Consumer complaint received 2020-12-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NE
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I recently retired from the military XXXX XX/XX/2020 ) and had a Citibank government travel card to which I had not used except for this particular instance. 0n or about XX/XX/2020, I had swiped the credit card at a fuel station by mistake believing that it was my bank card which looks very similar. I had charged {$2.00}, which eventually incurred fees of up to {$160.00}. I would have normally intercepted the bill and paid it but it had been a busy and uncooperative year given my retirement, new job, school, the pandemic, bankruptcy and foreclosure and my wife had a XXXX XXXX removed and has been very ill all year. I must have overlooked the bill believing that it was one of dozens of credit card offers that I had been receiving. Life is a mess for my large family. I had been contacted by the Nebraska XXXX XXXX 2 times on the issue and I had attempted to contact Citibank 3 times by telephone and had waited for more than 40 minutes each time with no contact except the most recent to which I waited 45 minutes to reach a customer service representative. I dont have time for that as I worked about 60 hours a week and go to school. I discussed my problem with her and she agreed to waive all 3 late fees except {$80.00} that was charged by XXXX to take the money from my retirement check. However, before she could do that, she wanted to pass me off to another department to see if I could get the {$80.00} charge removed first. I was transferred to the fraud department where I could get no cooperation. The man transferred me to customer service and then collections. At collections I encountered a very staunch and uncooperative woman who had her supervisor present. After 30 minutes of arguing, the supervisor had told her to agree to drop only two of the late fees leaving me still with more than {$100.00} worth of charges. Also, it seemed that they were trying to trick me by not breaking down the numbers. I called them out on their doublespeak on several occasions and could not get them to say plainly what I had to pay right then and there. The numbers changed several times and always went back to the cost of the original charges. The conversation ended with me hanging up the phone and not paying anything as I understood that they had already filled paperwork with XXXX. 

First, the card was not supposed to be active after my retirement. I was not eligible to have the card. 

The military, most notably the XXXX XXXX forces their Soldiers to apply and receive this credit card in order to travel for training that makes them eligible for promotion. I have personally witnessed dozens of times, Soldiers being made to hurry up and sign this, in order that a block be checked on a Soldier Readiness checklist. The computer training for the card is often rushed and cheated to save time as well and most likely does not discuss Citibanks underhanded practices. The process had changed several times over a year and Soldiers were made to redo different forms of training and application in order to meet this mandate. Neither Citibank nor the Military are ensuring a smooth and fair application process free of errors. Citibank is making Millions exploiting these errors while XXXX  Service Members out of their money.

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