Consumer complaint received 2019-06-25
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Overcharged for something you did purchase with the card

Complaint:
To whom this may concern, On XX/XX/XXXX I have received a payment through a balance transfer from a XXXX credit card of a family member to my Citi credit card for the amount of XXXX, as a result of my Citi credit card having a low balance at the time that the payment was posted my Citi credit card reflected a negative balance of XXXX when the payment posted. On XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to Citi to request a refund for the negative balance on my account. I was told that Citi will wire the funds to my checking account in no longer then 7 to 10 business days. After 10 business days past I reached out to Citi to follow up on the credit refund. I was told that the refund was being delayed as a result of some sort of investigation on Citi 's end and that I could expect a refund from Citi in the next few days. I followed up with Citi a couple more times including on XX/XX/2019 and was constantly told that the refund will be initiated shortly. At that point I have decided not to wait any longer and I used my card for the amount that Citi owed me for the negative balance ( which arrived form a balance transfer payment a month earlier ). To my surprise on XX/XX/XXXX my statement showed a balance of the full payment amount. In addition Citi has reported to the credit bureaus that I owed the amount of XXXX. I immediately loged on to my online banking with Citi and saw that it said that the payment for the amount of {$14000.00} was posted in error and therefore reversed. I reached out to Citi following the closing date of my statment of XX/XX/XXXX, after getting transferred to 4 representatives and after spending 1.5 hours on the phone I was told that I needed to get a letter from XXXX confirming that the original balance transfer which came from a credit card that was not under my name was intended to go towards paying off my account. After we have received the letter from XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Citi on XX/XX/XXXX to find out where I should send the letter to, I got through to a representative who transfered me to her supervisor who insisted that Citi was no longer holding on to the funds that they received from XXXX. He claimed that the credit refund that I have requested during XXXX was wired to my checking account. I told the supervisor over and over again that I most definitely did not receive any wire from Citi to my checking account. Furthermore the supervisor provided me with the last 4 digits of the checking account that the wire was " sent to ''. I insisted that I did not own that checking account and that I was not familiar with it at all, I pointed out to him that the last four digits that he mentioned to me were those of my credit card and not of any checking account, ironically he thought it was just a coincidence and not a mistake on his end. At some point during the conversation the supervisor said that the funds were returned to XXXX where it came from. When I asked him weather he still thinks that the funds were wired to my account hr said yes, so how is it that it also was returned to chase? I asked, I told him I do not understand where the funds went to was it wired to me or was it sent back to XXXX? His response was that I do not want to understand what he is saying. The conversation with the citi supervisor was mind-boggling bizarre and absolutely ridiculous, we were going in circles. towards the end of the conversation he advised that we reach out to XXXX and dispute the payment that was made on XX/XX/XXXX from the XXXX account to my Citi account. When we reached out to XXXX they said that ones city received the funds they would need to escalate the matter on thire end and it would not be able to be handled on XXXX 's end. I reached out to Citi once again, I spent another hour and a half on the phone, I was transferred from collection department to customer service department and then back again to collection department, no one seemed to be able to help me. I requested that a temporary credit be applied to my account until the matter is resolved they said they were not necessarily able to do so and they would inform me by mail whether a temporary credit would be applied to my account within 30 days. I am currently in the process of getting a few loans and mortgages, as a result of Citi reporting to the credit bureaus that I owe them this amount of money it is causing me a delay in finalizing these loans and mortgages which is translating in to real monetary damage. I am not in a position to wait 30 days for Citi to investigate weather to give me a temporary credit ( for funds that they received ) which will reflect on my credit report. In addition Citi charged ( and is continuing to charge ) me interest for the period of time when the payment was on hold. 
I would really appreciate if someone could help me get this resolved. 
Many thanks! 
XXXX XXXX

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 non-monetary relief