Consumer complaint received 2021-11-11
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Didn't receive terms that were advertised

Complaint:
I have had a Citi credit card for many years. Apparently because of this I was chosen to be targeted with an offer to open a online Citigold checking account with a Debit card attached to the account, with the offer of providing me with a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX bonus if I completed what they referred to as " simple '' steps. 
Within 60 days the first requirement was to spend {$1000.00} on the debit card, which I did despite signing up for the account XX/XX/XXXX and not actually receiving the debit card until XX/XX/XXXX, almost a month later. I called when I never received the card and it was confirmed to me that the time period had started the day I signed up and not the day I received the card. This should have been a sign of misleading business practices, but I decided I would be able to spend the necessary amount in the time I still had left. While I was on the phone asking about the whereabouts of my missing debit card I inquired with the agent about exactly what the other requirements were to receive the miles offered, I told her that I wanted to make sure I was properly completing the necessary steps. I asked if the recurring electrical bill I had set up would suffice and she said of course, that would be perfect. 
The second requirement was to " perform 1 qualifying bill payment in 2 consecutive calendar months ''. I set this recurring payment up with my local electric company and had the funds set up on autopay to be paid from the Cititgold account. In my statement you can see the funds were taken from the account on XX/XX/XXXX and then again on XX/XX/XXXX ; two consecutive calendar months.

Once this was done I called Citigold on XX/XX/XXXX to confirm that I had completed the required steps to receive my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and the representative told me I had not set up the recurring payments correctly, that I needed to set it up on the Citi website and not the way I had done it. I asked her to explain because I could not understand what it was that I had supposedly done wrong. Her explanation left me more confused. I inquired how I was supposed to know how to set up the recurring payments in this specific manner, and that I did not understand, and she said it was in the " fine print ''. 
I honestly still don't know what I did wrong. I spent {$1000.00} on the debit card in the allotted time period, and I set up recurring payments to be automatically debited from the account, which occurred in two consecutive months, again all within the allotted time period. 
I find this practice to be purposefully misleading, with the intention of making it almost impossible to complete the tasks required to receive the bonus XXXX XXXX XXXX. From delaying providing the debit card to me, and not being specific as to how to set up recurring payments in a manner they like, and hiding this information in the " fine print ''

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