Consumer complaint received 2020-05-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
I had a credit card with Citibank that I originally got to so my Dad could have a credit card to use if he was in a tough situation ( he had relatively poor credit for a while so he couldn't get a lot of credit cards ). After a while, my Dad 's credit improved so neither him nor I used the card a lot, and thus I wasn't checking the statement often. Around XX/XX/XXXX, the card was hit with a fraudulent charge from an online vendor, and since neither of use used the account and thus weren't actively checking the statement, it accumulated a late fee due to a charge being put on the card that neither of us knew about. I told Citibank that the charge was fraudulent and wanted to dispute it and that I should have the late fee taken off since it was an honest mistake, and if they wouldn't take off the fee, I wanted to close my account. 

Citibank representatives then told me that if I wanted to dispute the charge, I could not close my account. They later agreed with me that the charge was fraudulent and removed the charge from account in XXXX of XXXX. Even though I didn't want the card anymore, though, they forced me to pay the late fee and keep the account active so I would have to pay an annual membership fee of {$100.00} ( which they charged to me literally on XXXX XXXX of XXXX ). 

I paid the fee on XX/XX/XXXX, but then was charged with a late fee of {$25.00} and an interest fee XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, even though I paid the bill on time and thus should have accumulated neither of those fees. 

I then began trying to dispute this with Citibank. I would spend hours on end trying to speak with representative over chat, but they kept on saying they had high chat volumes and thus could not have an employee speak to me. Even though I would try at least 1x a week for the next two months to talk to an employee, they charged me two more late fees over the coming months and reported me to collections, which caused my credit score to decrease by over 50 points, from XXXX to XXXX. 

Finally, I relented and paid a late fee of {$88.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and had them close my account for good. I was able to get through to an employee via phone and asked them to contact the credit agencies to explain their mistake so my credit could be restored. They then told that I had to mail a letter to a random PO Box in South Dakota to ask them to look into it, and I could not call or email anyone, but had to send a letter. 

The whole process was incredibly deceiving and that Citi was both forcing me to keep my card and was inadequately responding to me, and knew, based on chat messages I was sending ( that I was given no response to ), that I wanted to dispute the late fees. Additionally, Citibank sent me to collections for these illegitimate late fees, then told me I have to send a letter and can not email or phone anyone to get Citi to fix this. I asked why it is I have to send a letter and they said " this is just the process. '' I asked if they are making me send a letter to dissuade me from contacting them and they did not deny this, again repeating that " this is part of the process. ''

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 monetary relief