Consumer complaint received 2021-02-08
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account information incorrect

Complaint:
RE : Citi Predatory False Claims of Late Fees During Pandemic, and False Reporting to All Credit Agencies The following has been by far the most unethical scenario that my family has ever experienced with any creditor. I opened a Citi credit card at Home Depot in XX/XX/XXXX, account # is XXXX. Citi sent out our credit card and statement to the incorrect address, in a different town. We called looking for the card in XX/XX/XXXX. Citi admitted erroneously sending the card and statement there. Both were in fact returned to them by the US Post Office. To date, we never received the card, FYI. Our first statement didn't arrive at our correct address until XX/XX/XXXX, and it included many late fees, which confused us. First of all, we had a 6 months at 0 % interest Citi card. But regardless, Citi had never sent the statement or card to the correct address. Moreover, they had refused to allow us to pay the bill by phone because we did not have our account number. We did not have the account # because we had not received the card or statement because Citi mailed the card to the incorrect address!! In XX/XX/XXXX, we received our first statement from Citi. Despite having lost my job due to the pandemic, I immediately paid the principal amount that we were told we owed -- - {$3200.00}. ( I can provide proof of payment. ) I was told by Citi at that time that I did not need to pay the erroneous all late fees. Citi told me that they would delete the fees because it was THEIR error. However, instead, they continued assessing monthly fees totaling {$1800.00} in late fees and interest on late fees. All illegal fees. For more than a year Ive been dealing with this financial catastrophe. We've called and called and written religiously since last summer trying to sort this out. Despite all of our efforts, complete lack of culpability, and Citis promise to work it out, Citi did nothing. They closed the account, sent it to a collection agency, which reported this on my credit as " charged off as bad debt '' -- again see attached -- and canceled my account, with massive credit repercussions to me. My wife and I both lost jobs due to the pandemic. Ive now lost a badly-needed job prospect due to my credit going down more than 100 points because of Citis false reporting. I intended to refinance our mortgage to lower monthly payments, which we desperately need to keep our home. ( There have been weeks we could not afford groceries. ) I cant do that now because of Citis false reporting to credit bureaus. Its a nightmare. And its massively compounded stress to our family, including our XXXX-year-old child with XXXX XXXX, during what can only be described as the worst year in our adult lives. It's predatory. None of this should ever have happened, or gone this far. I filed a 2nd complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau This is horrific business malpractice toward a middle-class family just trying to make basic ends meet during a pandemic. {$1800.00} in illegal late fees. This amount of money may be nothing but a nice bottle of wine to Citi CEO XXXX XXXX, but its a great deal of money to us. It's completely outrageous that Citi would illegally take advantage of ethical, hardworking middle-class consumers such as us, and when we're already financial victims of the pandemic. I I provide evidence for all of this. 

Attached is proof of : 1 ) My unemployment due to the pandemic ; 2 ) proof of the payment I made to Citi as soon as my first statement arrived ; 3 ) my credit report, proving Citi began reporting me for non-payment only a month after I opened the account, despite the fact they hadn't send me a statement or card. 

Again, Citi failed to send me a statement until XX/XX/XXXX. ( Again, to date, they've never sent the card, which they send to the wrong address and for which they admitted culpability. ) Again, they refused to allow me to pay by phone or online without my statement or credit card, sent to the wrong address, to which they admitted culpability. Again, they also refused to give me my account # over the phone, so I could not pay until the statement arrived in XX/XX/XXXX. 

It's all predatory and illegal. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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