Consumer complaint received 2021-02-05
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (DC)

I am a Bank of America customer and am writing about an incident with my BofA checking account. Specifically, I am writing about the fraud department and how their inconsistent, unreliable practices have now cost me over {$450.00}. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to my local grocery store because that is the closest ATM to me. The ATM is operated by XXXXXXXX XXXX. I tried to withdraw {$300.00} in cash. With the ATM fee, the total charge to my checking account was {$300.00}. However, none of the {$300.00} was dispensed. 

I went to customer service at the grocery store and they told me I needed to contact XXXX. When I called XXXX, they told me I needed to report it as a fraudulent transaction with my bank. So I reported it to BofA. On XX/XX/XXXX, BofA credited my account {$300.00}, which I understand is their standard practice while they investigate a claim. But then on XX/XX/XXXX, I saw that {$300.00} was taken from my account. I later received a letter explaining that the claim could not be proven. Accompanying that letter was a very blurry, pixelated printout that I assume ( if it were legible ) would show that the ATM did apparently dispense the {$300.00} to me. But even if that's what the print out said ( and again, I could not read it ), I now have no recourse even though I never received the cash from the ATM. There was clearly a malfunction where it did not dispense the physical cash, but whenever I have tried to contact BofA to clarify, I am stuck waiting on hold and being transferred around to different people. I feel like they put me in a holding pattern that makes it impossible to get clarification about what actually happened. This is very frustrating because I am unable to prove to them that I didn't receive the cash. 

This is not the first time that BofA 's fraud department has cost me money. In XXXX, an incident happened that was equally upsetting. On a vacation to the XXXX area, I rented a car from a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX. After my vacation, I saw a charge for {$150.00} from the rental company. When I called to inquire about it, they said the car had crossed the US-XXXX border in violation of my rental agreement, travelled to downtown XXXX, XXXX, and then returned to the US 24 hours later. Of course, none of that ever happened. I think I would have known if I crossed an international border. I asked for any proof and they immediately refused, said the GPS doesn't lie, and accused me of trying to cheat them out of {$150.00}. So in addition to contacting their corporate XXXX  ( which was unsuccessful ), I reported it as a fraudulent credit card transaction with BofA. Although they told me they would do their typical procedure ( crediting my account and then requiring the rental company to prove the validity of the {$150.00} charge ), that never happened. When I tried to contact BofA about it, I was told that I needed to provide proof. But proof of what? Without cooperation from the rental company, I had no way of proving where the car had or had not been. It is the company 's responsibility to prove to BofA that the charge was proper. And even if I could provide proof ( I think I could show transactions in the US during my alleged trip to XXXX ), it is impossible to navigate the BofA fraud department labyrinth to actually talk to anyone who has any authority. Shortly after these events, I even went to my local branch to seek their help. But they could not help ; they just sat with me as we called BofA phone numbers together, but they too got passed around to different agents and departments without any real resolution or clarification. 

I eventually gave up on trying to get the {$150.00} back because it was no longer worth my time. But now after this second incident, the idea came to me to fill out a CFPB complaint, and I thought I might as well include this similar incident as well.