Consumer complaint received 2020-09-19
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: VI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I requested an increase of my credit limit with CitiBank ( " Citi '' ). My current credit limit is {$700.00}. Citi 's website states : " We will not obtain a credit bureau report to evaluate your request, and you will receive a decision instantly. All fields are required unless specified as optional. '' Relying on that representation, and trusting that my 2.5-year customer history would be a factor, I requested an increase. My limit has remained stagnant since I opened the credit card account. My request was denied. A day later I received a response stating : " We're unable to approve your request because your credit report shows a late or missed payment with another creditor.... Please note, our decision was based in whole or in part on information in a report from the following consumer reporting agency : XXXX. '' I submitted similar requests on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX : each time I was denied. However, the two prior times, the reason was " because [ my ] credit report shows a delinquent credit obligation, either paid or unpaid with another creditor. '' Yet, all three notices state : " Even though the reporting agency [ XXXX  ] provided the information, it had no part in our decision and will not be able to provide specific reasons why we denied your request. '' if there were delinquent credit obligations in XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX, which I dispute, they are no longer reflected on my XXXX  credit report. Moreover, on XX/XX/XXXX, while on the phone with a Citi customer service representative, I pulled my credit report from XXXX. It shows zero late  payments on both my revolving and installment accounts and no delinquent accounts. Citi 's information is inaccurate, and customers have no way to challenge it. I called Citi to ask for assistance and the person I spoke with was unhelpful ; I asked to speak with a manager. She too was unhelpful. Neither could explain the contradictory information Citi provides, assuring customers that, on the one hand, a credit check will not occur, yet denying the request based partly or wholly on information provided in a report by XXXX, while further claiming that that information " had no part '' in Citi 's decision. It's circular. Its contradictory. And its misleading. More importantly, customers have no way to dispute inaccurate information within Citis system. I was advised to check my credit report and to dispute the matter. But there is nothing to dispute. 

I question whether, because I live in the XXXX XXXX XXXX, Citi is discriminating against persons living in US Territories, perhaps by limiting its total exposure here. Or, alternately, that Citi is actually evaluating customer credit limit increase requests based on information in their credit reports, such as credit utilization ratios, while assuring its customers that they are not. My salary is over {$75000.00}. My credit line with XXXX XXXX is {$3700.00}, with XXXX is {$1200.00}. I also have three store cards, two with credit limits over {$3000.00}. Citi is the outlier and my experience with them just doesn't add up.

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