As a general habit, every couple of days I check my debit card statement to make sure all the charges are valid. I've heard of micro-scammers who take a little bit at a time before going in for the big haul. My sister was once the victim of identity fraud, so now I pay extra close attention to things. This morning, while running through my charges while I was waiting for my coffee, I noticed two charges that didn't look right. I don't remember making them and I don't recognize the merchant, so I immediately looked up the number for Bank of America and made the call.
There are a lot of reasons why people might end up calling Bank of America. They may want to talk about their checking account or they may want to talk about loans. Other people like me, might be concerned with fraud, so I would understand if I had a long wait in front of me. The wait wasn't too bad, but the automated system made it hard to get anywhere. Once I got out of that system the phone call wasn't so bad.
I knew it would take a bit, so I waited until I was driving on my morning commute to call, and was greeted by an automated voice assistant, who said, "This call may be recorded. Welcome to Bank of America claim services. To assist with the dispute office, please say or enter your telephone number, account number or access ID?" I was driving, so I said, file a claim. My number wasn't that accessible at the time. It then said, "If you need more time, say wait a moment, or press 1. Otherwise please say or enter your telephone access ID, card or account number."
Once again, I repeated back, "file a claim" but this time that was enough and it said, "Okay, are you calling about a new claim? For the status of an existing claim, or something else?" I said, new claim, and then it said, "Please tell me the type of transaction, You can say ATM or press 1, Debit card or press 2, check or press 3, fees or press 4, Zelle transaction or press 5, electronic funds transfer or press 6."
I chose 2 for debit cards, and it said, "Please make sure that you contact the merchant first as we'll need this information to dispute the claim. If you've already contacted the merchant, then say yes." I hadn't contacted the merchant yet, but I also didn't know who the merchant was so I pressed yes so that it would get me to a person. This worked and it said, "Please hold while I connect you, your call may be recorded for quality purposes. We are experiencing higher-than-normal call volume. Your weight time is 4 to 6 minutes." The wait time was accurate, and in about 5 minutes I was connected to a representative who was helpful and helped me file the claim.