Consumer complaint received 2025-12-22 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
I have two complaints. One is unresolved, the other is now resolved but I am reporting to record the extent of issues I have had. 

Unresolved issue : Bank of America ( BoA ) did not enroll me into the Preferred Rewards program as I requested when I originally signed up when creating a checking account and credit card over 30 days ago. The program is supposed to enroll me within 30 days of opting in. It has been over 30 days and they have not enrolled me. I am still waiting for support to fix the issue. 
This hurts me as a consumer in two ways : 1 ) I am supposed to get 75 % bonus credit card points by being a Preferred Rewards program member. By not enrolling me within 30 days like they were supposed to, I am currently not getting bonus points for my credit card spend, which is already over a XXXX dollars and only increasing.

2 ) The BoA checking account annual fee is waived if I am in Preferred Rewards program. By not enrolling me into the program within 30 days of creating the account like they were supposed, I am now at risk of getting charged an annual fee for the checking account.

Resolved issues : For the first few weeks of opening my Bank of America checking account, I was unable to transfer money out of the account to another bank. Although I requested support both in-person and over the phone numerous times each, it took weeks for Bank of America to identify the root cause issue and allow me to transfer money out of the account. It was an IT issue on their end ; only their IT department could fix it, but they did not identify this for several weeks. I also was not getting account alerts for the account. I could not fix this on my end and it took weeks for Bank of America to fix it.

Timeline of events trying to get support from Bank of America : I opened the credit card, checking account, and Merrill Lynch investment account ( which is connected to Bank of America ) on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I noticed the above account issues on XX/XX/XXXX. I have called customer service 8 times : twice on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, twice on XX/XX/XXXX, and twice on XX/XX/XXXX. I also visited my local branch three times during this time. I also emailed the branch employees several times between XXXX XXXX, and again on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I have provided emails and screenshots of issues in the attachments. I am happy to provide call logs too if helpful. 

In these support engagements, Bank of America often kept passing me between customer service departments who would be unable to fix the issue and transfer me to another department, who would transfer me back or tell me I reached the wrong department and need to call back and start the process over. Bank of America also required me to bounce back between going to the in-person branches for support or calling the customer service department . For example, twice on the phone Bank of America told me they could not help me over the phone and I must visit a branch to ( 1 ) verify my identify and ( 2 ) fill out a form to re-enroll in Preferred Rewards. But then in my visits to the branch, the branch employees would often tell me they do not have the ability to resolve account issues and that I must go home and call customer service.

In total this has amounted to over 10 hours on the phone with customer service, 3 in-person visits, and 10 emails. I have likely spent over 20 hours of my time trying to resolve these issues since XX/XX/XXXX.

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 non-monetary relief