Consumer complaint received 2019-03-01
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
To whom it may concern at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Here is the chronology of my transaction on account number : # # # # # # # # # # # XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CitiBank On Monday XX/XX/XXXX I was visiting my daughter in XXXX XXXX. I was there to help her move there from XXXX to attend XXXX school. I was having her car serviced and I had time to kill so I went into the XXXX XXXX and purchased a XXXX XXXX purse that was reduced to {$14.00} and some odd dollars. I used my XXXX card to get additional savings and I believe that my bill came to approximately {$16.00} and some odd cents with tax. I generally pay my balance off immediately at the register with cash, so that I do not have a balance on my account, but for whatever reason on that day, I decided to pay it later. I never received a bill/statement in the mail, but when I was in downtown XXXX sometime in XX/XX/XXXX, I remembered that I need to pay for the purse that Id purchased in Indiana and I also needed to have my parking validated, so I used that opportunity to go in and pay my bill in person. The cashier pulled up my account by my social security number, gave me the balance that was due on the computer of {$16.00} and odd cents. I paid in cash. I believed at that time, my debt was paid in full and settled. 

Months go by and then I started getting a series of calls from XXXX XXXX. I dont have any nearby XXXX 's stores and I thought that it was just another solicitation since they did not leave messages, so I ignored the calls. When I blocked the XXXX 800 number, I received a call from XXXX and they left a message from their credit department. This was on XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately called them back at XXXX and spoke with a credit counselor for 13 minutes. I was shocked when she told me that I had a balance of {$150.00}. I was outraged that somehow a {$14.00} purse that I knew that I had paid for, had somehow grown into such an outrageous charge. I was driving when I spoke with the credit department and was therefore not able to take notes. She told me that when I paid my bill in person, it was paid late and that a {$2.00} charge was added. I was never informed of the additional amount when I paid the bill. That {$2.00} had now grown to {$150.00}. I explained that I had no way of knowing about the {$2.00} change and I would have gladly paid it when I paid the {$16.00}, if I had known about it. I was never informed by the customer service department that a {$2.00} fee had been added. I never received a bill. I was informed that when I moved, and I changed the address on my account, that only changed my account with XXXX, but not with their credit department. How is a consumer suppose to know this? The credit department still had my previous address at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on file. What they didnt know is that I still own that home and I rent it out. My tenant is a close personal friend who always passes along my mail, and I had not received any bills from XXXX during the disputed time period. I was livid about the situation and told the credit personal that I would be canceling my account and never shopping at XXXX again. She reduced one of the late charges and reduced the bill down to approximately {$120.00}. I was disgusted. I decided that I would go into my local XXXX directly and pay the amount in cash and close my account. I was driving so I was not in a position to take notes or conduct further business. 

I immediately went into the customer service counter at the XXXX XXXX  XXXX  to pay up and be done with the whole situation. My husband thought that I should not pay the amount on principal. He thought that we should have them send us to collections and fight it there. Quite frankly, the amount wasnt worth my time. I just wanted to put the situation behind me, never shop at XXXX again and tell everyone who would listen about this outrageous situation. I was once again prepared to pay the full amount in cash, I was told at the customer service counter that they could not close my account, that they were not authorized to do that. They told me to call the credit department back, that they were the only ones authorized to close my account and that I also might have better luck with a different credit counselor. 

I immediately went home and called back the credit department. I was now in a position to take notes. I spoke with XXXX, who gave me her ID number : XXXX. She agreed that if I had known that I owned the {$2.00} late fee, that I would have paid it at the time that I paid my bill in person. Common sense dictates that anyone who went to the trouble of paying the bill in person for such a small purchase, would have paid the full amount that was only approximately {$18.00} in total. XXXX said that she was authorized to reduce the charge from the {$120.00} and some odd cents down to {$81.00}. I of course wasnt happy about this con scheme by CitiBank for all of the charges on a {$2.00} late fee but what are you going to do? XXXX confirmed that the previous counselor that I had spoken with at XXXX had not made the billing address change, even though I had requested that it be changed to my current address at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, CA. XXXX could not provide me confirmation in writing that my account had been canceled because they were not set up to do so that her location. She gave me a confirmation of # XXXX and told me that I was now paid up in full. XXXX was sympathetic and told me that their policy was to add another {$2.00} charge to my bill because once again, I was paying late. I told her to add {$5.00} to what I way paying to avoid that. She told me that she could not authorize additional payment from her location. The only way to avoid another {$2.00} late fee was either to put my debit card on file for automatic payment, or to go into a store location and that they could authorize additional payments. There was no way that I way going to give CitiBank free access to my debit card, so I went into the XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and paid {$5.00} so that I could cover any additional late fees. 

After all of that effort on my part, paying a bill that no ethical business would have charged me to begin with, I received a new account statement yesterday in the mail with a {$34.00} late fee. I will NOT be paying this bill. Evidently XXXX/CitiBank now believe that they can bill me in perpetuity for {$2.00} late fee on a {$14.00} purse.

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