Consumer complaint received 2016-08-08
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Credit card
Issue: Balance transfer

Complaint:
I had several 0 % balance transfers on my Bank of America Card. Up until XX/XX/XXXX, your credit card statement would reflect the balance of the transfer and show the date when the 0 % rate was scheduled to expire. Starting with the XXXX XXXX statement, it would still show the date of expiration, but all of the balances for the transfers were shown as {$0.00}. I contacted Bank of America several times, and was told that there was a " system '' glitch and the problem would be rectified. The problem was never corrected, but I continued to make my payments in order to pay off the balance. XX/XX/XXXX, one of my grace period rates expired and I was charged interest. Due to the fact that I had XXXX balance transfers on the account, I was unable to differentiate the amount between the XXXX. On my XX/XX/XXXX statement, the amount that I was being charged interest on magically appeared on the statement, as well as the remaining balance that I still had the 0 % grace period on. I contacted the company, and was told that the reason they discontinued showing your balance was not from a computer glitch, but was a policy change that the company chose to implement. I explained to the representative that balance was only reappearing now that I was being charged interest ( 14.99 % ) on it, and he said that this was due to the fact that it was no longer a 0 % balance. He stated that they no longer show promotional balances, which was not true because the other 0 % balance also showed on my card. I asked him to waive the interest accrued, which he refused to do. I asked for a supervisor, who again explained that they had changed their policy as a company in which your balance remaining on any transfers was shown on your statement. He acknowledged that customer service reps had been giving customers misinformation by telling them that it was a system glitch when it was not. He also stated that the reason that they choose to show your balances as {$0.00} is because the dollar amount was not always accurate and customers were getting confused. I found this ironic because he tried to act like they were doing this for the " benefit '' of the customer, yet they have no problem showing your balances when they are charging you interest on it. I stated that if I knew the amount that was on the promotional rate, I would have paid it off prior to incurring any interest, just as I always have. I told him I felt like this was a deceptive business practice and asked him to waive the accrued interest, which he also refused to do. I requested the amount of the balance that I was being charged interest on, and paid it off that day. I have had the card for almost 15 years and have never paid interest on it until this new policy was implemented. I also have credit cards with numerous other companies, and have never seen a promotional balance show up as {$0.00}. I feel like Bank of America deliberately implemented this policy change make extra money off of customers like me that the diligently pay their balances down before any interest is accrued so that they can make money in situations that they had n't in the past.

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