Consumer complaint received 2018-02-04
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Didn't receive terms that were advertised

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I applied for a Citi bank checking account. The reason for my application was that if you are able to keep XXXX dollars in the account for 3 months I would receive a XXXX dollar bonus and then be able to remove the funds from the account and close the account without issue. Issues occurred. 

In XX/XX/XXXX after over 5 months of not receiving the promised bonus, I called city to inquire about why I hadn't yet received the bonus. They informed me I still needed to fill out tax information so they could file interest tax on the XXXX dollars with the IRS. I don't remember receiving this in the mail originally and I never received any follow-up phone calls to fill this out. They sent me " another copy '' which I promptly filled out and sent back to them. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I still hadn't received the promised bonus I called citi bank again to inquire about the reason why. They then reactively informed me that some information was incorrect the tax documents I filled out. I'm not sure information was not accurate because after sending me the forms again I filled them out the same way after meticulously reading them line by line to make sure all information was 100 % accurate and sent them in. By this time I was extremely upset. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I called Citi again after still not having received the promised bonus and the representative said that it should be in my account shortly after again re-verifying all of my information. Side note : Every time I would call in the Citi representative would have to re-verify that I was eligible for the bonus ( why wasn't this marked in my account already? ). Each re verification took the representative several minutes to verify with me on hold not answering questions. 

The {$400.00} dollars went into my account on XX/XX/XXXX. Almost 10 months after my initial deposit of {$15000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I do not live in a state with a Citi bank branch so that may have made things more difficult but the overall lack of customer service orientation of this company and what I allege is purposeful delays in processing the promised bonus suggests that this is part of their business strategy. I'm sure that other people 's bonuses who live in states where they know that people, like me, are using the account only for the {$400.00} bonus are also delayed so XXXX is able to keep the XXXX on the books for as long as possible. They got almost a year of using my XXXX to earn interest and invest on where they should have only had a few months. 

I feel wrong and abused by Citi bank. I official filed a complaint with them after my call in XX/XX/XXXX which was on XX/XX/XXXX. My inquiry number was XXXX and the complaint number they gave me was XXXX After I was able to take my money out of the account I asked citi to close the account. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I logged on to verify the account was closed, but it wasn't. Citi charged me a {$25.00} service fee which then caused a {$34.00} non-sufficient funds fees -- but, to be fair, after an almost 20 minute call with citi bank support I was able to get both fees reversed and this representative informed me that everything is again all set to have my account closed. We'll see.

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