Consumer complaint received 2019-07-30
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: DC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern : In early XXXX, Citibank , N.A . ( " Citi '' ) sent me multiple advertisements telling me that I had been pre-approved for XXXX XXXX XXXX ( " XXXX '' ) miles if I signed up for Citi 's AAdvantage card ( the " Card '' ) and spent {$3000.00} or {$4000.00} in three months ( if I recall correctly ). In XXXX of XXXX, I took Citi up on its offer and have regretted it ever since. 
1. Bait and Switch. Upon receiving the Card, I noticed that the accompanying documentation stated that I would receive XXXX XXXX miles ( instead of the promised XXXX ) if I spent some lower amount ( I believe {$1000.00} ) within three or four months. On XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX of XXXX ( if I recall correctly ) I called Citi 's customer service and was told by the agent that he would notify the offers department of the issue and that it would fix the issue. I was satisfied with that, so I activated my card and began using it. Then, some days later, I received a call from Citis offers department and was told that no record of such an offer being made to me could be located and that I would have to submit proof to Citi that I had received the XXXX mile offer in order to receive what I was promised. ( Adding insult to injury, I received the same offer via mail multiple times during that period ( and, for clarity, each was addressed to me ), including one the day after I received this call. ) Outraged at the bait and switch, I tried to cancel my card but was told that I had to wait to do so because not all purchases that I had made on the Card had been cleared ( and, accordingly, I could not pay the card off in its entirety at that point ). Instead, I cut the card and stopped using it. In XXXX, I made what I thought was a final payment, waited for it to clear and called Citi to close my account. After I explained why I was closing the account, the agent sympathized and convinced me to keep my card open since I was very close to getting the XXXX XXXX miles. 

2. Deceptive Practice. After months of being bombarded with balance transfer offers from Citi, on XX/XX/XXXX, I decided to take it up on such an offer for a transfer at a 0.99 % APR until XX/XX/XXXX. When signing up for it, Citi indicated to me that I could transfer up to {>= $1,000,000} ( which, with the {$450.00} fee I agreed to pay as a fee, came to one cent below my {$15000.00} limit ). Ten days later and without warning, my balance was assessed {$4.00} in interest, bringing the amount owed to {$15000.00} ( or {$4.00} above my limit ). Given that the minimum payment due after the transfer was {$0.00}, I believed that interest would not be charged until the due date and had fully intended to pay a portion of the transfer before that date ( in fact, I paid {$1000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, or 18 days following the transfer ). Had Citi put me on notice that its suggested transfer amount ( which, again, equated my limit with the fee ) would be assessed interest ten days after I accepted the transfer ( as opposed to a month after ), or simply not been so greedy and shown me a lower eligible transfer amount, I certainly would have either transferred less or paid an amount at least equal to that interest before it was assessed. On XX/XX/XXXX ( or 28 days after the transfer ), I found out that my FICO score had dropped 27 points due to the {$4.00} ( ironically, I found this out from Citi via email ). 

3. Fraud. When reviewing my statements today, I discovered that, despite having a {$0.00} balance at the time of the transfer and not placing a single purchase with my card since the transfer, surreptitious interest charges had been added by Citi to my XXXX and XXXX statements. The XXXX statement ( for XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ) listed {$1.00} being subject to the standard purchase APR of 22.24 % ( or {$0.00} of interest ) and the XXXX statement ( for XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ) listed {$36.00} being subject to the standard purchase APR of 22.24 % ( or {$0.00} of interest ). You will recall that I paid {$450.00} for a 0.99 %  APR on my balance transfer until XX/XX/XXXX. You will also recall that I had a {$0.00} balance at the time of the transfer and not placed a single purchase since the transfer. In my XXXX and XXXX statements there was no amount listed as being subject to the standard APR. So you have to ask yourself, what changed? Well, on XX/XX/XXXX I enrolled in Auto-Pay, which apparently signals to Citi that it can fraudulent assess interest without being noticed. 
I decided to " chat '' with a Citi agent earlier today ( transcript attached ), to inquire about these interest charges magically appearing on my account. After almost an hour, he admitted that the charges were not supposed to be there and attributed it to a " glitch. '' ( Accordingly, Citi would " waive '' the fees. ) Unbelievable. One has to wonder whether has ever had such a " glitch '' to the benefit of customers. I would be willing to bet that it has not.

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