Consumer complaint received 2019-05-28
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Charged too much interest
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (TN)

I have had a MasterCard ( MC ) with Bank of America ( BoA ) for well over a decade. Until early 2019, I also had checking and savings accounts with them ( for decades ), but I had to close those accounts because BoA decided to start putting holds on my on-time, ATM-deposited check payments for my MC balance, holds long enough to incur a late-payment penalty, for checks from a credit union account which they had been promptly clearing for years. That is not the issue for the current complaint, but is the point in time at which BoA starting playing these MC payment games. 

The current complaint begins XXXX XX/XX/2019, when I used BoA 's phone payment system to make a {$400.00} payment to my MC via " electronic '' check. This was the first time I had paid via this method, and when I entered my credit union 's routing number and account number, I entered the account number as I always do, that is, without any leading zeroes. The next day I checked to see if the payment had cleared, it had not. Called BoA customer service, was told that they needed the leading zeroes, gave them the full account number for the e-check and was then told that only ONE charge of {$400.00} would be made to my credit union account.

Checked my balances a while later and saw that TWO {$400.00} charges had been made to my credit union account, both posting on XX/XX/XXXX. Called BoA and was told that the erroneous, extra {$400.00} would be refunded to my credit union account in " 2 to 5 business days ''. The actual refund was at least 10 business days later. 

I always pay ( at minimum ) the new balance total for each billing period ( and usually, all charges beyond the close of the billing period ) and have never incurred ANY interest charges on my BoA MC. Imagine my surprise when I opened my 2XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/2019 billing statement and saw that I was being charged {$18.00} interest on XX/XX/XXXX Called BoA and after again enduring their ridiculously long wait period, was told that the interest was for the {$400.00} that they had CHARGED to my MC ( posted XX/XX/XXXX) to refund THEIR erroneous, extra {$400.00} previous debit from my credit union checking account! I was then told that they could not immediately refund the erroneous interest, but that the refund would appear on my next billing statement and that I should pay the full amount, including their NEW error, to avoid further interest charges! 

So, I open my BoA MC billing statement for XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/2019 and what do I see? Along with a refund of the {$18.00} erroneous interest, which posted on XX/XX/XXXX there is an ADDITIONAL interest charge of {$22.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, even though the very same statement shows that I paid the FULL balance total, INCLUDING their erroneous interest charge of {$18.00}, EIGHT DAYS before the payment was due. 

There are two possibilities : 1 ) BoA is not capable of basic financial calculations, OR, 2 ) BoA is using the American Consumer as an unwilling source of what are effectively short-term, zero-interest loans to BoA. 

I know which possibility I believe.