Consumer complaint received 2020-08-05
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MN
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 XX/XX/XXXX, I opened a Costco Citibank credit card. On this date I specifically and expressly opted-out of automatically renewing membership charges by expressing this to the Costco clerk and providing alternative payment. I received assurance that no charges would be posted on the account for membership fees. I obtained this card as an emergency line of credit due to a personal injury, and never used it. Additionally, during this time, I continued to receive promotional material from Costco and Citibank, which was typically unwanted and discarded. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, without my knowledge or consent, and in violation of our agreement, Costco charged me {$120.00} for membership. Because of my status as a XXXX XXXX and Citibank and Costco 's practice of sending useless and unsolicited promotional materials, I stopped opening mail from them sometime before this unauthorized transaction. 

Eventually, this unauthorized charge accumulated interest and late fees. At this point, Citibank apparently attempted to contact me via a phone number that is identified by XXXX or XXXX as originating from a spam number. The number left voicemails in the form via an automated system that uses a robotic voice and is commonly associated with scammers. Citi began sending billing statements that in no way indicated any importance or difference from promotional materials. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, Citi began calling from a different phone number that was not identified as spam - again using a robotic voice. When I spoke with their representative, I discovered that they were attempting to collect payment on the unauthorized transaction and fees and interest on that transaction. I requested that they send me copies of my billing statement. 

After receiving the copies and verifying that they were real, I called Costco to have the unauthorized charge removed on XX/XX/XXXX. The representative indicated that the unauthorized charge was removed and directed my call to Citibank to dispute the fees and interest. Upon talking with a Citibank representative, she informed me that the charges were " too old '' to remove over the phone, and that I would have to write a letter to a PO Box controlled by their disputes department in order to have the charges removed. I wrote the letter according to the instructions I was given and waited. 

I received no response to this letter from Citibank. Figuring they had long turnaround times, I continued to wait. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, a real person from Citibank called me for the first time. They informed me that I would be required to pay the full amount of the initial unauthorized charge plus interest and fees, totaling {$340.00}. I began calling their billing disputes department, which automatically disconnects your call after 2-3 minutes of waiting. After several failed attempts, I called customer service and demanded to speak to a billing disputes representative. Puzzlingly, they were in possession of the letter I was instructed to write, but had chosen not to provide a response. 

The representative informed me that the representative I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX was actually incorrect, and that the charges were never eligible to be removed by their disputes process - not just interest and fees, but also the initial unauthorized transaction processed by Costco.  In the time between these calls, Citibank attempted to add several more interest charges and late fees, while I expected that my dispute was following some formal procedure for processing. The manager of  the disputes department that I spoke to indicated that the charges could never be removed on XX/XX/XXXX in the first place, however he simultaneously offered to remove charges that accumulated after XX/XX/XXXX. The manager stated that the actual purpose of my letter was to create a formal record of the fact that Citibank was not required to remove the charges ; however, I was never informed about this. Citibank is sending a 'corrected ' bill that rewinds back to XX/XX/XXXX, and is still likely to exceed {$250.00} for a transaction that was never authorized. 

Overall, Citibank is attempting to collect the full amount of this unauthorized charge veiled behind a non-transparent billing and collection process. The problem was further exacerbated by Citibank 's provision of inaccurate or outright false information about disputing charges. Citibank is using a complex web of bureaucracy to obscure the billing dispute process, leading to significant consumer harm in what amounts to strong-arm tactics. Citibank obscured their collection attempts for a duration long enough that I could not ever dispute the charges despite their unauthorized nature.

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 monetary relief