Consumer complaint received 2020-03-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
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:
On or about XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, I was ordered to travel from XXXX XXXX, XXXX to XXXX XXXX, TX as part of a forward element returning to the United States. Travel authorization was documented in the XXXX XXXX XXXX and a charge of XXXX was authorized for commercial flight through XXXX XXXX. Records on the card of record indicate that an additional charge of XXXX was made on the same day and without authorization through the same travel agency and commercial airline. No record of this approved charge was made on any of the Department of Defense channels and the charge was erroneous and fraudulent in nature. 

Upon return to XXXX, a voucher was settled for the approved amount of XXXX and I completed my XXXX overseas. Upon my return to the United States, I found several letters sent to my physical address stating that an outstanding balance of XXXX was overdue. As the credit card of use was a Citi Bank XXXX   XXXX Card, no charges outside of those approved through the XXXX XXXX XXXX should have been processed. I contacted citi bank and they verified that a duplicate charge from XXXX XXXX was made on the card the same day the original charge was made - however they were unable to state how the charge was made if there was no authorization made by the government. Upon identifying the erroneous charge as fraudulent, I opened a claim with Citi Bank on XX/XX/XXXX and received verbal verification that they would investigate the claim and provide me a conditional credit. Citi Bank did verify my contact information on file and stated they would contact me directly if they needed any additional information to verify the charge was unauthorized. 

I did not receive ANY further communication between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX concerning this claim. No emails, phone calls or physical correspondence were received during the period of " investigation ''. 

On or around XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Citi Bank stating that I now had an outstanding balance for XXXX+ overdue 60 days. I attempted to contact the Citi Bank debt department five different times over a period of one week before I was finally able to get a hold of a representative that stated the " investigation '' had been closed because they were unable to get a hold of me/get a response from me. I asked what methods and or dates they used to get a hold of me and they were unable to answer - they simply stated that the case was closed and the balance was due. 

I contacted Citi Bank once again the following day and requested evidence that they had attempted to contact me and none was provided. I was informed that since they were unable to get a " refund '' for the unauthorized charge, that I was now responsible for the balance and that I could not appeal the decision. 

I have all records of the approved expenses on file from the government and none were ever asked of me. The erroneous charge was made from an overseas travel agency that did not respond to citi banks requests for information and as such Citi Bank stated that I was responsible for the charge. No physical or digital correspondence was ever received from Citibank requesting ANY supporting documentation showing that this charge was unauthorized and as such fraudulent and instead simply stated that i could not appeal the decision.

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