Consumer complaint received 2016-09-01
Product: Credit card — 
Issue: Billing disputes — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

This nightmare began when, 3 days ago, I received a phone call from a man purporting to be a Bank of America agent informing me that I was in arrears over paying the balance on their credit card and had about 48 hours to pay them over {$1000.00} in charges or be further penalized. I ended the phone call and went online to see if it was legitimate and found that he did indeed represent B of A. There was XXXX recurring charge on the account in question, $ XXXX/month, for XXXX, which was paid regularly by autopay from one of my checking accounts. Until earlier this year, my XXXX XXXX auto payment was also on that card, but B of A inexplicably refused the charges in XXXX, XXXX, and I did not XXXX this until I was 1 month behind in paying XXXX XXXX. I put XXXX on a different credit card, leaving only a XXXX monthly auto payment on the Bank of America card. 
Let me note here that I did not receive paper statements on this credit card and rarely used it -- I only knew about the monthly auto payment of {$12.00}, by way of a monthly e-mail, and seeing the debit when I balanced my checkbook. 
Suddenly I am informed by B of A, about 6 months after the XXXX XXXX charge was removed from autopay on their account, that I owe over {$1000.00} in late fees, etc., without ever having been notified that there was a problem. After a fruitless conversation with a Bank of America employee online followed by an equally useless and confusing online " chat '' with one of their reps ( I have a transcript of that ) the whole thing still did not make sense, and -- B of A holds me responsible for being aware because they claim they have been mailing me paper statements and none have been returned to them. I have received no such statements and have none on file, but I have complete files of the statements for all my other credit accounts. B of A tried to blame the Postal Service! ( why would USPS single out one account for nondelivery? ) To avoid further charges, I authorized a payment on my XXXX XXXX account -- but XXXX days later it still had not posted. I was determined to not let this drop without a fight. Today, I found out that the XXXX account I was paying on had been closed in XXXX XXXX ... so I was paying B of A for absolutely nothing!!! XXXX XXXX was very helpful. That account was opened under my husband 's name several years ago, but he had passed away in XXXX. They verified all my information and are issuing a refund check for all the payments made since his date of death! So this complaint is not about XXXX XXXX, it is about Bank of America, which has been billing me for a service I was not even receiving, and now wants to charge me usurious rates for not meeting their standards for a minimum monthly payment. The resolution I want is that I be refunded all the money from the {$1200.00} payment I made, and that the credit account be closed, with me owing them NOTHING! If XXXX makes good on refunding me all the payments since the date of my husband 's death, I will not request compensation from B of A. If XXXX does not come through with the promised refund, then I will expect B of A to refund me all the XXXX payments they collected since the XXXX account was closed last XXXX XXXX, as well as the {$1200.00} that I submitted as a final payment ( plus any other trumped-up charges they may have tried to add on top of it )