Consumer complaint received 2016-06-12
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: OH
Product: Credit card
Issue: Rewards

Complaint:
Citi is refusing to credit me the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX bonus they owe me for signing up for the Citigold bank account promotion and meeting all the requirements for the bonus in a timely manner. They informed me they were reneging on their end of the agreement months AFTER I signed up for the account and meet the spend requirements by debit card and bill pay. During the time period I was meeting the requirements I contacted Citi to make sure everything was going okay and in order and I was reassured of such, at no time I was given any reason to believe they planned to deny me the bonus. I even contacted them after meeting the requirements and I got a conformation from Citi via direct messaging ( which I have both via hard copy and saved in my Citi inbox ) that I meet all the requirements and my bonus would post soon. It never did. After patiently waiting for a few weeks after the date I was told the bonus would post I again contacted them by phone and was reassured again it would post, and again it did n't. It took dozens of phone calls and chats with Citi to try to clear the matter up, and in the end I was told they would not honor my bonus because I " was n't supposed to get that promotion '' in the first place. Mind you, this was told me to me MONTHS after I signed up for the promotion, meet every requirement they had and even after multiple communications with Citi in which they clearly confirmed my account had meet all the requirements and the bonus would post soon. 
I received the promotion advertisement in a mailer sent to my home, the sign up code was XXXX. The bonus offer was XXXX miles and the requirements to : 1 ) Open a new Regular Checking account in the Citigold Account Package by XXXX/XXXX/15 ; 2 ) Within 60 days after account opening : complete Qualifying Debit Card Purchases of {$1000.00} using the Citibank Debit Card, which must be posted to the new checking account ; and 3 ) XXXX qualifying bill payment must be posted to the new checking account each month for XXXX consecutive calendar months. I meet each and every XXXX of these requirements and again, I have saved messages from Citi conforming such. 
I did n't ask them to send me the offer, they did. All I did was follow the steps in hopes of getting the XXXX bonus and after doing everything they wanted I was told they 're not going to hold up their end of the bargain due to something that I had absolutely no control over. They told me to go into a branch and try to sort it out but I live in Ohio and we do n't have any Citi branches. They ask if I saved the mailer and I told them I did not as I saw zero need to dot hat after I was approved for the account and I confirmed everything was in order ; why would i save " junk mail '' when I have an messages from them not only acknowledging I meet the requirements and the bonus would post soon? No part of the agreement/promotion/offer or any of the documents I got with signing up for the Citigold account in any way stipulated I needed to hold onto the promotional mailer to get the bonus, none of them even mention the mailer. 
I feel as though I was lied to and as though they did n't honor their end of the agreement. I did everything I could properly, I meet every requirement that was documented and printed and I have conformation from them stating so. 
Shortly after I was told they were reneging on their end of the agreement and after being denied the opportunity to discuss the situation with whoever makes these decisions via telephone, I closed my Citigold account as I was quite upset about the entire event. I

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