Consumer complaint received 2024-09-20
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

In XXXX, I took out a balance transfer credit card with Bank of America to help me pay off my credit card debt. I transferred a few XXXX dollars to the BoA card and have been paying it down since then. My original zero-interest promotion expired after 18 months, but BoA offered me another zero-interest balance transfer, so I moved more money onto the card and continued to pay it off. This had all been unremarkable until recently. 

A few months ago, I noticed something on my BoA statement that I hadnt before : {$680.00} dollars classified as purchases. This seemed odd to me because I had never made a purchase on this card I created the account solely for the purpose of paying off the balance transfers. 

I called BoA and asked if they could clarify what these purchases were for I couldnt go back far enough in my online history to find the original purchase, and neither could the representative. They said they would have their records department send me hard copies of my old statements. A few weeks later, I received a thick envelope of paper statements but again, the statements didnt go back far enough to reveal the original purchase. 

I called BoA again ; once more, their representative could not locate the original purchase, and once more offered to send my old statements. Again, I received a thick packet of old statements that did not go far back enough to reveal the original purchase. 

I called a third time. This time I contested the charges and was directed to a rep who was able to access my oldest statements over the phone. Finally, this representative was able to get to the bottom of it : Indeed, I had never made a purchase on this card. What had transpired was that I had incurred XXXX late payment fees during the peak of the pandemic late spring and summer XXXX and XXXX late payment fee in XXXX. 

These late fees had been reclassified as purchases and had been ballooning with interest since then at a rate of 25.24 %. 

Whats more, you cant pay off something classified as a purchase until you pay off your entire balance transfer amount ( the balance transfer and purchase column are both subject to 25.24 % interest ). 

I understand that I made the mistake of a few late payments. In XXXX, I, like millions of people, was distracted, preoccupied and fearful of the pandemic and everything else that was going on at the time. I had also lost my sources of income due to the pandemic. 

That said, I can own my mistake of late payments during this time. If these penalties were charged as simple one-time fees it would have been XXXX thing. What I find predatory, onerous, and exploitative is Bank of Americas policy to reclassify late payment fees as purchases in order to sneak them into a column that is subject to interest, and then not let you pay this column off until you pay off ALL of your balance transfer debt. Bank of America also seemed content to keep the truth of this matter hidden from me -- as I said, I had to get through XXXX lengthy customer service phone calls and XXXX packets of pointless stacks of paper to even get to the bottom of what happened. 

This seems to be an obvious example of predatory lending. 
What recourse do I have in this situation?