Consumer complaint received 2018-09-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Didn't receive terms that were advertised

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a flyer from Citibank. The flyer says that I am invited to become a Citibank banking client and earn XXXX XXXX   Aadvantage bonus miles. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I called Citibank to open the Citigold account to earn XXXX Aadvantage bonus miles after making ATM Debit card purchases of {$1000.00} and making 1 or more Bill payments for 2 consecutive calendar months. 
The Citibank representative says that they successfully applied to my account, and the offer code is XXXX. 
( See attachment : XXXX Citibank flyer ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Citibank via Chat to ask them whether I have met the requirements of the bonus offer. The Citibank representative confirmed that I had met the requirements for the XXXX miles offer and that the AAdvantage bonus miles will be credited by Citibank to the AAdvantage account within 90 calendar days from the date when the client completed all offer requirements.

( See attachment : XXXX Citi confirms XXXX AA.pdf ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Citibank saying that the requirements for Promotion XXXX were not met because this promotion was not available to existing Citibank customers. Their records indicate I have a existing checking account number ending in # XXXX, which was opened on XXXX XXXX. This account was closed in XX/XX/XXXX. 
( See attachment : XXXX Citi letter denying requirements met.pdf ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Citibank via Chat to dispute the letter on XX/XX/XXXX denying that I had met the promotion requirements. They confirmed my checking account ending XXXX was closed in XX/XX/XXXX. However, they said that I was not eligible for the requirement because I was not a " New-to-Citibank Client. " New-to-Citibank Client must not be have owned a Citibank checking account within the last 180 calendar days from the date of enrollment in the targeted offer. 
( See attachment : XXXX Citi chat denying requirements met.pdf ). 

I am a raising a complaint because : 1 ) When I called Citibank in XX/XX/XXXX to open the account, they did not tell me that I was not eligible for the promotion. They went ahead and opened the account for me and told me the Offer code was successfully applied to my account. 
2 ) When I contacted Citibank on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Citibank confirmed that I had met the requirements of the XXXX miles offer and the Aadvantage miles would be credited to my account within 90 calendar days. Nothing was mentioned about me not being eligible.

3 ) I received an 8 page flyer from Citibank inviting me to apply for the promotion. Of the 8 pages there was only 1 sentence in the fine print that mentions the " New-to-Citibank Client definition. Also, this definition is not in line with the normal understanding of these words. Most people would think that if someone did not have an existing Citibank bank account then they would be a new banking client.

4 ) It is misleading for Citibank to send me a flyer with a targeted offer for this promotion, when they are now saying that I was disqualified from the very beginning.

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