Consumer complaint received 2017-09-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
Due to BOA 's Faulty & Misleading Online & Telephone Banking System in any given current 30-day Cycle, it is impossible for BOA customers to know what their Accurate Available Balance is, & therefore is charging multiple unfair {$35.00} overdraft fees, which is very expensive if you use debit card a lot during 1 day & you have 3 accounts! 

PLUS, BOA does NOT issue An Authorization Code # for each transaction or charge made by the debit card holder ( customers ), SO HOW in the world can the customer ( me ) know what my available balance is in any given account in any given day?!?! 

And top of this, BOA also does the following crazy stuff : When I, the BOA customer, uses my debit card to make a purchase, BOA rightfully shows this amount as a pending charge in my account, & immediately deducts the amount of this transaction from my Checking Account Available Balance, BUT IF THE MERCHANT to whom I paid for this purchase does NOT claim for that money, IN REALITY, IN FIVE ( 5 ) DAYS, then BOA puts this amount of money for this purchase BACK into my Available Balance, & WIPES OUT THE TRANSACTION as if it had NEVER occurred! ~ and there IS NO RECORD OF IT! 
When I call in to BOA 's Telephone Banking Line, no one can tell me why I suddenly have more money in my account nor is there any record of this transaction! ( NOR, as I said above, is there any accurate record of such transaction in BOA 's Online System for my account, because that is all messed up too~ A customer ca n't go online to his account & find out any info as to an Authorization Code # for this transaction, or any other transaction~ Such Code # is NOT provided there either to the BOA customer!, so the customer never knows whether the transaction has been paid or cleared the bank, or is still in limbo, or WHAT!!! ) NOW JUST WHY BOA uses the Magical # of only 5 DAYS, to allow the Merchant to REALLY CLAIM for his money on any given transaction, before BOA wipes it out & puts the amount of money in each transaction BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT, is a MYSTERY TO ME!!! I would think they 've leave it deducted from my Balance OR just keep it as showing as a PENDING charge, UNTIL THE MERCHANT REALLY CLAIMS FOR THE MONEY & BOA TELLS ME THIS HAS HAPPENED!!! 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This having been an ongoing problem with Bank of America, for the past several months, even as far back as last XX/XX/XXXX, I finally decided to file a Complaint with CFPB, just as I warned BOA far in advance I would do , for they just kept putting me off, saying I had a good suggestion & " would pass it on '' ~ ( am wondering now if they meant only to the trash can!, because they never changed their faulty accounting system with regard to our " available balances '' ~ which cost me dearly, charging me multiple {$35.00} overdraft fees in all 3 of my BOA Checking Accounts, for neither I, nor they, could ascertain what my available balances truly were at any given day~ they were always in a state of flux or on " shifting sands ''. ) In fact on one day, toward the end of my doing business at BOA, one of their representatives, XXXX in Delaware, realized, after struggling with my on the phone, reviewing one of my accounts online, that it showed the same 3 transactions or charges made to my account that were both posted as " pending '' AND as having been PAID or CLEARED in my account, all at the same time!!! ~ He was completely baffled & totally bewildered in discovering this!

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