Consumer complaint received 2019-09-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I've had a Citibank Visa card for about ten years. Currently I have a $ XXXX limit but the largest purchase I've ever made on the card probably taps out around $ XXXX or so. On XX/XX/XXXX I went to make a payment on my balance, expecting to see a pending balance of XXXX XXXX dollars, except the balance was $ XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX somebody apparently used my credit card to make a {$12000.00} at XXXX. After having a mild panic attack I called Citibank immediately to report the fraudulent purchase. I was asked a series of frankly insulting questions about whether or not I was 100 % positive it wasn't made by an authorized user even after telling them that no, I was definitely not. Finally though they say okay, any fraudulent charges I won't be responsible for, cancelled the existing cards and issued new ones, but added that because the amount of the dispute is so high they need to escalate the dispute to some other unit. I asked for a case number or a phone number and was told a case number didn't exist yet and they couldn't give out the phone number for the fraud unit. I asked why and couldn't get a clear answer, but they just kept repeating somebody will contact me, somebody will call me, don't worry somebody will call you. It didn't seem like I had any choice but to agree so I ended the call and waited for a week with zero response. A week later Citibank calls me about some suspected fraud on my card and I think oh, this is it. No, they were calling about a {$1.00} charge made earlier that morning. I said no I didn't make a {$1.00} purchase at this place but asked what the status was of my previous dispute, the {$12000.00} charge. The person I spoke to didn't seem to know anything about it, but after a few minutes he said he sees some notes about the matter and I'll just have to wait for somebody to contact me. I asked why there wasn't a freeze on this charge or a credit or something. I asked to be transferred to somewhere, to get the fraud unit 's phone number, anything. Again, I they just kept saying the same thing again and again, no, we can't help you and you need to keep waiting. So here we are a month later and I'm thinking that they must be doing something on their end without involving me. They're probably taking care of it, right? No, I check my balance on XXXX and it's STILL shows as just a regular, normal purchase. I call Citibank and after waiting to get to a live person, a live person tells me their computers are down and I need to call back in another four hours. I call back the next day and they tell me they can't give me any information about the matter but suggested I try calling a different number on Monday. At this point I don't think Citibank has ANY intention of doing anything about this fraudulent charge and are just going to keep blowing me off. I don't know what to do. Please help me.

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