Consumer complaint received 2018-11-12
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: DE
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
Since it is my smallest credit-card limit, and I've had it over a year now ( the zero-balance rate is about to expire ), I decided to pay off ( most ) of my Citibank credit-card with a new balance-transfer card from a different institution. I originally asked for a {$1000.00} transfer on XX/XX/2018, which was approved by the other institution on XX/XX/2018. But, as of XX/XX/2018, it still had not been applied to the Citibank credit-card, so I called both institutions to find out why. Apparently, Citibank refused an electronic transfer from the other institution, so a check had to be mailed. 

As of XX/XX/2018, the check had not yet arrived. But, apparently they received it on XX/XX/2018, which is when they sent me an email saying it had arrived and had been applied. And, my available credit went up by the {$1000.00} transfer amount. OK, it took MUCH longer than expected, but everything finally looked good, except that, although my available credit went up by the {$1000.00} transfer amount, my balance ALSO went up by the {$1000.00} transfer amount - my current balance, plus my available credit amount, now equals {$3000.00}, which exceeds my total credit-limit by {$1000.00}, the amount of the transfer. Yet, when you look at the spending details since the last statement, the detail listing shows I've spent just over {$300.00}, but the summary list says I've spent just over {$1300.00} the actual amount spent PLUS the amount of the {$1000.00} transfer. So, somehow, they applied the balance-transfer payment as a debit, although my available credit did go up by the {$1000.00} transfer amount. Also, although they sent me an email saying theyve received my payment, and my available spending-limit went up by {$1000.00}, their web-site still showed that my next payment was due just over a week from now. 

The real trouble started when I tried to call and find out what was going on with the balance-transfer ( I first tried the Chat feature on their web-page but the person on the other end had no idea what they were doing, had no customer-service skills, and couldn't answer any questions, so I then called their XXXXnumber instead ). Before they could review my account, they needed to verify who I was, and they asked for my code-word. Although I use code-words with other institutions, I've never given Citibank a code word ; nor did they ever ask for a code-word when I called them the first time to find out why the balance-transfer hadn't been applied yet ( I was rather upset that a check had to be mailed instead of an electronic transfer, so did an employee apply a code-word out of spite? ). 

They kept insisting that my code-word was a pet 's name that began with a specific letter of the alphabet. Other than aquariums - and no, I don't name my fish - I haven't owned a pet in over 30 years, and never had a pet whose name started with that specific letter of the alphabet, so where that code-name came from, I have no idea. What code-words I do use are always ex-girlfriend 's names that has some relation to either the institution itself or to the time-frame of when I started using the institution. And, I have never had a girlfriend whose name began with that specific letter of the alphabet. 

So, since they couldn't verify me by a ( non-existent ) code-word, they asked for a phone number instead so they could send a text for verification purposes. I gave them the same phone number that's on the account, which is the same phone-number that they send me twice-weekly automated texts about my balances, yet they said their system wouldn't " accept '' that phone number. So, I had to wait and talk to an account-rep before we could continue. 

I was on hold for over 20 minutes ( thank XXXX for speaker phones! ) before the customer-service rep and the account rep both came back on-line ( although there were many times I heard clicks as if someone was checking the line to see if I had hung up ), and the account-rep was finally able to verify my identity using the recent payment methods I had used. Finally, we're getting somewhere! Except ... 

The first thing I tried to do was find out what my code-word was - they refused to tell me, but they did ask if I wanted to changed it. Of course I did! When I tried to change it to " I hate Citibank '', they told me it has to be less than XXXX characters, so I asked to change it to " CancelCard '', which apparently they couldn't understand because they kept trying to spell as " B-I-N-something ''. When the customer-service rep finally got it ( correctly ) changed, I could hear the account-rep in the background tell the customer-service rep, " just cancel the card and hang-up on him ''. Of course, I got upset! I told them I didn't want to cancel the card, I just wanted that to be my code-word, since it was going to be something ( really! ) easy to remember. 

At this point, the account rep and I started arguing about the service I was receiving, and I ended up I hanging up on them out of frustration, never having found out what happened to the balance-transfer. When I then tried to log back in through their web-portal, I immediately get a message saying, " There is a fraud alert on your account - you must call Customer Service before continuing. 

At this point, I have " cancelled '' the card myself by cutting it in half. Assuming the balance-transfer gets applied, I will simply pay-off the remainder of the balance due, then never use the card again! But, I want to ensure the balance-transfer is applied correctly.

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