Consumer complaint received 2024-10-18
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (TX)

INTRODUCTION Bank of America ( BofA ) charged me hidden service fees on my checking account and once I closed my checking account they engaged in a systematic effort to make it as difficult as possible for me to pay my credit card in order to extract the maximum amount of late fees and interest from me. Its no coincidence that for all 78 months I had my BofA checking account open autopay worked flawlessly, but as soon as I switched to another bank the autopay suddenly started having issues. Not only has this resulted in me paying a number of unannounced fees, it has more importantly dropped my credit score from XXXX to XXXX over a mere {$55.00} past due amount. BofA never notified me to pay this before reporting it to the credit bureaus. And they never notified me once they reported it to the credit bureaus, I only found out when a third party ( XXXX XXXX ) notified me. This late payment should be removed from my credit report. 

UNANNOUNCED SERVICE FEES At the end of XX/XX/XXXX I closed my BofA checking and savings account. I had these accounts open since XX/XX/XXXX, but began to be charged a {$25.00} " service fee '' in XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX of XXXX. I was never notified of these fees until they showed up on my statements. For this reason I switched to a XXXX XXXX banking account that charges me no service fees. 

FAILED AUTOPAY RESULTED IN LATE PAYMENT FEE In the past, my BofA credit card was autopayed from my BofA checking account. I haven't had a late payment in all 78 months I've had this account open. Once I closed my BofA checking account I set up autopay with my " external 'XXXX XXXX XXXX banking account. To this day I have NEVER cancelled this autopay or been told that this autopay was cancelled. 

INABILITY TO PAY ONLINE For reasons BofA has never fully explained, the autopay didn't go through in the month of XXXX and I was charged a {$25.00} late fee and {$4.00} in interest. I noticed this on XX/XX/XXXX and tried to pay on the website but it didn't give me the option to. Instead, the website said " Not eligible for Bill Pay. You don't have an account for use with Bill Pay. You'll need to open a BofA checking, money market or home equity line of credit. '' 1. BofA was actively making it difficult for me to pay my credit card off by no longer offering me the option to pay online ( this option was always available before I closed my BofA bank account ). 
XXXX. As I later learned, I DONT need to open a BofA XXXX account to pay my credit card, I am in fact able to pay it off with an external bank account. Their description is an intentional lie intended to pressure consumers into opening a bank account with them. 
Since I wasnt able to pay online, I called BofA. They told me I was still marked as a customer with a BofA banking account '' even though I had closed my bank account with them. They updated this information so that autopay would work in the future. They also refunded me the {$25.00} late fee and the {$4.00} interest fee as it wasn't my fault the autopay didn't go through. 

INCORRECT PAYMENT CONFIRMATION Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX, autopay still was not working for me so I paid manually through their app. On the same day on XX/XX/XXXX, I received email confirmation that my payment was successful. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, BofA collected my credit card balance and late fees. Then as I went through my bank statements for XXXX, I saw my payment made on XX/XX/XXXX was returned, and I was charged a late fee on XX/XX/XXXX. Not only wasnt I notified the payment was returned but on XX/XX/XXXX they sent me an email once again confirming that my payment was successful! 
I called BofA and explained that late fees on the " returned '' payment should not be applicable since I did pay on time, was notified TWICE my payment was successful, and was notified XXXX times my payment was returned. To further exacerbate the situation, in the hopes of getting the late payment removed from my credit report, I paid my account and all late fees even though I felt it was unfair to do so. Instead of taking accountability for their technical mistakes, misleading confirmation emails, and lack of transparency, they told me that customers should be monitoring and watching for these bugs created by the bank as if they don't have enough engineers on site to deal with the problems themselves. Then a delinquency was made on my credit report. Why should I be punished for trusting in their business in handling my finances and believing that the confirmation emails were correct as it is supposed to be correct in its nature? 

BANK OF AMERICAS FAILURE TO REMOVE LATE PAYMENT FROM MY CREDIT REPORT When I asked them to remove the late payment from my credit report they told me this wasnt something they could do since its an " accurate '' report. However, XXXX 's " Next steps for late payments '' clearly says : " If you accidentally missed a payment or have special circumstances, your credit issuer might be able to help. They may waive the late fee, set up a payment plan, and even reach out to the credit bureaus to remove a late payment. '' So BofA has it in their power to remove the {$55.00} late payment from my credit report and were lying that this is something thats out of their control. They took no regards that I opened this credit card in XXXX as my first credit card and have never had a late payment as loyal customer until I dont trust them with my money anymore. I'm going to medical school soon and will be taking out private school loans. Having my credit score drop 100+ points overnight means the cost of my education will be dramatically higher with higher and longer term of interest. It is unfair for me to have potentially an unnecessarily larger amount of debt on my shoulder because of a mistake made by BofA. Its ridiculous that BofAs hidden and exploitative practices can screw over a person 's life so easily.

CONCLUSION Clearly BofA is actively trying to make it difficult for me to make a payment now that I closed my BofA bank account. Apparently the fact that they can no longer use my bank accounts money to earn interest means my monthly spending of less than {$500.00} with their credit card is not worth it for them to maintain a fair and trusting relationship with me. I am paying for the huge price of a mistake or scam on their end if the late payment stays on my credit report. 
In summary, I set up autopay twice ( once on the app in XXXX and once after that over the phone with customer service ) after moving away from banking with them. Both times the autopay failed ( this never happened when I had a BofA bank account ). Then, when I tried to pay manually on XX/XX/XXXX from myXX/XX/XXXXXXXX bank account I was told by BofA the payment was successful ( TWICE! ), when in fact it got returned on XX/XX/XXXX in between two confirmation emails sent on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX without notifying me. They refused to remove the late payment from my credit report and have not taken any accountability for their technical errors, lack of transparency and communication, and deceptive practices. 

OTHERS EXPERIENCING BANK OF AMERICAS MALPRACTICE Unfortunately, it seems like Im not the only one who is a victim of BofAs deceptive practices. XXXX XXXX ( XX/XX/ ) have all filed lawsuits against BofA for their intentionally deceptive autopay practices. 
In XXXX BofA was fined {$250.00} XXXX for harming customers by double-dipping on fees, withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts. ( XX/XX/). Earlier in XXXX BofA was fined {$16.00} XXXX, the largest civil settlement with a single entity in American history at that point, for Financial Fraud Leading up to and During the Financial CrisisXX/XX/