Consumer complaint received 2024-06-07
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

My credit card payment is due on the XXXX of the month. On XX/XX/XXXX, as I do every month, I went online to my account and scheduled a credit card payment for XX/XX/XXXX. The next day, I realized that I would have to pay for a repair to an appliance on XX/XX/XXXX and therefore needed to make a smaller payment than I had planned. I went online to my account, cancelled my payment on the XXXX, and scheduled a new one for {$200.00} less, also on the XXXX. Since I had never before cancelled a payment, I was extremely careful : I cancelled, and then waited for an acknowledgment that the payment had been cancelled, which I received ; then I scheduled the new, lesser payment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I woke up and checked my email and my checking account had a negative amount posted and I had received a notice that my balance was below XXXX. I went to my account and discovered that both of the payments I had scheduledthe XXXX I had cancelled and the second one I had then XXXX been withdrawn from my account. They were " pending, '' so when I called the customer service line, the person I talked to ( after holding for an XXXX and XXXX minutes and being told multiple times via recording to use online banking instead ) said I would have to wait until the payments had both been processed and then I could request the return of XXXX of them. So at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX I called back and spoke with a customer service person. They processed the return of the first payment, but then told me it could take up to XXXX days to appear back in my account. I said Wait a minute! You took it out in XXXX hours, it needs to go back in the same time frame! He told me that wasn't possible because there was a " process. '' I asked what process and he said it was federal regulations, that there was an investigation process. 

I said that I understood if I had made XXXX payment and was now withdrawing it and would therefore owe the bank money that there might be an inquiry, but since I was only withdrawing XXXX payment and had already made another XXXX ( that was twice my minimum amount due ), there shouldn't be a problem. He said he was powerless to change it. I went up the line XXXX supervisors, and the top one I spoke to finally lost her helpful attitude and told me that it was my mistake for making the XXXX payments, that the automated system wouldn't have made that mistake, and that I would have to wait. 

I explained that I was now more than {$900.00} short and that I had no money to cover myself for the next XXXX days until I received my social security check. She said I was free to use my credit card! I told her that I wasn't about to incur more fees and interest for something that was the bank 's fault. She would offer nothing further and reiterated that it had to have been my mistake. I said that the bank encourages its customers to use the automated system, and then blames the customers when the system doesn't work for them and refuses redress. She replied that there was nothing she could do. 

I have been a Bank of America customer since XXXX. I carefully followed the instructions of the automated system, received acknowledgment that my payment had been cancelled, and only then, responsibly and in a timely manner, made provisions for a new payment, and was penalized for that. And I don't have enough money to cover my bills for the next XXXX days, some of which are on automatic payment status to be withdrawn from my account, because the bank encourages you to do that! 

I have added a screen shot from my account of the XXXX payments that were withdrawn on the same day, plus the check to the appliance repair person, which he cashed as soon as he received it. I had to transfer all but {$100.00} from my savings account to cover the overages in my checking, and don't have enough in checking to cover bills for the next XXXX days.