Charlotte, N.C., Bureau to Review Rash of Complaints against Bank of America

The Charlotte Observer, N.C

Andrew Shain

January 9, 2004

Jan. 9--Bank of America customer-service officials will meet monthly with the Better Business Bureau after consumer complaints about the Charlotte bank rose almost sevenfold in 2003.

Bank of America agreed to the meetings Wednesday, a day after the Charlotte-region BBB announced that banks received more complaints than any other type of business. Hundreds of complaints about inaccuracies in Bank of America credit-card and checking account statements pushed the industry atop the list. The local BBB collects all complaints about Bank of America nationwide.

BBB President Tom Bartholomy said he met with bank officials in August and September to share concerns about rising complaints. The sides will meet monthly during the next several months to go over complaint reports looking for patterns and solutions, Bartholomy said.

In numbers revised higher from earlier this week, the BBB received 411 complaints about Bank of America last year, up from 53 in 2002 and 48 in 2001. No other national bank had even half as many complaints to BBB chapters in their headquarters' cities. All the Bank of America complaints have been resolved.

Bank of America has said the BBB complaints reflect a small number of its 28 million retail customers.

Charlotte's other large national bank, Wachovia, was the subject of 68 complaints to the BBB last year.

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(c) 2004, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News