Bank of America International Customer Service

Calling this number is only useful if you already have an account with Bank of America. That's because this number is meant for Bank of America's international customers and is set up to allow them to call Bank of America collect.

As such, the company doesn't want anyone who isn't actually a customer using this number. That seems to be the mentality in how they've set up their automated system, as it's a frustrating experience if you don't already have an account. When you dial, you get a message welcoming you to Bank of America and letting you know that if you meant to call Bank of America collect, they accept the charges.

That's a good thing for customers, but the problem comes when you hit the choke point at the next stage. The system asks you to provide your access code or your account number, and there's no real way to get around it by refusing. If you attempt to do so, the system tells you that to get you to the right location, it must confirm your identity.

If you refuse again, the system gives the illusion of letting you past the choke point by asking for the reason for your call. I said I was calling to open an account, and the system confirmed that I had asked to open an account. However, it then followed up by asking me to provide my account number. If the system already knows I'm trying to set up a new account, it should also know that by definition, I don't actually have an account with which to provide an account number.

It doesn't matter to the system. The system won't stop asking for your account number, even when it should know that you don't already have one. When I said "no" to the request to provide an account number, the system asked me to confirm that I had said I didn't know my account number. I told them that was wrong and I don't have one, and again found myself back in an endless loop. With no options left, I ended the call.

Overall, I think this number would be useful to people who are already international customers of Bank of America. The bank clearly takes the security of its customers seriously and makes it very difficult for anyone who's not already a customer to get through. Offering free collect calls from international destinations helps ensure that customers can always get connected with Bank of America even when traveling abroad.

I'd prefer that this number placed the choke point earlier rather than potentially wasting the time of people who aren't yet customers, but I understand that's not the purpose of this number. Based off this experience, I would use this number if I were a customer who genuinely needed it, but wouldn't otherwise.