Consumer complaint received 2019-12-07
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Please note I have upload complete letter in attachments. I copied and pasted for site. I apologize if anything is repeated. 




n XX/XX/XXXX I noticed a huge discrepancy with the balance of one of the  student loans that I co-signed for, for my niece XXXX XXXX. 


These loans were co-signed for In the time frame from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX I co-signed for three with Citibank then XXXX  student loans. Ever since XX/XX/XXXX I have had issues with these loans and incorrect payment handling because of these issues primarily I asked several times to be removed as co-signer It is important to note in addition to this I wanted to get payment history for all three loans corrected. All payments prior to XXXX buying one of the loans were made by one payment check and Citibank applied accordingly. Unless I received a collection call then I sent an additional payment. In XX/XX/XXXX I  developed a very rare illness and became XXXX so the stress of these calls was too much and I was too sick to investigate and argue most times. I would wait until I felt better and would reach out. 


For years I went unsuccessfully round and round with Citibank who refused to help and skirted the issues when I reported it to CFPB. In XXXX, Citibank sold two of the three loans to XX/XX/XXXXand again I filed a report with CFPB Citibank denied the payment issues and XXXX XXXX XXXX Executive Office of Customer Advocacy investigated it. He assigned two people to assist. I I sent years worth of payment history and he corrected my payment history and my credit reports. While I was working with his office in XXXX I heard again from XXXX XXXX who worked for XXXX Office at Citibank. Finally my payment history and my credit report were corrected. XXXX sent me the attached email and Citibank I took their word and verified my credit report. Bank automatically sent payments every month there after. 


In XX/XX/XXXX I got a call from XXXX about the one loan they were now servicing for Citibank. The balance compared to the other two loans to be triple. I had been paying fir almost 9 years at this point. I called XXXX and requested a complete payment history. XXXX responded with a very incomplete payment history and for only 2 years and said that they could only go back two years. That the other information was not available. All correspondence done via there online communication that message expire and are deleted So I pushed back and filed another CFPB claim. However, in the two years provided I could already see payments were missing. So I pushed harder to get A complete copy and I filed a complaint again. Again Citibank did not provide payment history information until I got the survey from CFPB asking if I was satisfied with Citibank response. This is when I received the payment history and letter from Citibank dated XX/XX/XXXX. Packaged included Citibanks payment Audit trail from XX/XX/XXXX to current in addition with the cover letter from XXXX. This audit trail is dated XX/XX/XXXX. This audit trail is completely inaccurate and fortunately I still have a copy of the audit trail of all payments received on all three loans that I provided to XXXX in XXXX. 


Attached you will find a letter from Citibank and its from XXXX again the same lady I worked with in XXXX who promised that she corrected this payment history and she definitely fixed my credit reports. However, her audit trail provided on XXXX XXXX tells me otherwise as far as loan balance, fees and intentionally not applying or correcting payments. 




In her letter she states I was denied from being released as a co-signer because a payment for XX/XX/XXXX was not received however you can clearly see in XXXX XXXX audit trail it was received on XXXX XXXX. On this letter XXXX also very clearly states Citi co-signer release policy. Her policy is worded very different then the actual policy that XXXX XXXX copied and pasted in his official guidelines. In XXXX XXXX letter he confirms no late payments were made in XX/XX/XXXXHistory it shows a forbearance. That Citibank omits. This as well. He also clearly states the need for Citibank to correct there payment history as well. 




A comparison of payments on both audit trail Citibank History/Versus XXXX. Remember XX/XX/XXXX loans were Citibank until XXXX one check. 

Missing payments on Citibank XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Citibank suggested XX/XX/XXXX to use their online payment system to ensure on time and were correctly applied 5 of these payments from this system not on Citibank audit trail. We tried several times and we tried to set up auto pay to get a reduction in interest rate but this was very undependable and system would become inaccessible for periods of times You can see today that Most of these payments are not in Citibank History. See screen shot of payment history that I took in XXXX and compare it to Citibank Audit trail dated XX/XX/XXXX The first payment XX/XX/XXXX payment not accounted for anywhere on XXXX or Citibank. Ten dollars from millions of customers is free money. 

Date discrepancys like XXXX on site Citibank audit trail XX/XX/XXXX are all of this history for loans that interest is calculated daily the applied date is very important to the consumer. 

XX/XX/XXXX. Paid on line not on audit trail provided by Citibank {$410.00} XX/XX/XXXX paid online not on audit audit trail provided by Citibank. 





I continued to receive calls and emails so I then made multiple payments but collection calls and emails did not stop. 



The following are missing payments XXXX and XXXX XXXX audit trail contains but Citibank doesnt. received them letter from XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 

XXXX audit trail contains proof of the following payments That Citibank has not applied on their XX/XX/XXXX audit trail. 

XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX And note there was extra payments made in between. The expense involved and time to go through almost ten years of bank detail will be pursued when the FTC requires this additional information. 

Looking at the bottom of XXXX audit trail XX/XX/XXXX payment was received on XX/XX/XXXX. Meaning after their XXXX investigation I was two months ahead in payments. 


However none the less collection calls persisted and collection emails did too see XXXX XXXX email. 


And when I couldnt get Citibank to fix unapplied payments I made several extra payments XX/XX/XXXX to preserve my credit. XXXX sent confirmation of their payments received them in letter Dated XXXX XXXX. 




The missing payments on Citibanks audit trail provided XX/XX/XXXX continued for XXXX Not applied XXXX payments XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Unapplied or misapplied payments continued XXXX Missing payments XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX In XXXX XXXX was hired to handle Citibanks loans however the audit trail says converted to XXXX and my first interaction in XXXX with Citibank they acted as if this was no longer their loan. Call XXXX not our problem. On their audit trail note the wording on XX/XX/XXXX converted to XXXX. The word convert implies a change like XXXX now owns the loan which is what Citibank implied to me as well on phone giving me the constant run around but XXXX was very clear that they did not own the loan. 


XXXX of XXXX collections calls started again I found out that Citibank was not forwarding payments to XXXX as they communicated they would. See letter from them with bad information. 


Missing payments and copies of cashed checks provided XXXX XXXX. Not applied XXXX XXXX Was applied XXXX XXXX Not applied XXXX XXXX Not applied. 




I have retrieved what I believe is sufficient documentation of Citibank deceptive practices. I have thousands of dollars in missing payments. They have knowing changed my payment history. They have refused to investigate and correctly apply missing payments. They have denied me to released as a co-signer on this loan for a missing payment that they knowingly received. Citibanks wording on there letter makes it seem like if you are ever late on a payment you can not release co-signer where as XXXX XXXX documentation clearly states 48 consecutive payments In addition I am filing another complaint with CFPB to ensure this matter is corrected. Other wise I will take to FTC via an attorney. I am sending this to you for action and accountability. I am also sending all this detail to FTC I want this investigated and criminal charges filed. 


You will receive multiple emails with detail to support my allegations. 

Please contact me with any questions or for clarifications.

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