Consumer complaint received 2016-10-22
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed at XXXX that I had mistakenly paid an XXXX school tuition bill twice for XXXX my children ( which was previously paid and processed on XX/XX/XXXX ). XXXX was for {$3200.00} ( XXXX ) and XXXX was for {$3800.00} ( XXXX ). A total of {$7100.00} was being processed and overdrawing my account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I saw that I would be able according to the Bank of America website online bill pay that I could call to cancel the payment if it was processing so I did so immediately. I was under the impression that if it was a physical check ( not electronic ), I would be able to stop payment on all bill pay check sent on my behalf. Again, as far as I knew, Bank of America was sending XXXX physical checks to the recipient or payee on behalf of the account holder not electronic payments. Also, since I notified the bank and the recipient XXXX, I believed it would all be resolved by XX/XX/XXXX at midnight during ACH processing and clearance as no checks were cashed or remitted by XXXX XXXX. 

Bill pay cancellation was requested by phone on early morning and day check had been requested to be cancelled and not remitted by recipient. These XXXX checks were processing according to on-line bill pay ( and had passed the scheduling phase ). XXXX Check ( check # XXXX ) was sent as a corporate check ( so withdrawn immediately by Bank of America ) and another was sent as a draft check ( Check # XXXX ) that was cancelled. I was not aware the bank could choose in which fashion withdrawals from my account were taken and how they were floated. 

Nowhere on the On-Line bill pay website does Bank of America specially state that they have the discretion to send out bill pays ( physical checks ) as Corporate checks or actual draft checks. I was told that by requesting a cancellation prior to the check being remitted by the recipient ( XXXX had been notified to not deposit checks ) any corporate bank check drafted from my account ( # XXXX ) would take up to 5 days to process and it would show up twice during this time. As such, my account was overdrawn at numerous times and neither I nor my family was able to withdraw funds from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX in the morning after ACH clearance at midnight on XX/XX/XXXX - so only on 5th business day. 

I am entirely confused why Bank of America is not able to set up an immediate stop payment on any check draft or corporate check for any bill payment made that is not remitted to payee for ACH clearance. Yet it shows up on my on-line bill pay account as debits and credits. As I understand, these XXXX are physical checks sent by the bank on behalf of the customer. XXXX draft check ( # XXXX ) never appears on the account withdrawn history but the corporate check ( check # XXXX ) took 4 business days and XXXX debits and credits on my account ( XXXX ) to resolve itself. Again, the fact that the Bank Corporate check ( check # XXXX ) was not able to be cancelled and or blocked on evening of XX/XX/XXXX and never processed again against my account ( # XXXX ) was totally frustrating and entirely and inconvenience as I was unable to withdraw funds while traveling away from my family for work and my family was unable to use funds either.