Consumer complaint received 2022-04-07
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Bounced checks or returned payments

Complaint:
I've been a Citi customer for just shy of 10 years. On XX/XX/XXXX i accidentally overdrafted my Citi checking account by {$38.00}. This was a mistake and i was quite reasonably charged a {$34.00} fee. Then i had a recurring transactions of {$10.00}, {$10.00} and {$10.00} that tried to process on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX and XXXX respectively, and these were declined and I was charged a {$34.00} fee for each. Its a bit excessive to charge me {$34.00} for a {$10.00} denied charge, but that is Citi 's prerogative. 

I have transferred {$250.00} to my account to address the {$38.00} overdraft, the {$34.00} overdraft fee and the first round of {$100.00} worth of fees on the denied {$10.00} transactions ( total {$180.00} ). I thought this would put my account {$70.00} in the black. I would have paid {$140.00} in fees for this simple mistake, which is a lot, but i would have learned a lesson. 

Unbeknownst to me, before my {$250.00} deposit- which would have undoubtedly put my balance positive - arrived at Citi, the vendor tried to rerun the {$10.00} transactions - as Citi had decided to deny these rather than honor them and charge me an overdraft fee - and Citi ( reasonably ) denied the charge for a 2nd time, and ( unreasonably ) charged me {$34.00} for each- so that I know 'owed ' them another {$100.00} in fees for the same transactions they'd denied previously. 

This meant that when my money arrived, my balance was still negative. Citi refunded 1 of the 7 fees they've charged me to bring me back to a positive balance of {$7.00}. 

You know where this is going don't you? Then the vendor tried to run the 3 x {$10.00} transactions again - Citi denied them but charged me a {$34.00} charge for each. So i know owed Citi {$110.00}. So I've now been charged {$100.00} of fees on each of these denied {$10.00} transactions - or {$300.00} total- for what would have been XXXX x {$10.00} transactions, none of which have been honored. 

To recap, I overdrew my account by {$38.00}. I sent Citi {$250.00} to cover this overdraft and fees. They have charged me more than {$300.00} in fees and now claim i owe them {$110.00}. And when you log into your account Citi announce : " Elimination of overdraft fees : Get the latest details on Citis decision to eliminate consumer overdraft and returned item fees '', which feels like a sick joke. Going out on a high aren't we fellas? 

I used Citi 's chat function, it took an hour but i got escalated to a manager. The manager said it would take 10 mins to read the back story. I then received a work call. I said i'd be inactive for half an hour. I was dropped. 

Today I called Citi 's customer service function, i've no idea who i spoke to. The supervisor submitted a request to refund some of the charges. It was denied. I was told that I'd be charged {$34.00} for each failed attempt on these {$10.00} transactions, forever. 

By the time you're reading this i'm not sure how many more fees i'll owe for the same {$10.00} transactions that Citi won't honor. Two of them are a monthly donation to a charity - my annual donation amount will be less than the fees I've paid on this month 's charge.

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