Consumer complaint received 2021-03-23
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Getting a line of credit

Complaint:
We have been banking with Bank of America for 20+ years. Originally the business was a sole proprietorship. In XXXX the company changed status to LLC. Apparently at that time, the tax number on the account should have been changed from a SSC # to a TIN/EIN #. This was never brought to the owners attention. Over the course of the next ten years the owner opened several lines of credit with Bank of America attached to this account. Still no request was made to change the numbers associated with the account for tax purposes. When the pandemic struck the company applied for the PPP loan through Bank of America. Both the Bank of America and the Small Business Association allowed the business to apply with this social security number. Now that we are attempting to apply for the second round of PPP funding the SBA refuses to except our application because the Bank of America refuses to permit us to apply with our TIN/EIN, the number the SBA now requires to apply with because we have more than one employee. It took Bank of America almost a whole month to even bring this to our attention. We immediately began to attempt to fix this. We were subjected to extremely long hold times, literally hours on hold. When we finally reached someone ( usually we would just be transferred ) we would find ourselves speaking to someone who didnt know what was going on. Finally we reached someone in their PPP department who suggested we re-apply, using the same numbers as before, with a note attached to our supporting documents with instructions to swap the SSC for the TIN/EIN. We did as instructed. We also applied with another lender at that time for the PPP loan. The other lender found the same issue, that since the BoA had used the SSC # the first time, the second draw could only use the SSC #, according to the SBA. We were informed that we could have Bank of America contact XXXX and then the loan would go through successfully. We requested the bank do this last week ( XX/XX/XXXX ) in person at the branch in addition to opening a new account with which they could use to apply through them to the SBA for the PPP. The bank did not adjust the XXXX number as they said they would. After this ( XX/XX/XXXX ) the BoA declined the loan because the SBA instructed them to because the application used a social security number, not a TIN. Even though we had followed the instructions the loan was not corrected. Now, since the loan has been declined by the SBA BOA says they can not apply for another loan for us. We could use the other lender, but only bank of America can adjust the XXXX, and since, for whatever reason, they cant get this done, we cant apply with this other bank. Our hands are tied by BoAs inability to follow proper procedures and their incompetence. We are hoping to receive some assistance with this issue.

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