Consumer complaint received 2023-08-14
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: OK
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
We opened a credit card through Costco with Citi Bank, which we used for vacation. We made a large payment against our large balance, we sent in a check for {$5000.00}. We did this believing that the funds would go from our bank, to the credit card, and then we would have {$5000.00} in available credit on that card to use. But we do not. Citi Bank has taken the money from my bank, but will not allow me to use have that amount available for 288 hours, or 12 days. 

The check we sent began processing on XX/XX/XXXX and was cleared from our account as posted by our bank on XX/XX/XXXX. Although Citi Bank policy states to allow up to 48 hours for large transactions, they will not release the balance until XX/XX/XXXX. Multiple calls to customer care and management have resulted in an unequivocal no from Citibank. They will not, and can not do anything to allow this balance to be available for use. This Citibank policy was not written or disclosed at any point. Had I as the customer been properly informed that there was a policy that any large first time payment would be under Review for such a long period of time I would not have made such a large payment. However, because I was trying to be financially responsible and pay my debts, that amount of money is not available for my use either on my personal bank account or from my credit card. This is a situation that I did not anticipate because their policy did not disclose it. Now it is the first week of school and I have no money in my bank and no money on my credit card. 

I made such a large payment out of my bank funds under the belief that at the worst, I would have to wait a couple of days before being able to use that amount of money on my credit card. Our financial plan for this pay period was to use the credit card to pay for food, clothes and school supplies for the first week of school. Then next pay period make another large payment, thus using our credit card as it is designed to be used. Now I am forced to take a 401 ( k ) loan and overdraft my bank account by several hundred dollars. Each and every transaction up to a max of {$1000.00} will result in a large overdraft fee of {$25.00}. When this is all said and done I am anticipating having a financial loss and damage of around {$2000.00} because of a policy that I was not informed existed, and has no recourse to correct. I can not feed my kids, I can not but school supplies, I can not put gas in my car, and I am am powerless because I was trying to be responsible. My best hope is that my 401 ( k ) transaction clears before I reach my overdraft limit. 

Upon multiple attempts to work through this, the best resolution offered was a {$50.00} credit to my rewards balance, which will be available to use in XXXX, which is 6 months from now. If I were to do something similar to my credit card company, they would be fining me thousands. To make matters worse, they stated that if we had paid with a debit card, it would have never gone for review. I wont begin with the discussion on the security of debit card transactions and fraud vs a signed check with a routing number, because as the government body overseeing this, I am sure you know more about that than I do and see the ridiculousness of that. 

Citibank, at this point it feels like they are stealing from me. They stole my {$5000.00} and because of an undisclosed and I detailed policy, I am penniless for almost two full weeks. And they have offered no reasonable solution. In addition, their unethical actions will cost me thousands in penalties and fees. Please call for more information.

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