Consumer complaint received 2024-06-06
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (TX)

In XXXX, I signed up for an XXXX  XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX through Bank of America. The promotion application form was handed out on my return flight home to XXXX from XXXX  on XX/XX/year> and we returned it by mail. I received notice that my application was accepted but no details. I have applied for and received these sorts of credit cards in the past and the terms are always clear. I have never been tricked by these cards though I have been unhappy that the banks have started to add a membership fee during the first year of use whereas in the past those annual fees only kicked in after the first year. I was surprised to find after the first month that Bank of America had set my credit limit at {$2000.00}. I have had good credit, with a credit score always either above or just below XXXX. I have never been denied a credit card or any other financing. I asked to have the credit limit raised and this was denied, no reasons given. When I use the online portal to look for the letter denying my request, it is no longer there. 

Then, after spending {$3000.00} by the deadline of XX/XX/year>, when {$3000.00} was the required amount, I learned today that Bank of America deducted the annual fee from the eligible expenditures causing me, in their view to have not met the {$3000.00} expenditure requirement. Both XXXX  XXXX and Bank of America cited my first payment as {$620.00} when it was actually {$720.00}. During the past four months I have had at least 4 telephone conversations with Bank of America employees, during which I repeatedly checked my balance and expenditures. At no time did any of the Bank of America agents I spoke with inform me that the annual fee would not be credited toward the {$3000.00}, nor did the electronic messages that gave me info regarding my balance and pending charges.

After calling Alaska and then Bank of America today, I called XXXX, where I have an XXXX XXXX credit card, to ask if they were excluding the annual fee from the total amount required by the deadline date to receive the bonus miles and hiding this from their new customers. They informed me that they were not doing so, that all my expenditures were credited to my spending requirement for the mileage bonus, and that the mileage bonus had been credited to my XXXX XXXX mileage account. 

I consider XXXX  XXXX and Bank of America to have attempted to trick me twice and to have considered themselves to have gotten away with it the second time. I have asked to have a supervisor call me and I intend to fight this and receive my promised mileage bonus on XXXX  XXXX because I spent more than {$3000.00} using the credit card by XX/XX/year>. I spoke today with XXXX at Bank of America who advised me that a supervisor named XXXX would be calling me within a day or XXXX. I plan to also report this to the XXXX XXXX XXXX because I consider it very shady business dealings by XXXX  XXXX and Bank of America.