Consumer complaint received 2023-06-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Old information reappears or never goes away

Complaint:
This past Spring of XXXX I began the process of applying for a mortgage to buy my first home at the completion of my extensive years-long medical training. Upon applying for the physician mortgage, I was denied due to my inadequate credit score of XXXX, failing to meet the minimum of XXXX. This also precluded me from qualifying for a conventional mortgage due to my credit history. The only derogatory account on my credit report dated back to a Bank of America credit card ( with a limit of only {$5000.00} ) that I opened in medical school to pay for travel in XXXX related to applying to and interviewing for residency, a mandatory post-graduate training requirement. The card was slated to expire on its own in XX/XX/XXXX and was paid off in full by XX/XX/XXXX with the balance reaching {$0.00}, having never missed or delayed a payment. Evidently, an annual fee of {$25.00} was charged to the account in XXXX or XXXX of XXXX and I overlooked this, given that the account was paid off, no longer in use, and set to expire in the coming months, and thus no longer on my radar. Unfortunately, I did not recognize this oversight until XX/XX/XXXX when I received notice the credit balance had been reduced on the card due to my failure to pay the pending balance of {$56.00} ( after additional late fees were charged ). I paid off the balance immediately and closed the account as quickly as I could that same month. 

When I applied for a mortgage in May of this year, this months-long failure to pay remained on my credit history ( despite being more than 48 months old ) and significantly impacted my credit and ability to qualify for the much more competitive rates of the physician mortgage. More egregiously, when I called Bank of America to address and clear this history, I was told by multiple people at multiple levels of their ranks that there was no record of my ever having an account with them and was told there was nothing they could do to correct this issue. I have since had to submit petitions with the credit agencies outlining all of the above in an effort to correct my credit history. This behavior on the part of Bank of America has significantly impacted my credit standing and the lending options I had available in purchasing a home. Given the significant difference in interest rates between the physician mortgage I was pursuing and the mortgage I ultimately qualified for, this may well cost me multiple tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifespan of the mortgage, all due to a lingering unpaid fee of {$25.00} that arguably should not have been charged to the credit card account in the twilight of the card 's existence. In addition, Bank of America 's failure to correct the issue with the credit bureaus or rescind the derogatory account after 48 months is unacceptable and predatory.

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