topic Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account! in Credit Cards

More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

visualfxpro — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 01:47:17 GMT

I made a post, not too long ago about Bank of America's shady practice of holding onto your money with secured cards and refusing to graduate you. In short:

I'm in top 5% of income earners
Have zero debt (at most, I've used 2% of my total limit. All zero but one card, that is close to zero)
Had account for 3 years never missed payment

My credit has risen fom myabe low 600s to around 700 now
I had maybe $5k total credit then, now $34,000

Every time I ask to graduate, they deny me with generic bogus answers. So it looked like a scam to me. Like they were holding on to possibly millions of constomers money and using it perhaps illegally for other reasons. I have ZERO proof of this, but that is what I started to think.

Some folks on here tried to tell me I was wrong and talked about things like, it was not a guarantee, which has nothing to do with my suggestion that it might be yet another bank doing shady practices like Wells Fargo.

Well fast forward. I asked again to graduate, but this time I told them that I needed the money for an important purchase and that if they won't do it, I'll have to close the account. Instantly and for the first time, I get a different response. The guy is all "Oh let me look into this", then he AGREES with me, says "Wow, this should not have taken so long. I don't know why this took so long. I think I can take care of this for you". 8 minutes later, he says:

I will graduate your card

Do you want me to increase you limit too?
Will refund deposit in 24 to 48 hours

I was shocked but only half way, because I always suspected it was bogus and they just wanted to keep my money. I was so happy. Don't have to close account, got limit doubled. GREAT!

For 2 days I keep checking my account to see any sign of anything changing. Nothing. So I call and end up right away on hold for 15 minutes so they can "investigate". No idea what they were investigating. Then they tell me the account in in review and it will take 5 days. So 2 days ago I was approved, graduated and my money would be back in 2 days. Today, the claim is that it will take a week+. So I say I can't wait and this is rediculous, please close it and give money back. They say they can do that, but it will take 14 days. 14 DAYS to simply return MY MONEY??? WHAT???

I went straight to branch who right away tried to send me back to the phones, talking about it's a different department. I insisted and they called the credit people for me. Person answers and says the same story. I say unacceptible and ask for their manager and the person made some rude remark about they gonna tell me same thing. "Let me get them, so they can tell you the same thing". What? After 3 years of games, you have a grand finally of the flip flop graduate and now you want to be snarky??

Anyway, that person was wrong. The person was able to help and offered to close account and expidite return of funds. I was promised 24-48 hours...AGAIN. Said not guarantee but most times, they can do it. I'm NOT super hopefull after what just went down.

This has nothing to do with my credit. Nothing to do with, that is "just how it is". This is 100% SHADY behavior from yet another bank. Even my credit union was shady. So much so they ended up in a situation where control of the credit union was taken away due to fraud. I can't prove it, but I say BofA is up to something shady, along the lines of Wells Fargo opening up accounts not asked for, to increase profit.

I will never do business with Bank of America again and I'm closing my investment and all my other accounts too. I'm sorry if you have had a good experience but pick the worst product on the market and at least one person loves it probably. This is not just one incident. This is a 3 year saga of some very shady business practices. Again...my opinion. It COULD be that the bank is just very disoganized and unprofessional and just does not care.

I'm just sharing my experience. Maybe you will get lucky, just like all the other happy customers, but know that this is how they conduct themself with a loyal customer who is about to close 4 accounts with them.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

mfinsmi1 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 01:47:50 GMT

@visualfxpro i had an experience years ago when i opened up a BOA account it was less tahn 30 days old and i deposited a large check from my job. They immediealty closed my account - it took months for them to send me the money from that check . Im sorry this happened to you but glad you got your money back faster than 14 days.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

visualfxpro — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:01:56 GMT

Well, I don't have my money yet and clearly you can't trust them, so we shall see. I will report back, but if they don't deliver AGAIN, it will just show how bad they are. Consider how many people are involved at this point and this is situation where you lost a customer who is surly not going to speak well of you...so to drop the ball AGAIN? Well, we shall see.

14 days to give a customer's money back? What a joke.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:24:32 GMT

@visualfxpro Sorry to hear about your troubles at Bank of America. I see in your signature that you have a Navy Federal card. Perhaps they would be happier to have your business instead.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

Credit12Fico — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:51:51 GMT

OP if the card has no value to you, then you are right to close it. Don't hold onto anything that doesn't meet your needs.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

FinStar — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 03:25:25 GMT

@visualfxpro

Just a quick PSA, the subject title was edited to reflect the alleged circumstances associated with this and the previous topic from May as there is no factual or supporting evidence of fraud.

For those who may not be familiar with the original topic, below is the thread for reference. That particular thread has been closed by a Moderator.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/BEWARE-of-Bank-of-America-Secured-cards-They-MAY-not-give-money/m-p/6534518

Let's ensure that any interactions stay productive and within the myFICO Forums TOS or this thread will face the same fate as the previous topic of discussion. Thank you.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

GatorGuy — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 04:11:35 GMT

Honestly it doesn't really matter what you feel like is shady behavior. What matters is in the terms you agreed to when you got your card. Can you show us where it says your money would be returned in two days?

I'm sorry you need the money so much but you do not seem to have a realistic time frame. With a quick Google search, I could not find the BOA timeframe but Discover says: "If you close your account and pay in full, we'll return your deposit within two billing cycles plus ten days.".

I can't imagine your reaction to that. But if you can show where BOA agreed to different terms then you would have an argument.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

TheRedHat — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 04:50:53 GMT

For comparison and some data points, I closed three secured cards from three different banks. One was from Capital One. Another was from U.S. Bank. Finally, one was from Navy Federal. Standard for Capital One is a two-month waiting period before I received my deposit in the form of a check in the mail. Standard for U.S. Bank sends out a check 30 days after closing your card to ensure that all transactions have cleared and then send your remaining deposit by mail. Navy Federal will close immediately and deposit your funds back into your savings account.

Every bank operates differently. Nothing shady about it.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 04:52:51 GMT

I concur with @TheRedHat .

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

acercode — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 06:21:50 GMT

Oh boy, don't get me started on BofA. A while back, I signed up for their checking account because they offered me "no fees for life." Then just a couple years later, they started charging a monthly fee, this after taking billions in bailout money from taxpayers.

For whatever reason I made the mistake of applying for their CC recently. I first did the preapproval and was basically assured I would be approved. I officially applied and was promptly denied.... but was offered a secured card with the same benefits, which I accepted. Then nearly a week later, the approval suddenly reversed to unapproved. If that wasn't unscrupulous enough they kept asking me to send them a deposit for a card they denied. They are absolutely the worst.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

RehabbingANDBlabbing — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 08:48:51 GMT

On the topic of BofA, I have my own little horror story. I went to a branch maybe a year or two ago. I needed to deposit about $3,000.00 in cash. They had 3 people working in the bank, but only one teller. They had a long line. So someone else working walks me outside to the ATM and shows me that I can deposit money there (like I didn't know!). I didn't want to deposit that much into an ATM, but the guy stood out there with me and "helped me." Well the ATM ate and kept about $1000. He saw it happen. We then go inside and they have to call someone else to make a report, which takes an hour. After several more phone calls from home, I finally got my money back about 3 months later. That's when I stopped banking with them. My DH does have a card from them that we use for the 3% categories, but that's about as much of them as we can tolerate. I mainly use Chase now as my main bank. I haven't really had any issues with them. They do like to place random holds on Zelle payments sometimes, but that's my only complaint...

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 10:14:02 GMT

@RehabbingANDBlabbing wrote:
On the topic of BofA, I have my own little horror story. I went to a branch maybe a year or two ago. I needed to deposit about $3,000.00 in cash. They had 3 people working in the bank, but only one teller. They had a long line. So someone else working walks me outside to the ATM and shows me that I can deposit money there (like I didn't know!). I didn't want to deposit that much into an ATM, but the guy stood out there with me and "helped me." Well the ATM ate and kept about $1000. He saw it happen. We then go inside and they have to call someone else to make a report, which takes an hour. After several more phone calls from home, I finally got my money back about 3 months later. That's when I stopped banking with them. My DH does have a card from them that we use for the 3% categories, but that's about as much of them as we can tolerate. I mainly use Chase now as my main bank. I haven't really had any issues with them. They do like to place random holds on Zelle payments sometimes, but that's my only complaint...

That sounds pretty bad.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

FicoGuy2019 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 10:15:34 GMT

@acercode wrote:
Oh boy, don't get me started on BofA. A while back, I signed up for their checking account because they offered me "no fees for life." Then just a couple years later, they started charging a monthly fee, this after taking billions in bailout money from taxpayers.

For whatever reason I made the mistake of applying for their CC recently. I first did the preapproval and was basically assured I would be approved. I officially applied and was promptly denied.... but was offered a secured card with the same benefits, which I accepted. Then nearly a week later, the approval suddenly reversed to unapproved. If that wasn't unscrupulous enough they kept asking me to send them a deposit for a card they denied. They are absolutely the worst.

Their offers are not preapprovals and has been discussed many times on here. How were you "assured" you would be approved??

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

arifjk — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 10:31:06 GMT

I almost had the same experience. But instead of a secured card, mine was just a credit card with $500 credit limit. I had this card for almost 6 years, which they refused to increase the limit even though i have requested several times and they pulled an HP every time i asked for CLI..

Then i told them to close it, and only then they said we would do a CLI for you with only a soft pull. I said NO thank you. Once it's closed for 1 year, and once my BK fell off on EX early this month, then i reapplied for their Alaska VS, i got approved through manual process. I applied for their customized Cash Rewards as well, and was approved instantly.

I think if you just closed your secured card, and let it cool down first for a few months, and apply for one of their cards, you may get approved since you said your score has improved lately.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

MrFiah — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:53:55 GMT

@arifjk wrote:
I almost had the same experience. But instead of a secured card, mine was just a credit card with $500 credit limit. I had this card for almost 6 years, which they refused to increase the limit even though i have requested several times and they pulled an HP every time i asked for CLI.

Then i told them to close it, and only then they said we would do a CLI for you with only a soft pull. I said NO thank you. Once it's closed for 1 year, and once my BK fell off on EX early this month, then i reapplied for their Alaska VS, i got approved through manual process. I applied for their customized Cash Rewards as well, and was approved instantly.

I think if you just closed your secured card, and let it cool down first for a few months, and apply for one of their cards, you may get approved since you said your score has improved lately.

~~I am not sure BOA does CLI on secured cards,~~ but I am guessing your bankruptcy had more to do with not getting the CLI than anything. Once this fell off they were more generous.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

arifjk — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:13:48 GMT

@MrFiah wrote:
@arifjk wrote:
I almost had the same experience. But instead of a secured card, mine was just a credit card with $500 credit limit. I had this card for almost 6 years, which they refused to increase the limit even though i have requested several times and they pulled an HP every time i asked for CLI..

Then i told them to close it, and only then they said we would do a CLI for you with only a soft pull. I said NO thank you. Once it's closed for 1 year, and once my BK fell off on EX early this month, then i reapplied for their Alaska VS, i got approved through manual process. I applied for their customized Cash Rewards as well, and was approved instantly.

I think if you just closed your secured card, and let it cool down first for a few months, and apply for one of their cards, you may get approved since you said your score has improved lately.
I am not sure BOA does CLI on secured cards, but I am guessing your bankruptcy falling off had more to do with not getting the CLI than anything.

On my case, the card they gave me was unsecured. They never gave me an increase for 6 years - maybe because the BK was still reporting, but still I never had any baddies for all those years since I was trying my best to stay on track to keep a clean profile after BK - so no late payments, always PIF, seldom carry balance unless it's intentional to show UTIL Ratios. That's why I closed it. But I got their cards again after 1 year.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

jcooks — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:47:52 GMT

I see nothing shady when they clearly state this in their terms and conditions of accepting the secured card...

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

MrFiah — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:56:52 GMT

@arifjk wrote:
@MrFiah wrote:
@arifjk wrote:
I almost had the same experience. But instead of a secured card, mine was just a credit card with $500 credit limit. I had this card for almost 6 years, which they refused to increase the limit even though i have requested several times and they pulled an HP every time i asked for CLI..

Then i told them to close it, and only then they said we would do a CLI for you with only a soft pull. I said NO thank you. Once it's closed for 1 year, and once my BK fell off on EX early this month, then i reapplied for their Alaska VS, i got approved through manual process. I applied for their customized Cash Rewards as well, and was approved instantly.

I think if you just closed your secured card, and let it cool down first for a few months, and apply for one of their cards, you may get approved since you said your score has improved lately.
I am not sure BOA does CLI on secured cards, but I am guessing your bankruptcy falling off had more to do with not getting the CLI than anything.
On my case, the card they gave me was unsecured. They never gave me an increase for 6 years - maybe because the BK was still reporting, but still I never had any baddies for all those years since I was trying my best to stay on track to keep a clean profile after BK - so no late payments, always PIF, seldom carry balance unless it's intentional to show UTIL Ratios. That's why I closed it. But I got their cards again after 1 year.

Thanks for correcting me, I've updated my original post but I still believe that may have had a large impact.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

FicoGuy2019 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 13:07:02 GMT

Agree. Clearly explained.

Re: More questionable behavior from BofA! I CLOSED my account!

CreditCrusader — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 13:50:58 GMT

@FicoGuy2019 wrote:
Agree. Clearly explained.

Folks, it's really not that complicated.

If a financial institution operates in a manner that you object to, lose them.

Once upon a time (i.e. the era of savings & loans), there weren't so many options for credit users.

Circa 2022, there are nearly limitless options.

Heck, I moved my truck/motorcycle loans away from my primary credit union and to another local credit union because the interest rates were darn near zero percent at the second place.

However, I had locked in a super-low refi and HELOC with the first CU and couldn't be happier with my CC with them.

The funny thing is, neither institution cared that I have business with the other because it's not personal, it's just business.

If you find BOA shady, then your options are clear: Either accept their terms or move on.