Consumer complaint received 2015-07-30
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: PA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Balance transfer

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, I submitted an online balance transfer request through the XXXX Mastercard website ( Citibank ) to pay XXXX credit card bills. 3 payments went through as normal, but XXXX is still outstanding. I called Sears mastercard today to find out what is going on, since the amount of the payment ( {$2600.00} ) is deducted from my available balance, but has n't paid the other credit card yet. A supervisor there explained to me that " the Federal Reserve is holding the funds for up to 60 days '' and that I can call them for more information. I called the Federal Reserve customer care number, and they told me that they do not hold any funds ever, and that I can file a complaint with the CFPB. I decided to call the other company XXXX, to see if they received the payment but had n't credited yet. I spoke with someone at XXXX who assured me that they have n't received any payments either by check or electronically, and that the best solution was to call Sears Mastercard back and get them to put a stop payment on it. I called Sears Mastercard back and spoke to a different supervisor, who went through a lot of research to get me a slightly different answer. By this time, I realized that I entered the receiving bank 's account number incorrectly ( it 's off by XXXX digit at the end ). Initially, he was saying that could be why my payment had n't been credited yet, however I explained to him that the receiving bank had no record of ever getting the payment in the first place. He said that they had n't issued a payment yet, because they were waiting for the " FRB to provide clearance '', and when I questioned it further, he explained that the XXXX needed to give them authorization to send the payment. I continued to question this, because why would the XXXX need to give authorization, when I am giving the authorization to send the payment? He told me that his notes read " will be processed & posted after the check clears the FRB ''. I asked him how the check can clear the XXXX when they have n't even issued a check yet, and he said that it was in regard to the FRB giving them clearance to issue the check. I insisted that this did n't make any sense, and he agreed that " something strange '' was going on here. When I asked to speak to someone else, he said that there was n't anyone else to speak with. I asked him if he had a supervisor, and he said yes but they were " offline '' and I could n't speak with them. I also asked to speak to another department, perhaps one that handles the balance transfers, and he said again that they were " offline '' and that I could n't speak with them. There was too much guessing, too much run around, and when I asked him what the next steps would be, he said " it 's a waiting game ''. He said that balance transfers can take up to XXXX days, however the confirmation I received when I initiated the transfers said " 1-2 business days from today ; however it can take up to 10 business days ''. He told me that it is in the account disclosure, and when I asked him to send me it, he said I could pull it up online. Each employee that I spoke with at Sears Mastercard, XXXX, and the XXXX were pleasant to deal with, however, there is a {$2600.00} payment that is still missing and no one can seem to figure out what the problem is. Sears Mastercard blames it on the XXXX, the XXXX says that XXXX Mastercard is lying, and XXXX ( the receiving bank ) has no record of any attempt at a payment.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation