Consumer complaint received 2026-04-22 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
First of all, we have been making monthly deposits into this account for nearly 14 years. In XXXX, I went to the bank to make a deposit ; however, the teller mistakenly transferred the funds to a different account. A month passed without the issue being resolved, so I called the bank to demand to know the whereabouts of my money and to request its return. Initially, the bank denied any knowledge of the situation, but as soon as I demonstrated that I understood exactly what the problem was, they immediately issued a provisional credit. ( The individual who had mistakenly received the funds had gone to a nearby Bank of America XXXX to verify the transaction. ) Then, after returning from a trip to XXXX ( we arrived back on XX/XX/XXXX ), we checked our mailbox on XX/XX/XXXX and found a letter from the bank. The letter stated that unless we signed and notarized a " fraud affidavit '' despite the fact that we had neither committed fraud nor been victims of itand returned it by XX/XX/XXXX, they would revoke and reclaim the provisional credit they had issued. We were utterly flabbergasted and immediately called the bank. However, they were completely unyielding ; they simply kept repeating, over and over, that we absolutely had to complete the paperwork and return it by XX/XX/XXXX, or they would reclaim the funds. ( After speaking with a supervisor, we secured a promise to have the deadline extended by XXXX business days. ) Consequentlydespite our bewildermentwe complied with the bank 's instructions and scheduled an appointment at a branch of the same institution : Bank of America in XXXX. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, when I visited the bank to proceed with the notarization, the notary and the representative from the XXXX department conducted the process while speaking with each other in real-time. The reason for this was that the situation we were facing was highly unusual : neither I nor the notary knew exactly where the funds had goneand since the Bank of America call center wouldn't disclose that information, we had no way of knowing who the recipient was. Consequently, the notary called the department responsible for check fraud and proceeded with the notarization while maintaining a live conversation with them. However, a complication arose : because the bank did not know the identity of the person into whose account the funds had been erroneously deposited, it became impossible to obtain the signature of the actual payee. The requirement, therefore, was to obtain the signature of the person originally intended to receive the fundsthat is, the person whose name was written on the check. Yet, that individual is currently still residing in XXXX ( and at the time of the notarization, we had no idea when they would return ). The notary, while still on the live call, informed the fraud department representative that obtaining the payee 's signature was impossible under these circumstances. In response, the fraud department representative granted permission to proceed with the notarization without the payee 's signature. Thus, I provided my fingerprint, and we successfully completed the notarization process. However, isn't the very nature of notarization that it can only be finalized once every single detail has been verified with absolute certainty? The bank employee faxed all the notarized documents to the Check Fraud Department. I asked the Bank of America notary again if everything had proceeded smoothly, and she confirmed that it had. I retrieved the original notarized documents, and I even recorded the entire notarization process. ( I made the recording because, ever since this incident began, Bank of America has done nothing but lie to me, refusing to ever disclose exactly what was going on. ) In any case, we believed that everything had been successfully resolved ; however, when I checked my bank account on XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that the bank hadwithout a word of warningreclaimed the funds they had previously issued to me as a provisional credit. ( After receiving that provisional credit, I had immediately repaid the intended payee the very next day. ) We were facing a situation where our upcoming payments could bounce, yet the bank seized our funds without taking any remedial actioneven though there were still three days remaining until the payment deadlines. My own money vanished, the provisional credit vanished, and then the bank took my money * again *. We were utterly dumbfounded, so we called the bank. The banks response was that the payee 's signature was missing. The very same bank employees had handled the transaction, verified everything, and completed the notarizationyet we were robbed of our money once again. What did * I * do wrong? Because of a mistake committed by a bank teller, my husband and I are now enduring immense stress and wasting countless hours just trying to resolve this issue. What on earth did * we * do wrong? Where, exactly, is my money? How am I supposed to resolve this absurd situation where the bank has seized my funds twice and is now telling me that I must bear full responsibility for everything? We cooperated fully, strictly following the bank 's guidelinesyet the outcome is utterly disastrous. How are ordinary citizens like us supposed to stand up against a massive bank? I feel so deeply wronged, bewildered, and heartbroken. This truly ridiculous situations Please XXXX help us Thanks

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