Consumer complaint received 2023-03-08
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On Sunday XXXX around noon eastern, I attempted to use my Citi debit card at a Citi ATM in a Citi branch. I received an message on my screen that there was an error with my card. I attempted to use the card at another ATM in the same location to confirm the problem was with the card and received the same error message. 

I then called Citi and the agent told me that the problem was that the expiration date on my card did not match the expiration date on file in my account. We were then disconnected. I called back Citi again and reexplained the issue as well as what the previous agent had shared. The new agent confirmed that this was indeed the issue why my card was not working. 

I told the agent 1 ) I had not received a new card 2 ) I had not activated a new card and 3 ) I had received no notification from Citi that a new card had even been sent. Typically, when a new card is sent, I am still able to use the old card until I activate the new one unless the card expired and the expiration date on the card in my hand was more than 4 years away. 

The agent said the only possible solution was to send me a new card which would be overnighted to me. I then asked how could I access the cash in my account today because I needed the money. The agent told me I could transfer the money to another account. I asked which other account, because my savings account is linked and I would use the same debit card. It transpired that the suggestion meant that I should transfer my money to another institution ( which I do not have as a loyal Citi customer for nearly 20 years ). It is outrageous that a bank would effectively hold my money hostage unless I worked with another bank. Moreover, the error in the mismatched dates was the fault of Citi - I had never activated a new card and the agent was able to see that I had not done so. I also struggle to understand how, in the computer age, reverting to the old card was not possible. 

I was then transferred to the credit card department, because I intended to withdraw cash using my linked Citi credit card. My pin did not work with the credit card and so I was then transferred to yet another department. This department told me it would take 4-7 business days to get me a new pin - an entirely ineffective solution to the problem of accessing my money. 

I was transferred back to the debit department where I learned that the first agent had never put in the request to have a new card overnighted to me. I said that I needed the new card and *also* that I needed cash that same day so this issue isn't resolved. 

When speaking with the supervisor, the call connection was extremely bad and hard to hear. I asked repeatedly to file a complaint that it was unacceptable that Citi had not been able to resolve the issue and was told that was not possible to do so. I also asked what Citi could do to make up for the fact that I was stranded without access to my funds through no fault of my own and the fact that I had spend two hours of my time on the phone without a resolution and needed to cancel my plans that required the funds. The entire time the tone of the conversation was extremely condescending. At this point, I had been on the phone 2 hours without a resolution. The agent finally put the complaint through some internal system. Based on the number of times the case number had to be corrected as I wrote it down, I'm not even confident it was even a real case number. The agent told me I could expect to hear from someone on Monday in response to the complaint which did not happen. 

Today, Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX I again called Citi because I had not received the new card I was told would be overnighted. The agent I spoke with today did not seem to have access to any record of the case on Sunday so I had to explain all over again what the issue was ( there needs to be a better documentation system that agents can access ). I learned that not only had the request for a new card not been process by the first agent, it was AGAIN not processed when I was transferred back to the debit department the second time on Sunday. The agent I spoke with today was able to process that and said it would reach me by Thursday XXXX. By this time she seemed to have located some notes and I asked that she add to the complaint the fact that the promised solution on Sunday was never even filed. Who knows how long I would have been without access if I had not followed up.

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