Consumer complaint received 2023-09-03 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
This is a complaint against Bank of America for fraudulently holding onto my money and failing to make a payment that was submitted because while the payment of {$63000.00} exceeded the credit limit of {$32000.00}, {$63000.00} of cleared funds was present in the account also. XXXX, an employee of Bank of America never told me that Bank of America limits total payment to the credit limit and not the cash available which is the fraud. Bank of America according to XXXX in the Fraud Department also takes 24 to 48 hours to process transactions during business days only and thus slows down the availability of credit. In addition, Bank of America can take up to 10 business days ( over 2 weeks ) to transfer money back into my Bank of America checking account. It appears that Bank of America has slowed the process in order to maximize the use of client money. Presumably, this policy not only affects me but hundreds of other credit card holders. The travel agent involved has seen this problem with some Bank of America before.. 

The family and I had an upcoming trip in XXXX and payment was needed by XX/XX/. On XX/XX/XXXX  I transferred from a Bank of America checking account to my Bank of America credit card account with cleared funds {$63000.00}. I told XXXX that the purpose was to pay for a trip in XXXX. After all but approximately {$29000.00} was paid. I spoke to a supervisor XXXX in California. He told me to try again. XXXX also told me that the credit card limit was set by Visa and not the bank. Before getting off the telephone with him, I asked him how I could get back in touch with him. He assured me that I could because he left his contact number on my account. When I did call back, I was told by XXXX and XXXX his supervisor that no way existed to contact him. I requested a supervisor and XXXX took over the call. All calls are recorded so the veracity of my statements can be checked. 

The travel agent told me that one of the 3 rooms payments for approximately {$29000.00} was cancelled by the Credit Card Company even though I had the full balance in my account less the approximately {$5000.00} applied to my credit card bill which I did not authorize. In any case, this left me with a {$24000.00} overpayment and credit card limit of approximately {$32000.00}. This is far below my credit line balance of {$32000.00}. The problem is that Bank of America takes 24 to 48 hours to process transactions during business DAYS and this stopped the timely application of my payments. This is a fraud because Bank of America chooses to process credit card charges 24 hours a day seven days a week but not apply payments in a timely manner which then results in rejecting charges. 

The problem is that Bank of America uses the credit limit of {$32000.00} as opposed to the balance in the account and credit limit. This is fraud that has been perpetrated on me and hundreds of others. 

Bank of America attempted to increase my credit limit automatically which it did by {$17000.00}. This was insufficient and Kia filed a second request which has not been acted upon yet. Besides having {$29000.00} in cash sitting at the credit card company, I also have about {$160000.00} in several bank accounts at Bank of America. How I only was able to qualify for a {$17000.00} increase is another question I have. 

I also previously filed a complaint against Bank of America because their answering system does not let you speak to an agent directly but requires you to enter a number for the option wanted. When none of the options are available, I finally decided to pick one arbitrarily. Their system does not advise a caller to do this.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief