Consumer complaint received 2018-02-18
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: ND
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
Since we use credit cards for all purchases throughout the month, and this Citi card has a low credit limit, we have been making payments during the month to offset usage versus credit limit. Every time we make a payment, our bank account shows the deduction, Citi online shows the deduction, but Citi does not release the funds available to use. We have called repeatedly to address this and they keep telling us that they are waiting to verify the funds. However, their verifying the funds apparently means to sit and wait for nearly a 2 week period without ever making an effort to contact our bank to do said verification of funds. After forcing the issue with their payment department they finally called our bank on a conference call on XX/XX/18 to verify that in this one instance the funds were sent to Citi on XX/XX/18. Citi was waiting until the XXXX to " verify said funds '', nearly 2 weeks after the payment was made, received by Citi, posted to our account, but funds not released. This was 1 of only 2 or 3 separate occasions. The suggestion was to make a payment over the phone with our debit card to expedite this 2 week wait instead of making a payment online with it coming directly from the same  checking account as the debit card is attached to. We have been denied repeatedly at purchases due to payments received but available funds not released. Here are just a few examples : payment by phone - XX/XX/18 XXXX posted to card account and funds released for card online, XX/XX/18 funds cleared checking account, funds were confirmed by customer service as received yet I was declined at our veterinarian and the mechanic, actual funds released XX/XX/18 after a heated phone call. Payment on line - XX/XX/18 XXXX posted to card account and funds released for card online, funds deducted from checking account XX/XX/18, denied at a restaurant and the mechanic 's again, actual funds not released until we escalated a call and they finally verified with the bank via a conference call on XX/XX/18 instead of waiting for XX/XX/18. Again we were denied at our local grocery store. We have made another payment on XX/XX/18 online, posted to the card account on XX/XX/18 releasing available funds online, deducted from checking account XX/XX/18, yet on XX/XX/18 we were declined to pay for our final car repairs. I have also been denied at XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/18, XXXX XX/XX/18, and our grocery store again XX/XX/18. At this point it is no longer worth fighting with customer service, the payment department, and whoever else answers the phone as it is not worth raising our XXXX XXXX to dangerous levels. We have never had this experience with any other account, nor have we had money being held by a bank when it was received electronically. It begs to ask the question of who's using this money as opposed to it's intended purchase. We do understand that there are cases of bust out accounts where people fraudulently make large payments well beyond the credit limit to expand their buying abilities, all the while knowing that the payment has non-sufficient funds. But when a bank is refusing to physically contact another bank to verify the funds validity yet refuses to release the funds confirmed received electronically, we are hard pressed to continue believing Citibank. Being declined with companies that we frequently do business with and have extremely good customer/merchant relationships with is extremely frustrating and highly embarrassing. Today, XX/XX/18, we made proactive excuses FOR Citi Bank that they were having problems with their servers in case it was declined. It was declined and then paid for via another card. However, when did it become ok for the customer and their experience to have to make fake excuses for Citibank so the customer doesn't experience the embarrassment with the merchants? I do believe that posting of funds received to the online account electronically, but continuing to hold them unavailable to the cardholder in upwards of almost 2 calendar weeks is in direct conflict with XXXX 's regulations and compliance requirements. I am unsure of the Federal regulations and compliance requirements for any bank to accept electronic payment, and not release available funds to the customer for nearly 2 weeks. We will be cancelling this card as soon as all transactions post and payments clear. We will not do business with a bank where we have to call and argue with them on the validity of our payments on a weekly basis.

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