Consumer complaint received 2015-08-27
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX. I 'm writing this complaint behalf of my wife XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX after her college education, my wife moved back to her mother 's house. She called Bank of America for XXXX things : ( 1 ) update address and ( 2 ) cancel the auto-transfer between the checking and saving ( She used to auto-transfer {$400.00} from checking to saving to pay monthly rent in college. Now since she moved back to her mother 's place, the auto-transfer is not applicable any more ). The customer rep from BoA told her everything was taken care of. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we got married and she became a staying home mother taking care of our newborn. At that point, we decide to not use her BoA account for any other purpose but paying her student loan. Meanwhile she called again to updated her address to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX MA XXXX. So every month, I will calculate the amount we need to pay to XXXX XXXX and transfer the money from my BoA checking account to her BoA checking account. Next day, XXXX XXXX ( now XXXX ) would withdraw the exact amount from her account, which I transferred earlier. We never realize there is an issue until XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my wife and I logged into her very inactive BoA checking account, we found we have been charged over-draft fee {$35.00} for MANY times. I immediately contacted BoA. They explain to us that the reason over-drafting fee happened mainly due to the XXXX dollars auto-transfer which she called to cancel back on XX/XX/XXXX. There will always be XXXX dollars short in checking account to pay XXXX XXXX after the auto-transfer because we only transfer the exact amount for loan payment each month. 

We told them that we have already cancelled the auto-transfer long time ago. Also we have never received any letter from BoA saying we have over-drafting issue. They could n't give us an answer. They suggested us filing a fraudulent claim because they said it could be irregular online activities. BoA refused to refund our over-drafting fee before the investigation was concluded. They told us we would receive a phone call in 2 weeks about the decision. 

We have waited for almost a month and half. No one ever called us. So we called them again. This time they told us the claim was denied due to the fact the auto-transfer was setup before XX/XX/XXXX and never got cancelled properly. We argued we called in and cancelled it. They told us the only way to cancel it is to go to the banking center. However, they cancelled it over the phone with us afterward, which raise a big doubt about their practice and consistency of their statement. My wife was very upset because she was told it was taken care of way back on XX/XX/XXXX. 

So I called them again to ask why there is never an over-draft notice sent to us when it happened. We could take care of it before it got dragged to the point cause a couple hundred dollars loss to us. We work hard for our money and no one wants to be charged {$750.00} over-draft fee within a period of 2 years. After hours of phone call with them, they eventually told us the address has never been updated. So the letter was sent to my wife 's college apartment. We could n't believe it. That was more than 5 years ago. Among this period, she said she had at least called BoA 3 times to update the address - now we actually live in XXXX, MA. This time, the Rep from BoA said she felt very sorry, but she wo n't be able to refund our over-drafting fee due to the fact it has passed 90 days. 

At this point, we strongly felt we have been played by their system. They refused to refund the money belong to us with the reasons do not stand. We are definitely not the first victims. There is something need to be done.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief