Consumer complaint received 2021-04-13
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship

Complaint:
I had an account with Citicard Best Buy. I currently owe them around {$2200.00}. I was in a debt consolidation program for the last year where I made payments to them every month vis XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I recently terminated my membership tot he program in XXXX 2021 because I had paid all of my creditors off except Citibank Best Buy. I called Best Buy credit services several times in XXXX in an attempt to pay them. I first attempted to call and could not get through to anyone because they closed my account and I could not be located in the system. When I finally reached someone, we worked out a settlement over the phone for about {$850.00}. This was on or about XX/XX/2021. However, the agent 's phone disconnected and I had to call back. When I called back, I got another agent who told me that I could not settle my account because they still had me under the debt consolidation program which prevented them from speaking to me. They told me to call XXXX to have them issue a letter to them stating that I was no longer in the program. So I did that the same day and called back Friday XX/XX/2021 because I was told it could take 3-5 days to show up. At that time I was told that I had to call back again because they had to route me to a different department but I could definitely settle my account. I waited on hold for what seemed like forever then I was disconnected again. I did not have time to call back on Friday because I was at work. I called them back on Monday, XX/XX/2021 to try to settle my account again and they stated that they will not be able to take a payment from me because just today, my account was sent to a collection agency. I'm like how is that when I have been trying to pay this for 2 weeks and you would not except a payment from me? This is unfair. They said there was nothing I could do. I continued to protest, then the agent said that maybe I can get the account recalled back from the collection agency by sending a fax to them at XXXX. I sent the fax right way. He told me that it could take 30-90 days for the account to be recalled back to Citicards Best Buy! My concern is that by that time, they will have marked my credit with a collection. I do not want this to happen as I have worked very hard to repair my credit over the last 2 years. I want them to recall that account and allow me to settle this account immediately and I do not want any marks on my credit from their collection agency or Citicard Best Buy. I think it is unfair they hold people 's lives in their hands and are just as nonchalant with it as can be. I have called them the entire month of XXXX trying to resolve this and each time I called, each agent told me different things. I also want to add that the agents do not speak English. I can hardly understand what they are saying and they may not understand me. I think it is rude to place non-English speaking people on the phone with people who do not speak English well when they are talking about their finances.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation