Consumer complaint received 2024-04-20
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (IL)

On At the end of XXXX I applied for a small business account with Bank of America. I did this by phone, and everything seemed to go fine. The account was created and I deposited the first funds at a local Bank of America branch on XX/XX/XXXX. I doubt this is super-relevant, but just in case : the account was for a family LLC and the funds were from the recent sale of a rental property we had held for many years. After depositing funds, and distributing a small amount to family members, including me, who were owed something from preparing the house to sell, the account ended up with just under $ XXXX in it. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Bank of America saying they had decided to close the account, due to inability to " verify my identity. '' That was extremely confusing since, of course, in order to open the account, had submitted my SSN, DOB, and so on, and, on top of that, had shown up at a local branch to deposit checks. I called the number I was given to try to sort the problem out. When I did so, I had an extremely bizarre interaction with a couple of people ( a rep and her supervisor ) who seemed to find it bizarre that I wanted information out of them ( let alone help ). The very aggressively explained that I could not be told anything about what the problem was, let alone of course, try to remedy it. They also couldn't tell me when things would be resolved, but they did tell me I would " receive a check. '' They did helpfully explain to me, however, that they had closed my account " for my protection. '' So, I waited for the check to arrive, and a month and a half went by. I continued to receive statements showing the money in my account, though I could not access it. So I decided to go to my local branch bank to resolve the problem. They very helpfully verified my identity and opened a new account for me. However, when they called the bank to try to get money transferred from the old account to the new one, they were stymied. Not only was it not possible to transfer the money -- apparently the only way for it to be returned to me is a check -- but the account was not closed, it was " in the process of being closed '' -- and thus it was frozen. It also could not be determined when I would get my money, or anything about what was happening and why it was taking so long. After that I called again, and had another equally bizarre phone call with someone who refused to share any information about what was going on or why ( but was pleased to tell me that whatever was going on was " not our responsibility '' -- apparently " our '' meant his specific department ). Under duress this person mentioned " XXXX XXXX '' as a date then they " might '' be complete the " closing process, '' but it seemed pretty clear there was nothing behind this and he went out of his way to say that Bank of American could in no way be held to that estimate. So I basically sitting in limbo, with the bank holding only my money, but being aggressively unwilling to tell me what is going on.