Consumer complaint received 2019-10-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
My CITICARD/CBNA account was/is in good standing. 


On XX/XX/2019, I initiated a payment of {$9500.00} to cut my balances by half. 
Regular minimum payments were made. CBNA withdraws minimum payments regularly from my account that ends in XXXX around the XXXX of each month. XXXX is my default account in service for automated withdrawals for most of the year. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, my one time payment was automatically drawn from account NOT XXXX. I expected XXXX to be default. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to my bank account to see that funds were not transferred out of XXXX. I immediately made a payment for {$9000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX drawn from the XXXX account. The payment was received. A payment was NOT necessary at the time. Minimums wouldve been ordinarily withdrawn as they were. 

Very unusually, I could not cancel the XX/XX/XXXX transaction. The option didnt exist. 

I removed the account from the list so such an issue would not arise. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I found that there was a FEE for a returned check (?! ) and, further, a charge was just declined. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I spent one hour and 43 minutes talking to three agents on the phone, whose identities are : XXXX, XXXX and XXXX respectively. Agent XXXX did not know why and told me my account was open. 

She transferred me to XXXX ( XXXX ) who told me that the account was closed without giving me a reason ( and without telling me that he had just closed it. ) I requested immediate reinstatement after he said i could request one but apparently his computer was not working so he transferred me to XXXX. 

XXXX ( XXXX ) told me that there were no credit-related reasons but there was an issue with a payment. I gave the detailed explanation pointing the payment was made. XXXX said that he fully understood that it was unintentional but due to a black and white CBNA policy he could not reinstate the account even though he wanted to after his review. He recommended that I write to the Office of the President explicitly stating that they have the authority to  override policy, but he can't. They can take take a decision based on the fact that it was unintentional. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke for another sixteen minutes with two agents. The second Line Representative told me that I should write this letter and must point out the issue with the default account. She said that a review trigger must not have happened in the first place. She gave me a different address, so I am sent letter to both places plus via email. 

On XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX/XXXX called me to say that her office ( the Executive Response Unit ), which is the highest " escalation '' doesn't have any authority other than submitting it to " XXXX '' -- the credit unit. She said that she can't and the reason was the erroneous transaction. She, unfathomably claims further that CITIBANK doesn't know how their actions will negatively affect my credit. She agrees this was unintentional but she said CBNA doesn't care for that. In other words, they have no policy for supporting customer success even if a good part of it is their own inconsistent application of account selection across payment types. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received the letter dated XX/XX/XXXX that there was an issue with the bank account and that I should correct the account. There was nothing in that statement about closing my account. They did not give me an opportunity to correct. The fact that I had self-corrected on XX/XX/XXXX, was immaterial to them when they wrote the letter on XX/XX/XXXX. There are no arrears. A payment was NOT due.

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