Consumer complaint received 2021-06-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem with the payoff process at the end of the loan

Complaint:
When Covid hit last year the company offered to defer a couple of payments. They told me that they would just be added on at the end. I thought that this meant that they were going to extend the life of the loan as that is what other companies that were offering the same Covid help were doing. It was not explained to me that they would be doing a balloon payment and that all of the payments that they allowed me to skip would become due at the end of the loan. I called every month to make my monthly payment and I was never told that I had a balloon payment due. I called them at the end of XXXX and did my payment over the phone and I was not told that it was my last monthly payment and that the following month I would have a big payment due. The representative even offered to put me on an automatic payment so I would not have to call every month to make my payment. Not a word was mentioned about I had no more monthly payments. I spoke with a representative again in XXXX and made my normal monthly payment. The representative I spoke with didn't mention that I had a balloon payment due or that the payment that I was making would not take care of my account. I told her I wanted to make my payment and she didn't tell me that I had over {$1000.00} due and took my normal {$200.00} payment without a word otherwise. About a week later I received an alert from one of my credit monitoring services that I was 30 days past due on the loan. I checked my bank account and verified that the payment had been pulled out so I filed a dispute with the credit report agency that the reporting was inaccurate. I then received a bill from citibank stating that my full balance was due on the account. I called the company and talked to a representative and she told me that the loan hadn't been extended, the payments were just put as a balloon payment at the end of the loan and that is why it was showing past due because the loan had ended and I needed to pay the full amount or they will keep reporting me as past due. I was then transferred to a supervisor. Both the supervisor and the representative confirmed that I was indeed not informed when I called that the loan had ended and there was more due on the account. They also confirmed that the representative that I spoke with in XXXX noticed after we were off the phone that what I paid wouldn't cure the account and the balloon was due, but that she didn't call me back to advise me of this. The supervisor stated that I can keep making my monthly payments but that every month I will be considered 30 days later on the loan until they charge it off and report it to a collection agency. I told him that I was blind sided by this and they offered this to help me out and instead it hurt me more. I now have a mark on my credit that will keep getting worse until I am able to come up a large sum of money within the next 10 days further impacting my credit. He said that he understands that none of this was explained to me when I have spoke with their representatives every month and they will work on training them better but there is nothing they can do to help me on this. When I originally set up the extension they told me that the account would not be marked as past due and the supervisor I talked to said that my statements stated that when the loan ended that all past due payments would be due. The statements do say that, but if I am told that I will not be past due, how am I to know that those payments are still considered past due and will be due? The supervisor stated that it is my responsibly to know what is going on with the account, but his own representatives do not know what is going on to be able to service the account. Then how is the average consumer supposed to know how a program that was put out there quickly to help people in a time of great need worked? I truly feel that this company was very unclear on how this program worked, that I was unduly hurt because of this and they are unwilling to do anything to make this right. They are unwilling to work with my in any way on this problem. This is really a sad situation for me as my credit has now been hurt, and if I don't come up with a huge some of money I will be hurt even more. They have been very unclear about this whole process and they agree with me that their representatives didn't give me the important information. He told me that I shouldn't rely on what they told me on the phone and I should have known by the statements what is going on with it. I have several credit cards with this company and I have always been happy with them but now I am having very negative feelings towards this company because they are agree that it was not made clear to me what is going on while on the phone and the representatives that I talked to dropped the ball by not telling me, but that it is all my fault and I just have to deal with the consequences now.

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