Consumer complaint received 2018-11-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MO
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:
When XXXX changed their credit card affiliation from XXXX XXXX to Citi Bank, I was issued a Citi Bank card in the mail, without applying or requesting it. Since it was my XXXX XXXX XXXX as well, I kept it for that purpose, but never put purchases on it. I never received a bill from them in the mail but didn't think that odd since I wasn't putting charges on that account. I was surprised to receive a call from Citi Bank a few weeks ago informing me that I had a {$240.00} balance on my card. My wife spoke with them ( as I am hard of hearing ) and they said the charge began with a XXXX renewal in XX/XX/2018, which we neither requested nor knew about. CitiBank contended that we were on paperless statements and that we had been sent notice of charges due by email. My wife told them that we were unaware of any charges until this moment, and we would gladly pay the {$60.00}, but would like the late fees and interest removed. The agent said they could remove the latest month 's charges, but nothing else. My wife spoke to two more supervisors over this agent who both said it was bank policy to never remove more than the last month 's fees and interest and that no one in the bank would be able to remove any more of the fees. She asked to escalate to the next level supervisor and was told that someone would call me in 10-15 days. It has been 15 days and I had not yet had a call. I am not hopeful for a resolution from the bank.

We did an email search and found only one statement had ever been delivered on this account, in XX/XX/XXXX ( see copy attached below ). It went to my junk mail. I was unaware of it and had never opened it. There were no other statements. 
My wife called back and asked an agent how we got on paperless statements. She said it was online and mumbled something about " maybe it was clicked by mistake ''. She couldn't give us a date when this supposed " click '' occurred. I called later and asked to be given proof that I had requested paperless statements. The agent told me she couldn't give me any " proof '' it was done online and someone would have to have all my private information to do that. 
It is our FAMILY POLICY to NEVER GO ON PAPERLESS STATEMENTS FOR ANY CREDIT CARD, since there is always the possibility of something like this happening. I never requested or " clicked '' for paperless statements. 
My wife was told that there was no way to stop the accrual of fees and interest without paying the balance, so on XX/XX/XXXX we paid the balance ( {$200.00}, the total due minus the latest penalty and interest, which were removed ). 
The card has been cancelled, so this can not happen again, but 1 ) I never requested paperless statements 2 ) I can only find ONE paperless statement that was sent, and that was after one month 's fees and interest had already accrued, my email  account shows no other communications from CitiBank before or after ( except for the confirmation of our payment on XX/XX/XXXX ) 3 ) there is no XXXX anywhere near us, so I rarely think about them and their " automatic recurring renewals '' - I expect to receive a billing when I have a charge due and they sent me no notice 4 ) a search of my history on any other credit card shows that I always pay the amount due each month and 5 ) CitiBank never bothered to contact me by phone until the charges reached {$240.00}. I feel I have been scammed and that it was their purpose to run up charges on this account before actually contacting me regarding the bill.

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