Consumer complaint received 2016-09-24
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing

Complaint:
I was purchasing a flight on XXXX XXXX. I almost completed the transaction and, at the last moment, was offered an XXXX XXXX credit card. This is issued through Bank of America. 

There was a lot of advertising material promoting the benefits of the card and there were documents of small print stating with legal significance what would happen with the card. 

But, there was nothing about whether use of this XXXX XXXX credit card would or would not waive the credit card processing fee usually charged by XXXX. Usually, XXXX does not charge for using a debit card, but they charge over {$7.00} for using a credit card. 

It would have made sense for XXXX XXXX to include waiver of the processing fee in structuring this deal with Bank of America because XXXX customers both promote and build goodwill for the airline when prospective credit card applicants see the customer using the XXXX credit card AND I assume XXXX is deriving a new income stream from this arrangement with Bank of America. In other words, XXXX is most likely " double dipping '' by getting paid by Bank of America and also requiring their own customers to pay them to process the company 's own card. I do n't know this as a fact - but it is a safe assumption. I do n't have the investigative resources of the federal government and I was not able to read the fine print on my computer screen ( and my printer was not working ). 

I figured that this card would get an exception from the credit card processing fee, since it is the company 's own card. 

I applied, was issued a card and clicked on a button to use it for this transaction. 

Was I surprised! Instead of two radio buttons for ( 1 ) credit card use with a fee and ( 2 ) debit card use without a fee, there was now ( 3 ) a third radio button for using the card that was just issued to me. That was convenient! Apparently, the XXXX XXXX website has been updated to use the information about the new credit card from Bank of America. 

I almost went ahead and used my new card when I saw that XXXX was going to charge me the credit card fee for processing their own credit card! 

I find it strange that they would charge a fee to use their own card. 

I find it deceptive that they did not say anything about this as part of their flashy advertising material promoting the card. 

If I had this reasonable expectation, I am sure many other travelers do to. 

Furthermore, I would imagine that the issuance of the credit card means that Bank of America " dinged '' my credit report. That was not necessary - I would not have applied for the card if I knew this was going to happen. 

Also, if they did " ding '' my credit report, it was not necessary because they already have underwriting information on me - I am a Bank of America customer and received preferential treatment in applying for the card. By logging into my Bank of America online account from the XXXX XXXX website, the credit card application was automatically populated with some of my information. Bank of America already knew who I am.

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