Consumer complaint received 2020-11-03
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Government benefit card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

The morning of XX/XX/XXXX, my Bank of America EDD card was declined for a {$50.00} food purchase. Knowing that I had a balance of nearly {$3000.00}, I checked my Bank of America EDD statement to discover that my card had been used overnight ( the night of XX/XX/XXXX ) for two online purchased totalling nearly {$2700.00} -- a {$1500.00} purchase at XXXX, and a nearly {$1200.00} purchase at XXXX, an online luxury fashion store. It is unclear why neither of these charges triggered a fraud alert. 

I immediately called the customer service number on the back of my EDD card, because Bank of America does not provide a way to dispute a charge online for their EDD customers, as they do for their non-EDD accounts. The front-line customer service rep who took my call warned me that I would likely have a wait time of upwards of 90 minutes to file a claim, because he said that Bank of America has been backed up with training new customer service reps, etc. I asked if there was a way for me to provide a call-back number so that I could simply receive a call when a customer service rep was available to speak with me, as is standard operating procedure with most corporations, and was told that Bank of America did not have such a system set up. He warned me not to disconnect from the call, as I would have to re-enter the queue. 

After 90 minutes on hold for the claims department, I was disconnected on Bank of America 's end. When I called back, the front-line person who took my call said that the claims department didn't work on weekends, but she would transfer me to the fraud department. The woman I spoke with in the fraud department -- who claimed to be unaware of the fact that XXXX Californians had their EDD card numbers stolen, as reported in news reports just three days prior -- said that she was unable to stop the fraudulent charges, which were still listed as pending, not processed, from going through, but that she would transfer me to the claims department. I said that the woman who transfered me to her said that the claims department was closed, but she said that they were in fact in on Saturdays, but not Sundays. ( Internal communication with BoA customer service is clearly not great. ) Before transfering me, she advised me to call XXXX XXXX and XXXX customer service to see if they could stop the charges on their end. 

While on hold once again, I contacted both XXXX XXXX and XXXX customer service departments, and both told me that there was nothing they could do to stop the charges, since I didn't have order numbers. ( Which of course I didn't, since I didn't make the charges. ) After an additional 3 hours of hold time with BoA, I was again disconnected. 

I called BoA back first thing the morning of XXXX. In the interim, the XXXX charge was processed, though for a smaller amount : {$580.00}. After another 3 hour hold, the BoA claims rep said that she would flag the processed XXXX charge as a fraudulent charge -- although there was no explanation about when and how my money would be refunded -- and that she was unable to do anything about the pending {$1500.00} charge for XXXX XXXX, as she could only file a claim about a PROCESSED charge, not stop a PENDING charge. I asked what I needed to do to stop this charge from going through, and she said that there was no way to do so ; that instead, I would need to monitor my account, wait for the charge to be processed ( and, in turn, for money to exchange hands and goods to be shipped, rather than simply preventing a fraudulent charge from being seen through to fruition ), and then call back and start the " wait on hold for several hours '' process all over again. I asked to be transfered to a manager, was told that I would be, and was hung up on. I called back, asked again to be transfered to a manager, was told that there was no point in transfering me, and so I then said that I would be taking this to my local news ' XXXX XXXX XXXX, who sent me here.

Bank of America is the conduit for taxpayer dollars to be transfered from the government to people in need. They fail to provide the most basic level of protection for those funds ( the EDD cards do not have a chip ) or the most basic level of customer service when those funds are misused ( they do not provide an email address, chat, call-backs, or online fraud reporting ). However, they do not hesitate to charge both consumers and businesses fees for using their unprotected cards, which California residents who are on EDD are forced to use.