Consumer complaint received 2021-03-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
I filed for unemployment benefits through CA EDD and upon approval I received a Bank of America prepaid EDD debit card. On XX/XX/XXXX I checked my account and noticed several unauthorized transactions on my Bank of America EDD debit card. I contacted the bank that day and filed a claim to dispute the unauthorized charges which in total came out to be {$7300.00}. The Bank of America claims specialist I spoke with filed the claim for the unauthorized charges and provided me with claim # XXXX and canceled my card as well as mailed me a new card right away. On XX/XX/XXXX I received several temporary credits which all together totalled {$7300.00}. I also received a letter in the mail from Bank of America informing me that the bank required more time to complete the claim investigation process and that I would received temporary credits for the amounts of the unauthorized charges while they continued their investigation which could take up to 45 business days. On or around XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter in the mail from Bank of America informing me that the bank had completed their claim investigation process and the bank has found that the charges where in fact unauthorized and that the temporary credits received totaling {$7300.00} for the claim where now considered permanent and the claim is now closed. On XX/XX/XXXX the CA EDD updated their system to help prevent fraud which caused my Bank of America EDD debit card account to be frozen and I was not able to access my account until I verified my identity with the CA EDD. I immediately contacted CA EDD and completed the process of verifying my identity. After my identity was verified with the CA EDD I was told it could take 7 to 14 days for my Bank of America EDD debit card account to be unfrozen. Around XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter in the mail from Bank of America informing me that my claim has been closed because they believe that the account or claim have been the subject of fraud or suspicious activity and any temporary credit received would be debited from the account and that if I had any questions or would like to request that the claim be reopened I could call the claims department at XXXX to do so. On XX/XX/XXXX my Bank of America account was unfrozen and I was able to access my account. After logging in my account I found that Bank of America had debited my account for a total of {$7300.00}. I immediately attempted to contact the Bank of America at the number provided but I was unable to actually get through in order to speak with anyone at the bank. Over the next two months I made several attempts to contact Bank of America at the number provided and on XX/XX/XXXX I was finally able to get through and speak with a claims  specialist. I requested that the claim be reopened and that the money which had been debited from my account by Bank of America be returned to me and deposited back to my account right away. The Bank of America claims  specialist said that my claim had been reopened and would be forwarded to there escalation department for review and that the funds would be deposited back to my account once my claim was reviewed which could take up to 60 business days. On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America to check the status of my claim and was told that my claim had been received by there escalation department for review and there was no further information on my claim at the moment, I asked if I could speak to some one in there escalation department but I was told that unfortunately that department does not have incoming call lines and there was nothing that could be done so I would just have to wait for them to finish the claim review. On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America again to check the status of my claim and was told that they were still working on it and to be patient as the claim review could that up to 60 business days to complete and either way at that time the funds would be deposited back into my account. On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America and spoke to a claims specialist supervisor about my claim to find out why the funds had not been returned to me and deposited back to my account since it has been over 60 business days. The Bank of America claims specialist supervisor told me that although my request to reopen the claim had been received unfortunately the claim was never actually reopened so it had not been reviewed but she could put in the request to reopen the claim for review so I requested for her to reopen the claim. After the claim  specialist supervisor finished putting in the request to reopen my claim told me that it could take up to 60 business days for the bank to compete the claims review process and deposit the funds back into my account and that l should probably call back in a couple days just to make sure the claim was reopened this time.

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 monetary relief