Consumer complaint received 2020-03-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: AZ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
Hi, I am XXXX XXXX from XXXX, Arizona. I want to direct your attention to this situation that I am dealing with my Citi Bank Best Buy credit card. I made a purchase for a laptop that was roughly {$700.00} in XXXX along with some previous balance. All these purchases were made with Best Buy 's promotional apr of 0 % interest for 12 to 18 months financing offers. I bought another product ( ~ {$350.00} ) with a similar offer later in XXXX. The company selected a minimum payment and I opted for autopay so that it will pay off my balance in the due time. The first purchase that I made for my laptop had a promotional offer until XX/XX/XXXX and in the monthly email that I received it only shows me a total balance of about {$1500.00}. They failed to notify me that my promotional period is ending and I have to pay whatever is left of the principal amount. In XXXX, they charged {$260.00} as interest and kept charging me about {$30.00} every month since then. I have been making their desired payment ( on autopay ) every month and I just realized my balance keeps increasing and it's more than {$2000.00} now. Essentially they are just taking the interest out of the account and keep stacking the principal. I was never informed by a rep that my promotional offer has ended and I need to pay a certain balance. After 6 months, I have been paying hundreds of dollars and it's mostly counting towards the interest and my due balance keeps increasing. They have not charged me for the other purchases yet as the promotions expire in XX/XX/XXXX. I have no idea where did all the payments I have made so far gone towards and why do I still owe them the total Principal in addition to the accrued interest. They are essentially making me pay {$700.00} ( principal ) +> {$400.00} ( interest ) +> {$800.00} ( other balance ) and I still don't know where did all the money go that I have paid them so far. I understand the numbers may add up for the company and they are charging me the interest accordingly but I was not notified of this at all. They just send you a total statement balance email and you're supposed to find the full statement and understand what is being paid off and what is not and I still can't understand what I have paid so far in the last two years of doing business with them. They certainly want to hide this information and make it even hard to understand for people. I have attached most of my statements from past two years and can provide more if needed. I even asked with a superior rep at Citi to resolve this but they are not willing to help me or negotiate with me to let me pay the principal. I just want to put this all behind me and pay what I really owe them honestly and get done with it. Please help me this is financial turmoil for somebody like me and I look towards for help.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation