Consumer complaint received 2024-01-29
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (CA)

My complaint concerns unfair late fees and interest charges resulting from failure of BMO Harris to send credit card statements to me in a timely way, thus not allowing me to send payments by their deadline. 

Problems started when BMO took over Bank of The West, where I had a nearly perfect payment record, and a positive banking experience, for many years. My last statement from Bank of the West was for the period ending XX/XX/XXXX. That statement reached me in a few days, and I submitted payment XX/XX/XXXX, in time for the mailed payment to reach the bank well before the XXXX XXXX deadline - as I had for years. 

Here is the record for subsequent months : Billing cycle XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX BMO mailed paper statement reached me approximately XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX BMO mailed paper statement reached me approximately XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX no paper statement was sent to me XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX no paper statement was sent to me XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX as of today, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I have not received a paper statement I do not recall ever asking to go paperless. I would never have done so, as I always keep paper statements for my records. Please note that BMO sent paper statements for XXXX months after taking over from Bank of the West, then stopped sending paper statements, without notifying me. 

Because of late-arriving statements, and then no statements at all, BMO claims that I incurred late fees and interest. Their charges were as follows : XXXX/XXXX/XXXX interest {$20.00} XX/XX/XXXX late fee {$25.00} XX/XX/XXXX interest {$25.00} XX/XX/XXXX late fee {$39.00} ( refunded ) XX/XX/XXXX interest {$42.00} I called BMO phone support on XX/XX/XXXX to try to straighten out the problem, and requested a refund because of the banks failure to bill me properly. The phone rep approved a refund of the {$39.00} late fee, but was unwilling or unable to refund the balance. 

I have talked to the manager of the local BMO branch. She was sympathetic, but unable to do anything except send an email with my complaint to BMO. 

Thus, I have still lost {$110.00}, that BMO has improperly taken. I cant say whether this issue is due to simple incompetence on the part of one of the biggest banks in North America, or was part of an intentional policy of sending late statements, to make customers incur late fees and interest. Either way, I am losing confidence in this bank. Employees at phone support and at the local branch were friendly and polite, but ultimately unhelpful. 

Other facts I should add : 1 ) One of the phone reps I talked to said that other customers had called with the same problem - late or missing statements, and resulting late fees and interest charges. 

2 ) Another rep told me that BMO mails its statements on the XXXX or XXXX of each month. XXXX says that first-class mail from their location should reach me in 3-4 days. After 3 months of statements reaching me only at the very end of the month ( if at all ), I have to believe she was not giving me correct information. 

3 ) The same rep confirmed for me that I am signed up for paper statements. 

I hope that the CFPB can help me with this. Again, I am asking that BMO refund {$110.00}, as explained above.