payment shows on the website as having been made on the XXXX. The payment shows having cleared my checking account on the XXXX. But they say, notwithstanding all that, it really applied on the XXXX, the same day as the statement closing. And instead of applying it to the XXXX XXXX closing statement, they applied it as a general account payment, or a payment towards the prior month 's bill -- when again, I did not even have a payment still due from the prior month. So I call in and the first rep takes off the late charge, admits their error, but fails to move the payment over. Several days go by and the late charge is off but it is still showing two months plus a late charge due. This is Sunday XXXX XXXX. I spend over an hour on the phone with them, including being disconnected after first 15 minutes, and they say they have moved the payment over, no past due, and I need only pay one month. We are now more than two business days later and it is still showing a past due amount of two months plus a late fee. I am now filing a CFPB complaint at nearly XXXX, and will not pay it until they straighten it out. When I call they give me grief about why do I choose to pay my credit card so quick, why do n't I wait til the last day it is due, they need time for their accounting to catch up every month, etc. In any event a recurring problem that variably sees me just XXXX up my frustration and make two payments to avoid another several hours of frustration working with them to fix it, or I have to waste a bunch of time, including nights and weekends, like now. Finally, they repeatedly tell me not to trust information I see on the site. When a bill-due icon is showing, despite having made a payment, they say disregard it, that is not right, ca n't trust what you see. Same as the payment showing have been made on the XXXX on their site, ca n't trust that.

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