Consumer complaint received 2021-12-10
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: RI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021, I received an overdraft email for 'Unusual Debit Card Activity Detected ' with multiple transactions made from my debit card through a XXXX that I did not recognize, totalling {$4900.00}. I have contacted XXXX Support and Bank of America in hopes of them returning my funds, how the transactions were being made and had opened up a claim on Bank of America that same day. I immediately cancelled my locked and ordered a new debit which arrived on XX/XX/2021. 

Contacting XXXX Support resulted in them redirecting me to Bank of America since the nature of this claim was that the XXXX in question was not mine ; making the transactions of a fraudulent nature. Upon visiting a branch location, an associate told me that I had somehow given up my information to somebody I knew or left my debit card around, which was false. 

On XX/XX/2021 my claim with Bank of America was denied prompting me to call and contact asking the reason why ; being with the time it took me to open a claim, they were not able to pay me. 

On XX/XX/2021, upon receiving my new second debit card, more unauthorized transactions made through XXXX by the same person occurred within 48 hours of activation totaling another {$100.00}. Upon calling Bank of America support and opening up a second claim with the new debit card, I received a temporary credit for this claim but not for the {$4900.00}. 

On XX/XX/2021, I received another notice from Bank of America denying my second attempt at resolving the claim in getting the {$4900.00} back I contacted Bank of America again on XX/XX/2021 for more information on reporting the claim as fraud and retrieving my missing funds. An associate I spoke to that day informed me to fax a handwritten letter to Bank of America explaining how the transactions were unauthorized, along with a copy of an incident report with my police department and my XXXX statement for the year. I had also opened up a report with the Federal Trade Commission. I faxed the necessary documents on XX/XX/2021 at a Bank of America branch location. 

I received another notice from Bank of America on XX/XX/2021 stating that my claim was unable to be paid. I called the same day and an associate told me that while that status of my claim was listed as " resolved - claim not paid '', she informed me that they had only received my faxed documents and still were researching the claim and to wait up to 60 days to receive a decision. 

On XX/XX/2021, an associate informed me over the phone that my spending patterns and lack of response in the time frame was the reasoning behind their decision, even after explaining that this was the first time dealing with fraud and the first claim I have opened up in the 6 years I have been as costumer. I had also attempted to clarify that my debit card information was used for somebody else 's XXXX and not mine, and it made no sense for me to link my information when to a different XXXX account when I had my own. Towards the end of the phone call, the associate relayed that the documents that I had faxed over were not substantial enough to move forward with the claim.

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