I have a BOA credit card that I always pay on-line. Last month I made a payment (paid card in full). A week later the card was declined so I checked my on-line account and saw no record of a payment. Stupidly, I paid the amount again thinking that maybe I forgot the hit submit or something the last time. Now I notice that I'm actually paying on a card other than the card I use--and have no idea why this card is also appearing on my on-line account. I called the credit card company and the rep found that I had a positive balance (credit) on this mystery card. I asked her why all of a sudden there are two accounts (and the new account appears first on the page so I didn't even see my actual account and paid the first by mistake). She said she didn't know. I told her to cancel that other account ASAP and to transfer the first payment to my active card. She did do the transfer. I called my bank the next morning to cancel the second payment--too late it already went though. I wasn't too worried, because I didn't have any trouble with them transferring the money out of the mystery account and since I had to leave town for a week I didn't deal with it until I got back. When I got back I went on-line. Again, the mystery account shows up first. My active account again underneath. Details of the mystery account indicate the $700+credit from my erroneous payment. So I called customer service to see how I can get this money back--either transfer it as credit to my active account or send me a check. Guess what? They tell me that account has been sold and they have no information on it. I asked how they could GIVE my balance credit away and they said that the account had been charged off and that it was sold to a collection company. I flipped out and told her that this account had just mysteriously appeared on my on-line statement within the past month and I had no idea that I owed any money. I literally spent an entire day trying to straighten this out and couldn't get anywhere. Someone finally told me it had been sold to Sherman Financial (junk debt collector) and that's all they could tell me. Wouldn't even give a phone number. I can't believe this! I have print outs indicating that there was a 0 balance on this account when I erroneously made the payment and that I actually had a $700+ credit. How can they collect a payment from my this way and then sell my account? Everyone at BOA agreed that it is all very odd but there is nothing they could do. I'm tempted to contact the Attorney General in my state. Any other ideas? Sorry if this is confusing--I'm really wound up!
I'm back with some clarification. I just pulled my credit report and it appears that I had a BOA Mastercard opened in 1997 and charged off in 2003. My active account is a BOA Visa. I have no idea why an account charged off four years ago suddenly appeared as my main account on the on-line statement (again, the only one that ever appeared before was the Visa) and after I inadvertently pay $700+ on it (thinking I was paying on the Visa), they sell the "debt" to a collector and can't/won't account for where the recent payment is, nor can give me any info on how to contact the collector. I don't have any idea what I supposedly owed them (and I doubt it was much or I think they would have tried harder to get payment over the past four years) . So it looks like I made a $700 payment to someone for which I will not be credited or even be able to verify. Can anyone respond to this situation? Thanks.
I understand your situation, as I have gone through the same scenario (and I am still dealing with it!). To summarize, here's what is happening: Back in October of 2006, BoA acquired MBNA, and merged all the accounts. In the transfers of accounts, they ALL got posted, and most showed up on the on-line banking websites. Without realizing it, you probably posted your payment to this old closed account (if you printed out payment confirms, check them thoroughly). Next, the payment that you made to BoA,gets forwarded to the collection agency the account was sold to. The problem here becomes if you had a balance due on that account. If there was a $0 balance on the account, the CA will forward payment back to BoA, BUT...it takes a while. You will need to call Sherman and track down what happened to the payment, and verify the balance information on the account. On your on line banking, look for the transaction "FWD PAYMENT TO BUYER" in your activity. This is where your payment went. The main problem you will face, is IF you owe a balance on the old account. The difficulty here is that BoA reps do not seem to know how to deal with this problem. You most likely ended up speaking with the "Asset Recovery Department". They are the ones who deal with "charged off acounts", but ironically, they do not transfer the monies to the CAs. Somewhere there is an automated system that forwards payments on old closed account automatically. My guess is that this transaction is coded by the account number (which is usually changed when the account is charged off to designate it as a "CO" account). This is what you will need to do: 1) Speak to BoA Asset Recovery Dept., phone number 1-800-863-1486. Explain the situation (again), and ask them to verify balance on account. 2) Call Sherman and verify the account, and verify they received your $700 payment. Specifically ask what they will be doing with the payment. 3) The sticky part becomes the statement dates and activity. In the end, if the old account had a $0 balance, then the account should settle itself out. But..you will have to stay on top of it. 4) Ask BoA to transfer the payment to your normal BoA CC account, they will do that, but again stay on top of it. 5) Last, be aware that if you request "removal of the account from electronic posting, this does not make the problem go away. I recommend that you let it stay on your on-line banking so that you can manage it. Just keep pounding away at them, this will end up taken care of, but you will have to do a lot of the work here. For your own sake, do not rely upon BoA taking care of the situation alone.
Thanks so much, bizwiz. Your reply really demystified the whole thing for me. I will get right on this Monday. Looking back at the "recovered" Mastercard online statements, I had a $0 balance until I made the two payments by mistake. One of the payments was transferred to my BOA Visa Account. The other, which I didn't catch in time was transferred to Sherman Financial. As you indicated, I need to find out if I did have an unpaid balance on that account at some point. You have been incredibly helpful. I will post updates on my progress and may need more advice!
One more thing--I just went to my BOA on-line accounts page. I can no longer view the "recovered" account info--it was there yesterday and after my day on the phone with BOA has now disappeared. Fortunately, I printed off the last two months statements on that account that showed the 0 balance, then the balance credit of $739.75, and then the transfer of this money to the "buyer". At least I have some documentation of what's been going on.
Try this, go to your "main card" account, hit the "pay bill" icon, it will bring you to the web pages for paying bills. There should be icons for "view", this should show your statements, even though the account is not posted on its own.
Update/Call to Sherman Financial/BOA Called BOA Asset Recovery today. Again, they had no information for me. Told me that the account was charge off in 7/2003 but they have no records indicating what, if anything, I owed them. I told them that I have a print out of the last two month statements that indicated a 0 balance until I made the mistaken payment and then the statement indicated a $739.75 credit owed to me. They told me to call Sherman Financial (gave me a working number this time) and that I could also try their Payment Research Department. (I had already spoken to them on Friday and they had no information). Anyhow, I next called Sherman Financial. They have NO RECORD of buying my account from BOA. They searched my current name, maiden name and social security number. They have no idea why BOA indicated to me that my account was sold to them. Now what do I do? Do credit card companies have legal departments? Do I need to get a lawyer? I'm really exasperated by all this!
You need to speak to BoA again, and find out where the payments were forwarded to. They should be able to assign a Manager from Asset Recovery to investigate this for you. I would call back and inform them of Sherman's lack of a record for this account.Did you ever receive any "notices"regarding this account in the past? This may tell you where the account was sent. Also, ask them to do an investigation for the payment tracking. The account WILL show "FWD PAYMENT TO BUYER", BoA does have a record SOMEWHERE of where it was sent. You need to stay on them, and get someone to investigate. As a suggestion, try www.fiacardservices.com, this is the service where the charged off and collections accounts go. They are owned by BoA. Don't worry, in the end this will balance back out, but you will have to stay on top of BoA to make sure it does. I went through this with BoA recently, and I took four entire days on the phone tracking down someone to handle this. (BTW, they just did the same thing again this past month!). As a suggestion, I would focus on your current card, make a minimum payment, and make sure they do not hit your account with a late fee or "late status". In the end, perseverance is the main ingredient here, I know it's a pain, but stay on the phone with anyone and everyone, and just keep pounding away at it. This is what I had to do (and still am doing!).
Thanks again, Bizwiz. Just called Asset Recovery Dept again. Went through two reps and a "specialist". Again, they can't find any information about what I owed or where the account went. Told them about my phone call to Sherman Financial. Their attitude is that the payment was applied to my account so what's the problem? I tried to explain that they can't even validate that I owed them anything, that the money was collected deceptively, and that I don't even know who now has my $739.75. The specialist said all he could suggest is that I send a fax to their Dispute Dept insisting that they get someone to investigate this. He gave me the fax number. I will work on this tonight. I'm wondering if instead of faxing it I should send a certified letter and attach copies of the statements indicating the 0 balance and my statement? I also have a copy of the web page that clearly makes the charged off account look like my main account (the active account was listed underneath in small print and said no bill due). Also, if they can't find any records of what I owed them, can I try to get this off my credit reports? Thanks!
I would say this is a great time to dispute this tradeline on your credit reports. I would keep documentation of this situation, to use as "evidence" about inability to verify account. Though they will say they can verify "Charge Off" most likely. But, I would try it.
