Consumer complaint received 2024-02-22
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Non-sufficient funds and associated fees
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (RI)

On XX/XX/2024, the amount of {$8200.00} was accidentally submitted through our joint Bank of America account to the government loan merchant XXXX. The amount should have been {$82.00} paid monthly towards a Federal student loan with a remaining balance of under {$900.00} The {$8200.00} was debited from our checking account on XX/XX/XXXX sending our account into overdraft. 

We noticed the error immediately and called Bank of Americas customer service to request a stop payment on the {$8200.00}. They assured us that the amount would be stopped, and our account credited the next day. 

On XX/XX/2024, the {$8200.00} was refunded. Three days later, on XX/XX/XXXX, the said amount was re-debited from our account again forcing our account into overdraft. We called the bank who again assured us that the amount would be reimbursed and that XXXX, the merchant could only attempt the withdrawal twice. We were advised to call XXXX to make them aware of the situation. XXXX acknowledged the request and placed a note on file not to process the payment. 

The {$8200.00} was then refunded on XXXX XXXX. However, on XX/XX/XXXX, the {$8200.00} was withdrawn from our account for the third time. After speaking with Bank of America customer service reps from various departments, they again assured us that the maximum number of attempts the merchant was allowed to resubmit the amount for payment was three times, not to worry about it XXXX would not be paid. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the {$8200.00} still hadnt been credited back to the account. Once again, we reached out to Bank of Americas customer service who informed us that it would take up to 48 from XX/XX/XXXX for the amount to re-appear in our account. 

On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, we again called them, and this time were told that the transaction had in fact been processed allowing the payment to go through, even after multiple requests to stop payment and repeatedly being assured that the money would not be taken out. We then followed up with a visit to one of the Banks branches, sitting for an hour with the representative who was on hold for quite a long time, before receiving the same answer no the transaction had definitely not been completed and that XXXX had not been paid. We were told to wait until XX/XX/XXXX for the funds to be re-deposited. This did not happen. Note that up until now everyone from Bank of America had been very complacent. 

Our salaries were deposited into our account automatically on XX/XX/XXXX which went towards offsetting the {$8200.00}, but still leaving our account in debit. We followed up with a call once again to Bank of America who said that there was nothing they could do. It was beyond their control. They offered no apologies, nor did they care that we had a mortgage and electricity and heating bills to pay amongst others. The rep was in fact very combative and would not allow us to ask further questions and re-explain the situation. She kept interrupting and in fact informed us that WE now owned them money even though we had no money to put into the account because they had allowed the transaction to be processed and the account into overdraft. In fact they had been lying to us all along. Furthermore, they attempted to process all our pending automated bill payments forcing our account into further debit. 

We again reached out to XXXX for a status and were told that they could not find the original transaction of {$8200.00} in their system and were only seeing a transaction for {$82.00}. We did a three-way call with the Bank and XXXX. The Bank provided XXXX with reference information and confirmation that the payment definitely had gone through. XXXX said that they would put through a refund but that it was now in the hands of the Treasury Department who could take up to 20 days just to review the case, and secondly it could take up to 7 weeks for them to issue a check. 

A week later, we called XXXX for an update, and they advised us that it was out of their hands and could not provide a status. They then went on to tell us that we should call Studentloans.gov and provided us with their contact number. The first person who answered was very rude, and simply said she could find the loan information. Eventually, we were transferred to another person who said that Studentloans.gov didnt handle billing and that we should be contacting XXXX XXXX We told them that we had done this several times and this person made the comment XXXX keeps telling people to contact us for billing issues which is not correct. We only process the loan applications. 

Since then we have been receiving daily calls from Bank of America asking us to deposit money into our account, money we do not have. Payment of our bills are on hold. Neither institution has been empathetic to our situation, nor have they been accountable to their errors or made any attempt to recoup the amount on our behalf.