Consumer complaint received 2016-08-24
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
I have had a large mortgage at Citi for three years. In XXXX 2016, I accidentally reversed two numbers while completing my bill pay from XXXX XXXX XXXX to Citimortgage -- instead of {$2800.00}, I mistakenly typed in {$2600.00}. And, because I sent the payment in early, they misapplied this payment to principal. So instead of crediting my account with a " short payment '', they applied the entire amount to principal, thereby putting my account in arrears for XXXX -- in essence they believed they received no XXXX mortgage payment from me, instead of it being just short the {$180.00} difference due to my mistake. 

So, the first information that I received in this matter was a letter stating that I was in default on my loan, that I was being reported to credit agencies as having missed a monthly payment, and asking for all kinds of financial information in case I was going to default. 

To be clear -- I have never missed a payment on this mortgage, nor any of the other several mortgages that I have had over the last 15 years of home ownership. Never! This letter was an absolute shock to me. 

So I started the process of untangling what happened -- multiple calls to customer service reps led to the information above about the misapplied payment. They were actually very apologetic and assured me that they would straighten out the issue, and have the payments applied properly -- all i had to do was send in the {$180.00} that was missing from the mistake I made when I sent the payment via bill pay -- they even waived the late fee! They also assured me that the report to the credit agencies was not sent. 

Well, I discovered that indeed the credit hit was indeed sent, and it dropped my credit score XXXX points!! I went from around a XXXX to a XXXX. Huge issue here as i am trying to move in the next year, and will need a mortgage! 

I have since received a statement from Citi -- with all payment applied properly, late fees waived, account now in good order -- BUT -- they refuse to fix my credit. 

I have now tried two levels of executive review to get my credit restored -- and have been denied both times. After two separate reviews of my case, they refuse. 

Why? Because they say they " left me messages to contact them. '' Look, I do n't answer calls I do n't recognize since my cell phone is bombarded with telemarketers and scammers on a daily basis. I hit " block caller '' on any random number that pops up that I do n't recognize. I do n't know if they called me or not -- but -- if they did, it would be a great idea to identify themselves on caller ID so there are not issue like this. 

Regardless -- i have been a sterling customer, I have excellent credit, and I DO N'T MISS PAYMENTS OF ANY KIND! This was all due to a simple mistake on my part -- accidentally reversing two digits and sending a short payment, that they then misapplied and made mistakes with -- but they are dead set on having me suffer with horrible credit as a result. 

So because they " tried to contact me '' that absolves them from the mistakes they made, and glosses over that I have never missed a payment! 

All I want here is for them to repair my cried they have now destroyed. That 's it. And they refuse. 

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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 non-monetary relief