Consumer complaint received 2017-05-12
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
D ear Consumer Finance Protection, I re cently closed a credit card w ith Citi  , Thank You Premier Card,   and had around  XXXX  points. At the time of closure ,  XX/XX/XXXX , I was in formed that the points I had would transfer to another account (  Citi Forward ) and woul d expire in 60 days. I could check out my points and spend them online via the ir Thankyou.com po rtal. I agreed to the terms and conditions at that time and accepted that I had 60 days.     Some time went by and  i n  XX/XX/XXXX  I ch  eck my points to verify the expiration date. At this time I noticed that the website,  Thankyou.com, was  showing that my points no longer had an expiration date. It sa id Do Not Expire next to them. At that point I thought Great my points are no longer expiring. Never did it occur to me that this may b e a defect with the  Citi  ThankYou p ortal.  Feeling relieved that I had more time to spend my points I put of spending them. I checked the portal again at the end   of  XX/XX/XXXX  to confirm that they still did not have an expiration date. At that time it still stated Do Not Expire. All my other points that expire have a date attached to them.
Fast forward another couple of weeks to  XX/XX/XXXX . I get my points statement and it has been   reduced by roughly  XXXX  points. At which point I initiate a phone conversation with  Cit  i Thank You  team. They inform me that they will look into it and review the call log of when I closed the account. During the call the agent  (   XXXX  ) was aware of a known defect in th e ThankYou.com P  ortal that does not properly show the expiration date of account s that are in forfeiture. Instead it will only show that they do not expire. She informed me she would be me a call after a couple business days with a resolution.   This defect, unbeknownst to me, has been documented on numerous sites informing users that this is an issue.      XXXX  :  XXXX  #  XXXX  http :  XXXX  After a couple of weeks, in which I had to initiate numerous follow-ups, I got a call back on   XX/XX/XXXX  informi ng me that according to their  T & Cs as explained to me during the closure of my account that I had 60 days to use my points else I would forfeit them. At which point I questioned why the website would display that they do not expire and how that seemed kind of contradictory to their T & Cs. She informed me that even though this was a known issue with their portal ( never explained to me during the T & Cs and no disclaimer on their website ) I  should have used my points and that they will provide a onetime curtesy  XXXX  points. I turned it down as I was disappointed that a company would not accept responsibility for a known defect ( tha t may ha ve been around since  XX/XX/XXXX   )  providing customers with the wrong information that has a financial impact. It has been a strongly negative customer servicing issue for me to ignore and not raise concerns with the proper agencies.      I ima  gine many other people have fallen victim to Citis messaging stating that their points Do Not Expire but then being referenced back to t  heir T & Cs at time of closure. Citi should resolve this defect and make it so people are not mislead. I felt  like this was a bait and switch done on purpose to save money on forfeited points.     Thank you for your time and help.

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