Consumer complaint received 2018-12-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I received a letter from Citi dated XX/XX/18 stating that my account had been closed due to inactivity without any conspicuous prior warning. Had I been warned, I would have used the card to keep a closure from being reported to credit bureaus resulting in a negative impact on my credit rating. I contacted Citi and was told that I could not reopen the accountall I could do was apply for a new account, so I did. I was told that I would hear something back within 10 days. Looking back, unless this employee just did not know how to do his job, I believe he saw an opportunity to log a new account application, and intentionally misinformed me. I never heard back, so I contacted Citi again and was told that the 1st person I spoke with did not submit my application. They asked if I wanted to submit the application at that point, and I said no. I later logged into the mobile app to submit a complaint and chatted with a representative who told me that I could call back, ask for a supervisor, and request that my original account be reopened, which was different than what I was told the first time. I called back, requested a supervisor, but was told that I did not need to speak with a supervisor, and that they would submit my request for the account to be reopened, and that I would hear back within 10 days. I did not hear back, so I called again. I was told that the request appeared to be pending as of XX/XX/18, and that it could take 30 days. I did not hear back, so I called again on XX/XX/18. This time, they asked for my income and mortgage payment, SSN, birthdate, and address information, and said I would hear back in 3 to 5 business days. This was the first time, over 2 months later, that it appeared that my requested was actually moving forward. I then received a letter on XX/XX/18 ( dated XX/XX/18 ) stating that they had received my request to reopen my account, but my name was misspelled on the correspondence. I received a subsequent letter dated XX/XX/18 stating that they had reopened my account ( name misspelled again ). I then received another letter with a new card with my name misspelled. I contacted Citi about the misspelling. They said they would correct it and send me a new card, which they did. I then received a notification from my credit bureau monitoring service that Citi had reported my account to the credit bureaus as closed, which was what I was trying to avoid all along. This entire process, which involved me speaking with no less than 7 different Citi representatives, multiple errors and misinformation was ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous. XXXX should have to inform customers before closing an account due to inactivity, which has a negative impact on their credit rating, and give them an opportunity to use the card and keep the account open. Credit ratings are too important to be handled any other way, and Citi should also immediately correct this with the credit bureaus on my behalf. Had I been warned ahead of time, none of this would have happened. Had the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, etc. representatives have handled my request appropriately, it could have been resolved before the closure was reported to the credit bureaus. It is obvious that Citi also needs to resolve severe employee training and quality control deficiencies.

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