Bank of America major issue with Billpay/Autopay, what to do?

[Anonymous]

So glad you got this worked out, and I hope you get your credit line restored. Just in case it doesn't, start thinking about moving some of your balance to another card or cards (preferably one with a 0% APR) so that you can lower that utilization rate and restore your credit score. 

I recently had to do this. My Discover has a $6,400 with a 0% APR but I my utilization was sitting at about twenty percent. I recently moved enough of the balance to my Wings Financial credit card to get me down to about 12% utilization. And, I made sure the Wings balance is not more than 10% utilization. 

Now my Discover is near 10% utilization and all my other accounts are at or far below 10% utilization. Discover reports to credit bureau on Dec. 2nd and all the others report at the end of November. I'm looking forward to seeing my credit score once all cards have report my new balances.

Sometimes you just gotta have a plan B and get really creative. Also, just wanted to say, you're a person after my own heart. I track all my household finances via a spreadsheet as well. However, I NEVER trust technology. I recently posted about issues about my so called adventure trying to make an payment to my Wings cc using their external payments interface. Since the account is relatively new, I had the forethought to take screen shots of the "Transfer Successful" page so I'd have proof that I made the payment on a specific date. Low and behold, when I went back into the app to track the payment there was no record of it. I won't go through all the details here since I made a really long post about it. Suffice it to say, I did indeed end up having to use that screen shot as proof of payment because their system doesn't track it in the public facing app nor internally on their end. 

Lesson learned. Don't blindly trust these systems. Use screen shots, record reference numbers and save all emails and check to make sure your payments post when they're supposed to for sure.

[longtimelurker]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I never rely on autopay.

I only set up autopay as a fallback in case I were disabled or dead and not around to make the minimum payment.

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And on the other side, I have had US credit cards for over 35 years, and have always trusted autopay.   The only late fee I ever got was when I thought I had set up autopay and hadn't (because setting it up with the CU was a too complex process!).  Sure, things can go wrong, but equally you can forget to make the payment yourself (or something can go wrong with the payment itself).

If you trust it enough as fallback, it's not such a great leap to trust it for real (and "trust but verify" until happy!)

[xenon3030]

After observing the same failed autopay issue and do not trust it too much. I set all cards on autopay with minimum payment while I also check weekly/biweekly all accounts and pay them sometimes manually.

I saw autopay issue on my Amazon Synchrony card. Synchrony could not do autopay correctly from my external checking account (their website was very buggy). Instead of fixing the issue, they closed my card (RIP ).

[SoCalGardener]

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@ficobuilder923 wrote:

Ok so quick update - what happened is I called and set up autopay on October 8th and my bank was also verified that same day. As a result, they said the autopay would not work in the same billing cycle (payment was due on the 24th of each month) and it did work this past week on 11/24. So long story short, you were right @SoCalGardener they did make it right and remove the late fee from October. My main point of contention is that since this was set up on the phone, I don't recall the CSR telling me it wouldn't autopay that month. Usually I would have noted it in my spreadsheet with all my accounts. What was also throwing me off was that the Billpay system for October was showing "Marked as Paid" which apparently can be done manually by myself or a CSR. So it's not clear how that got there but I don't remember doing it. 

Regarding the credit line restoration, they said I'd have to re-apply with a soft pull so I did that and it said they'll let me know in 5 - 7 days after review. Also, on the credit line decrease letter, it listed a PO Box to respond with any correspondence so I typed up a letter on what had happened and requested the credit line be restored to its original limit and sent it certified. Long story short, my credit line may or may not be restored but it won't be for a lack of trying. 

TL,DR; - Be aware that autopay will not work in the same billing cycle that it's set up in! Yes, even 2 weeks+ prior to due date will NOT work. 

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Thanks for the update. I was sure BofA would make good on it, and I'm happy to hear they did. Now if you can just get your credit limits sorted back out, that'll be great.

The CSR really should've told you about the 'first month delay' thing. I hope they'll inform the CSR of their oversight so they can improve from here on out. Something I rely on--but only have to pull out very rarely--is saying "listen to the tape!!" Knowing that all these calls are recorded, when I'm 100% sure about something and they're saying, no, there's no record of that, I'll tell them to have a supervisor listen to the recording. That's as far as it's ever gone!

[creditfan]

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@xenon3030 wrote:

After observing the same failed autopay issue and do not trust it too much. I set all cards on autopay with minimum payment while I also check weekly/biweekly all accounts and pay them sometimes manually.

I saw autopay issue on my Amazon Synchrony card. Synchrony could not do autopay correctly from my external checking account (their website was very buggy). Instead of fixing the issue, they closed my card (RIP ).

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you reminded me when I had autopay on my paypal MC. It double autopay lead to my checking became negative balance. I had to call them to request my money back. "Be aware"

Under my philosophy thinking, once it failed me it's hard to get trusted again. I later had to convince myself and my wife too to close all down.

Same true to my Schawb checking account. Once upon a time I was planned use it as my primary, but no more.

[GApeachy]

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@ficobuilder923 wrote:

it's been doing its thing for the past 3 months/billing cycles (Sept/Oct/Nov). 

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The 3 months is what had me confused.

But you actually did not have autopay set up "doing it's thing" in September...not until October 8th, correct? 

[Anonymous]

RiP indeed!

[ficobuilder923]

Yes, correct. I had tried to set it up in September and initially thought that was when it was set up. Turns out we couldn't get it working, so I had to call back in early October and we did it over the phone. The confusing part was that Billpay shows "Marked as Paid" for an autopay in September which was probably done manually, ie it would show that you still owe the money in that system unless you clicked "Marked as Paid" manually. I'm not sure why there is a manual option and assumed that it was automatically marked when Billpay drafted it so that is where there was some confusion. I think moving forward I'm going to have to start logging when I call each card just for my own records.

[ficobuilder923]

Thanks @SoCalGardener  Yeah I usually mark in my spreadsheet next to the day a bill is due with a month next to it, indicating when autopay will begin. For example, if it is on the 10th but won't hit until January I'll put "Jan 10" in the spreadsheet and then delete out the "Jan" in January when it takes effect. All in all, it's disappointing that in 2021 that banks can't do it the same billing cycle but the majority of my cards can. The worst were Alliant and Capital City, they required to snail mail them a form to set up autopay, no joke. So that reminds me I need to call them to find out when exactly those will be enacted. 

Regarding credit limit, I may apply for another card to do a balance transfer if they can't restore my limit as someone here suggested. Really not thrilled with opening another account but that's my backup plan. I'll have to do some research here on a card that has at least 12 months Balance Transfer that isn't inquiry/account sensitive!

Thanks everyone for your advice as well. 

[GApeachy]

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@ficobuilder923 wrote:

Yes, correct. I had tried to set it up in September and initially thought that was when it was set up. Turns out we couldn't get it working, so I had to call back in early October and we did it over the phone. The confusing part was that Billpay shows "Marked as Paid" for an autopay in September which was probably done manually, ie it would show that you still owe the money in that system unless you clicked "Marked as Paid" manually. I'm not sure why there is a manual option and assumed that it was automatically marked when Billpay drafted it so that is where there was some confusion. I think moving forward I'm going to have to start logging when I call each card just for my own records.

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Did you end up getting a 30 day late on your credit reports or did you dodge that bullet?