Consumer complaint received 2022-12-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
during the pandemic i called citibank to see if their was anything that they could about the annual fee i was charged every year of {$95.00} for the aadvantage card. They said no, ( something they had done for me in the past ) and that instead they could downgrade me to the citi addvantage mileup card. I asked what the difference between the cards was and they told me the annual fee would go away as well as the free checked baggage but that everything else would stay the same. As it was the pandemic i was not planning on travelling anyway so i didnt need the checked baggage. So i decided to go for the mileup card. what i did not know 2 years later was that the foreign transaction fees were also going away. I recently took a trip with nothing but the citi aadvantage card and my debit card. Just incase i wanted to call and set up a travel alert on my account. upon doing that i asked about the foreign transaction fees just incase anything as far as i knew had changed. I was told that this card did not have no foreign transaction fees and instead it was a 3 % fee. As you could imagine i was really upset knowing i was going to have to put all of my accomidation on this card. I spoke to a representative on the phone... at first he said their was nothing he could do then he said he could reverse all the foreign transaction fees. i told him that would be alot of work and what if i upgraded back to my other card that had the free foreign transaction fees and could they waive the fee of {$95.00} since i was misinformed. he said the fee is waived for the first year and connected me to another representative. when i spoke to this representative she said that it was only free for the first year if thir was a promo on my account which their was not. and that i would also have to pay the {$95.00} and if i signed up for that card it would not help me anyway because it would take 11 days to actually start on my account. she then said the rep had misinformed me. at this time i requested a supervisor. when i spoke to the supervisor she said that basically the first rep had been incorrect about everything. i told her it wasnt just this rep but the one before when i downgraded did not tell me id be losing my foreign transaction fees. also that this rep said he would credit all of the 3 % fees back to my account which the supervisor was telling me was not possible and their was also no way to waive the {$95.00} fee i was told was free for the first year. Not only is this unacceptable for a XXXX XXXX bank but its unprofessional. the only thing i was offered was XXXX points to my aadvantage card which i obviously accepted but they are not worth nearly all the fees i was charged and a promise that the rep would be coached about the issue. I think its great to offer the staff a coaching but that doesnt help me or my situation. It was only after seeming completely dissatisified and beyond upset i was offered the measly 1000 points. The past experiences were always great with citi which is why i have stayed with them for so long, but after this i will be looking elsewhere for a mileage card that values its customers and not only their money.

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