Bank of America Refuses to Send Statements
Complaint
John McNair
Country: United States
I have just concluded (mostly) a nightmarish experience with Bank of America.
I was an MBNA America customer until BoA took them over late in 2006. I'm
having trouble remembering nine months ago, but I don't recall ever receiving
a statement from BoA. I certainly haven't received one this year.
My credit card balances are higher than I want them to be, but I'm working on
that. At the same time, I've taken great care to make at least the minimum
payment on all accounts. I had a few late payments after I graduated when I
was trying to get on my feet, and that caused me no end of trouble. So no
matter what has happened in my life, I've jealously maintained my payment
history for about eight years now.
With this frame of mind, I continued paying the minimum payment on my BoA
card. I was not using it and had a good rate, so I focused on paying other
cards. I did not expect the minimum payment to change.
I was dead wrong. Within a few months of ceasing to send statements, BoA more
than doubled my minium payment from $23 to $48 _without notification_. No
letter, no statement, no phone call, no email, no billboard, no skywriting. I
dutifully continued paying $23/month. My first notification that something
was wrong was a phone call from their New York collections office when I was
34 days late. They wanted to know if something was wrong.
After two hours of haggling with various representatives, I finally convinced
someone that I was really not receiving statements and that I was not so
strapped for cash that I paid some but skimped on $25 in order to invite $39
late fees and 30 days late dings on my credit. We worked out an agreement to
put things right. This is the only reasonable person that I was allowed to
talk to, but even this did not turn out rosy.
I informed the representative that I could pay over the phone to bring the
account current, but I wanted some consideration in order to clear things up
immediately. I wanted the $39 fees credited, my credit restored, my rate
lowered and the statements that I had never received. She agreed, and we
handled the transaction. She also agreed to send me a letter that she was
composing while we were on the phone that indicated BoA's admission that the
30 days late report was due to a bank error.
Seventeen days later I received a letter that informed me that my credit limit
had been reduced by 30% due to late payments on my account. This was just
above the outstanding balance so it meant that this card was maxed out. I
didn't want to use the credit, but I didn't want the card showing as maxed out
either. I also didn't think I should be punished for a bank error. At this
point in time I had also received one of four statements that were supposedly
being resent.
Obviously I called back to inquire about this disturbing turn of events. What
I received for my trouble is one of the most deliberate and consistent stream
of lies I can recall hearing from any company. I spoke with a few different
people, but here's a sampling in no particular order:
- You gave us the wrong address.
Well, I've lived at the same address for 6+ years. MBNA America did not have
trouble sending my bill to me, and I have not moved since the takeover. BoA
managed to send me a letter notifying me that they now owned my account last
year, they managed to send one of the duplicate statements to me, and they
managed to send a nasty gram informing me that I'm a bad customer. I have not
changed my address (including having to correct it) in that time frame, and
the three correspondences from BoA were correctly addressed.
- The post office is losing the mail. You need to check with them.
Ok, let's assume that's true. What will they tell me? Oh, Mr. McNair, we
have these correctly addressed statements from BoA for you, but we didn't know
how to get them to you. We're sure glad you came by to pick them up.
Seriously though, I have not had any mail problems. Through mortgages, bank
accounts and credit cards, I do business with five of the largest banks in the
US. They all send me timely statements, and I pay them in a timely fashion.
All except for BoA. It turns out that my other statements arrive on time,
that I can get ungodly amounts of junk mail including weekly harrassatisements
from BoA. However, my local post office (not even the office that BoA's
billing department deals with, but mine!) has lost or stolen ten consecutive
statements plus three of the four duplicates that were sent.
Please.
- Credit risk analysts are not authorized to undo rate increases or limit
reductions.
Supposedly the individuals that decided to alter the terms of our agreement
unfavorably are not empowered to undo the damage. I can't prove this is
false, but I am highly skeptical.
- If you call the phone number on your card, there is an option to speak to a
representative.
Why lie about something so silly as this? BoA unsurpisingly changed the menu
options. I called three times to listen to everything. I drilled down into
all of the options. I pressed '0' even though it was not an option. The
machine informed me that that was invalid. Only by repeatedly mashing random
buttons, at least 20 key presses, was I able to get to a human. Yet one of
the representatives that I spoke to was adamant that I was making this up.
That's just stupid.
- Your limit was lowered due to late payments on this account.
That's what the letter said. Two people told me that after reading the notes
on my account. After I informed the second one that I didn't have any late
payments, she came up with another reason. She informed me that _she_ was the
one that had actually made the decision to lower my limit several days
earlier. How did I get her on the phone of all the people I could have been
transferred to? The reason was because I was more than 75% leveraged. Never
mind that I was 72% leveraged before her decision and 74% leveraged after her
decision. She changed her story again after I pointed that out. Never mind
that that number is at least in small measure based on false information on my
credit report. Never let the facts get in the way of your decision making
process.
I also love the logic. Since I am too leveraged, the bank will cause me to be
further leveraged. This will in theory lower my credit score, thus reducing
the bank's risk. What? Furthermore, if the bank can twiddle with my credit
score, how can it be a good predictor? Am I less likely to pay my obligations
now that BoA has punished me?
- Your limit was lowered due to a history of late payments on other accounts.
The first person I spoke with about the limit issue asserted that BoA had
reviewed my account and found a history of late payments on other accounts.
When I told her I knew that to be false, she backed down.
- Your limit was reduced because you are over leveraged.
I find it odd that this excuse only surfaced _after_ I adamantly pressed about
the previous lie. I am skeptical.
- We will send you duplicate statements. (Round 1)
I think sending one out of four qualifies as a lie. And the four promised are
not even all of the statements that I'm missing.
- We sent statements to you every month.
See above. I find this hard to believe.
- We will send you duplicate statements for the last twelve months within the
next five days. (Round 2)
Ok, this is not a lie yet. I have reason to believe that this is a lie in
progress. I asked to have them sent by certified mail or some other
verifiable means, but risk analysts are not authorized to spend that kind of
dough. BoA's track record with first class USPS mail is not good. Bulk mail
of course is a different story.
- I can see from your account history that you received your bills. You paid
them every month, so this proves that you received them.
This lie was repeated by no less than four people. The fact that I sent a
payment that I believed to be greater than or equal to my minimum payment does
not in fact constitute proof that I received a statement. I was merely trying
to be responsible enough to avoid having late payment dings on my credit
report regardless of the irresponsibility of BoA. Obviously I failed, but that
does not mean that I received my statements.
- Your interest rate has not changed during the thirteen years that you've
been a customer.
This was in response to an inquiry about the when and how much of the last
interest rate change. It's a variable rate card. Thirteen years of prime
rate fluctuations. You figure it out.
- You probably threw your statements in the trash.
This lie was repeated by at least three different people. Do they have a
"Lies and False Accusations" script? I explained each time that my wife and I
open every peice of junk just to be sure. Even the bold faced crap from car
dealerships. BoA and Citibank in particular are very good at disguising junk
as official business. So you have to open every single piece of mail to know
for sure. So no, I did not in fact happen to discard thirteen statements by
mistake, all from the same company and none from any other.
I do not have these issues with other banks. It's your life, but I would be
very careful about doing business with BoA. You could argue that it's my
responsibility to watch suspicious companies like this more closely, and I'll
warrant that there's merit to that. On the other hand, if I need to babysit
some company every minute in order to make sure they are not breaking the law,
we're not doing business. Sorry, it's just policy, and there's nothing I can
do about it.
So finally I just cancelled my account. In the credit scoring game, that
hurts a little because I closed an old account, and I increased my leveraged
percentage by a little bit more. But anything is worth not having to suffer
through being a BoA customer for even one more day.
And the parting shot? Given BoA track record for lying, misreporting credit
information and inability to manage first class mail, I asked for a written
letter acknowledging that I had closed the account and not BoA. The
representative said she couldn't continue the conversation and hung up on me.
So I'm half expecting that they are going to create another mess for me to
clean up by reporting more false information on my credit report.
I was an MBNA America customer until BoA took them over late in 2006. I'm
having trouble remembering nine months ago, but I don't recall ever receiving
a statement from BoA. I certainly haven't received one this year.
My credit card balances are higher than I want them to be, but I'm working on
that. At the same time, I've taken great care to make at least the minimum
payment on all accounts. I had a few late payments after I graduated when I
was trying to get on my feet, and that caused me no end of trouble. So no
matter what has happened in my life, I've jealously maintained my payment
history for about eight years now.
With this frame of mind, I continued paying the minimum payment on my BoA
card. I was not using it and had a good rate, so I focused on paying other
cards. I did not expect the minimum payment to change.
I was dead wrong. Within a few months of ceasing to send statements, BoA more
than doubled my minium payment from $23 to $48 _without notification_. No
letter, no statement, no phone call, no email, no billboard, no skywriting. I
dutifully continued paying $23/month. My first notification that something
was wrong was a phone call from their New York collections office when I was
34 days late. They wanted to know if something was wrong.
After two hours of haggling with various representatives, I finally convinced
someone that I was really not receiving statements and that I was not so
strapped for cash that I paid some but skimped on $25 in order to invite $39
late fees and 30 days late dings on my credit. We worked out an agreement to
put things right. This is the only reasonable person that I was allowed to
talk to, but even this did not turn out rosy.
I informed the representative that I could pay over the phone to bring the
account current, but I wanted some consideration in order to clear things up
immediately. I wanted the $39 fees credited, my credit restored, my rate
lowered and the statements that I had never received. She agreed, and we
handled the transaction. She also agreed to send me a letter that she was
composing while we were on the phone that indicated BoA's admission that the
30 days late report was due to a bank error.
Seventeen days later I received a letter that informed me that my credit limit
had been reduced by 30% due to late payments on my account. This was just
above the outstanding balance so it meant that this card was maxed out. I
didn't want to use the credit, but I didn't want the card showing as maxed out
either. I also didn't think I should be punished for a bank error. At this
point in time I had also received one of four statements that were supposedly
being resent.
Obviously I called back to inquire about this disturbing turn of events. What
I received for my trouble is one of the most deliberate and consistent stream
of lies I can recall hearing from any company. I spoke with a few different
people, but here's a sampling in no particular order:
- You gave us the wrong address.
Well, I've lived at the same address for 6+ years. MBNA America did not have
trouble sending my bill to me, and I have not moved since the takeover. BoA
managed to send me a letter notifying me that they now owned my account last
year, they managed to send one of the duplicate statements to me, and they
managed to send a nasty gram informing me that I'm a bad customer. I have not
changed my address (including having to correct it) in that time frame, and
the three correspondences from BoA were correctly addressed.
- The post office is losing the mail. You need to check with them.
Ok, let's assume that's true. What will they tell me? Oh, Mr. McNair, we
have these correctly addressed statements from BoA for you, but we didn't know
how to get them to you. We're sure glad you came by to pick them up.
Seriously though, I have not had any mail problems. Through mortgages, bank
accounts and credit cards, I do business with five of the largest banks in the
US. They all send me timely statements, and I pay them in a timely fashion.
All except for BoA. It turns out that my other statements arrive on time,
that I can get ungodly amounts of junk mail including weekly harrassatisements
from BoA. However, my local post office (not even the office that BoA's
billing department deals with, but mine!) has lost or stolen ten consecutive
statements plus three of the four duplicates that were sent.
Please.
- Credit risk analysts are not authorized to undo rate increases or limit
reductions.
Supposedly the individuals that decided to alter the terms of our agreement
unfavorably are not empowered to undo the damage. I can't prove this is
false, but I am highly skeptical.
- If you call the phone number on your card, there is an option to speak to a
representative.
Why lie about something so silly as this? BoA unsurpisingly changed the menu
options. I called three times to listen to everything. I drilled down into
all of the options. I pressed '0' even though it was not an option. The
machine informed me that that was invalid. Only by repeatedly mashing random
buttons, at least 20 key presses, was I able to get to a human. Yet one of
the representatives that I spoke to was adamant that I was making this up.
That's just stupid.
- Your limit was lowered due to late payments on this account.
That's what the letter said. Two people told me that after reading the notes
on my account. After I informed the second one that I didn't have any late
payments, she came up with another reason. She informed me that _she_ was the
one that had actually made the decision to lower my limit several days
earlier. How did I get her on the phone of all the people I could have been
transferred to? The reason was because I was more than 75% leveraged. Never
mind that I was 72% leveraged before her decision and 74% leveraged after her
decision. She changed her story again after I pointed that out. Never mind
that that number is at least in small measure based on false information on my
credit report. Never let the facts get in the way of your decision making
process.
I also love the logic. Since I am too leveraged, the bank will cause me to be
further leveraged. This will in theory lower my credit score, thus reducing
the bank's risk. What? Furthermore, if the bank can twiddle with my credit
score, how can it be a good predictor? Am I less likely to pay my obligations
now that BoA has punished me?
- Your limit was lowered due to a history of late payments on other accounts.
The first person I spoke with about the limit issue asserted that BoA had
reviewed my account and found a history of late payments on other accounts.
When I told her I knew that to be false, she backed down.
- Your limit was reduced because you are over leveraged.
I find it odd that this excuse only surfaced _after_ I adamantly pressed about
the previous lie. I am skeptical.
- We will send you duplicate statements. (Round 1)
I think sending one out of four qualifies as a lie. And the four promised are
not even all of the statements that I'm missing.
- We sent statements to you every month.
See above. I find this hard to believe.
- We will send you duplicate statements for the last twelve months within the
next five days. (Round 2)
Ok, this is not a lie yet. I have reason to believe that this is a lie in
progress. I asked to have them sent by certified mail or some other
verifiable means, but risk analysts are not authorized to spend that kind of
dough. BoA's track record with first class USPS mail is not good. Bulk mail
of course is a different story.
- I can see from your account history that you received your bills. You paid
them every month, so this proves that you received them.
This lie was repeated by no less than four people. The fact that I sent a
payment that I believed to be greater than or equal to my minimum payment does
not in fact constitute proof that I received a statement. I was merely trying
to be responsible enough to avoid having late payment dings on my credit
report regardless of the irresponsibility of BoA. Obviously I failed, but that
does not mean that I received my statements.
- Your interest rate has not changed during the thirteen years that you've
been a customer.
This was in response to an inquiry about the when and how much of the last
interest rate change. It's a variable rate card. Thirteen years of prime
rate fluctuations. You figure it out.
- You probably threw your statements in the trash.
This lie was repeated by at least three different people. Do they have a
"Lies and False Accusations" script? I explained each time that my wife and I
open every peice of junk just to be sure. Even the bold faced crap from car
dealerships. BoA and Citibank in particular are very good at disguising junk
as official business. So you have to open every single piece of mail to know
for sure. So no, I did not in fact happen to discard thirteen statements by
mistake, all from the same company and none from any other.
I do not have these issues with other banks. It's your life, but I would be
very careful about doing business with BoA. You could argue that it's my
responsibility to watch suspicious companies like this more closely, and I'll
warrant that there's merit to that. On the other hand, if I need to babysit
some company every minute in order to make sure they are not breaking the law,
we're not doing business. Sorry, it's just policy, and there's nothing I can
do about it.
So finally I just cancelled my account. In the credit scoring game, that
hurts a little because I closed an old account, and I increased my leveraged
percentage by a little bit more. But anything is worth not having to suffer
through being a BoA customer for even one more day.
And the parting shot? Given BoA track record for lying, misreporting credit
information and inability to manage first class mail, I asked for a written
letter acknowledging that I had closed the account and not BoA. The
representative said she couldn't continue the conversation and hung up on me.
So I'm half expecting that they are going to create another mess for me to
clean up by reporting more false information on my credit report.
Comments
It has been my experience that if a bank screws up once and can't fix it, it usually means they will likely screw up again, even if it takes you a year or 2 to find out. When they start making their next set of excuses, claiming not to have any documentation on a matter you thought was long solved, faxing your documentation of it is usually enough of a reminder (whether they ever find their own records or not) that they don't go down that path.
BofA tends to operate by their "book", mostly running on autopilot, but at least generally they don't appear to be intentionally trying to screw their customers. Usually they end up, as in your case, just losing a customer. Some banks (old Providian comes to mind) were actually engaged in actively defrauding customers, such as by "losing" or even shredding payments to charge extra fees, etc. They finally got their just desserts.
By the way, a lot of "customer service" now has degenerated into making excuses or blaming the customer rather than fixing the problem. If one letter and 2 calls haven't fixed it, it is usually time for a letter and call to the executive offices.
Not only BofA. See this, for example:
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/_cwlLWgo0QA0IwjJqKInqg