Consumer complaint received 2020-09-13
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019, I made a payment of {$800.00} to my credit card with Macy 's, using a promotional 0 % offer on balance transfers check authorized/issued by Citibank on my Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX. 
At the time I was not aware that Citibank was also Macy 's banker. 
For some unknown and quite perplexing reason, Macy 's did not present the balance transfer check to Citibank, or perhaps it did but the check was not posted to my Citi Credit Card XXXX until XX/XX/2019. Citi wrote to me saying that it could not honor its commitment to a 0 % promotional rate because the said check was not presented within the prescribed time of promotion. They would charge me the full rate ( 23.0 % =+/- ) on the transfer of {$800.00}. 
So I used another promotion offer from XXXX XXXX to clear off My Citi card balance totaling {$820.00} on XX/XX/2019. 
In XXXX of 2019, I learned that Macy 's had reversed the {$800.00} payment to my store credit card. Macy 's did not give me any explanation as to why it did so, and it did not send me any correspondence with any returned check to support its action. 
When I enquired of Macy 's as to why it did so, the customer service officer responded by saying it was my job to prove I had made the payment. She told me to get a photocopy of said balance transfer check to Macy 's as proof of payment. The CSO refused to provide any explanation as why the took the action of reversing a payment that had been honored by Citi.

Since then my numerous efforts to get Citi to provide me with a copy of the said balance transfer check has come to nought. It so happened that right after the check was posted to my citi card XXXX, I discovered several unauthorized charged to the citi card which turned out to be fraudulent. Citi agreed to reverse those fraudulent charges. In doing so it closed the card XXXX and transferred the outstanding balance of {$150.00} to a new Citi XXXX XXXX. XXXX  no. XXXX ( XXXX statement reflects this transaction. 
Citi keeps telling me they no longer have any records of the citi card account XXXX which reflected the Macy 's {$800.00} payment of XX/XX/2019. 
When my husband, who is a XXXX XXXXr, asked the Citi customer service personnel " aren't you required by federal law to keep records of accounts/transactions for 7+/- years, '' they agreed it was true. But they still insist they can not locate the old card XXXX account records and therefore are in no position to provide a photocopy of said check. 
In the course of this back and forth, we learned that Citi is Macy 's banker. 
So it appears there is some mischief being pulled upon me by both Macy 's and Citibank. The bank won't give me the proof of the check in question and Macy 's will not credit my account with them until I provide such proof. I am of the opinion that Citi tricked me into believing the check had been presented late so it could charge me the extreme rate of interest. 
Meanwhile charges and fees continue to accrue on my Macy 's account.

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