Consumer complaint received 2023-09-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Complaint:
As happened in 2022, I received a prepaid XXXX  card from XXXX XXXX because I am a part of a study they are running on behalf of the XXXX. This time, I received two cards, not just one. 

I tried to set up the two card per Bank of America 's instructions, and at first I was sent to an account I already had on their prepaid card site, and when logged into my account there, I was offered no option of adding these two new cards.

Instead, I had to set up two more accounts, one for each of these new cards. So, once again Bank of America is working as hard as it can to deny people the ability to use these prepaid cards. For a total of {$50.00}, I now have three Bank of America Prepaid card accounts, with individual usernames and passwords. Seems like intentional obfuscation to me.

Oh, and for that first card that they tried to charge me for activating, despite the fact that their system wasn't even working properly at the time, they continue to send me spam emails, reporting that there has been no activity on a card that I exhausted the available balance well over a year ago, heading towards two years now. 

Please, hold these XXXX accountable for pulling these kinds of stunts. If I had a credit card with Bank of America, which I once had until I closed because of the bank 's predatory practices, it was easy for me to set up a single account for my checking, savings, and credit card account, which amazingly were all associated with one and only one account. Bank of America should be required to do the same for these silly prepaid cards. If they are allowed to sell these items into the marketplace, they should be required to make it easy to both manage them and use them. And for the record, they should not be allowed to issue one-time use, plastic cards. If they are going to issue plastic cards, those cards should be required to be ones that people can add value to if they want to do that. That would be in keeping with good environmental stewardship, which the US federal government should be promoting.

Finally, I want to thank you folks for holding Bank of America accountable for all the XXXX fees it was charging people. Now, they no longer charge if someone needs to call in to activate one of these silly cards. So, there is progress here ; but not enough. Too Big to Fail Bank of America is still taking advantage of consumers with its prepaid cards, and that needs to be stopped. I am also on a XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX, and amazingly I get a prepaid card from those folks every month. I don't have to set up an account to use those XXXX cards, and it is easy to find out the balance left on them online. So, if one company can do this, Bank of America can do it too. 

I now have three accounts on the Bank of America prepaid card site, all with distinct usernames and passwords. I was forced to offer Bank of America security question answers three times now. 

That is total XXXX, and should not be allowed. That is abuse of consumers, period, end of sentence.

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