Consumer complaint received 2022-04-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
PARAGRAPH 1 : I have been a Citi XXXX card holder since XXXX, which I preliminarily used for travel purchases. During Covid, I stopped travelling and my card was cancelled by Citi due to inactivity in XX/XX/XXXX. Unfortunately, I did not receive any email or mail information of this closure and I could even still login into my account, which still showed that I had my full credit balance. 

PARAGRAPH 2 : I only became aware of the account closure on XX/XX/XXXX, when I tried to login into my Thank You Rewards account. At this point, I still had XXXX Citi XXXX XXXX Points in my account. I called Citi XXXX XXXX, where I was told that my account had been closed due to inactivity, but that I was still within the 60 days after the account closure that would allow me to use my points. I asked if the points could be transferred to my husband 's Citi XXXX XXXX account, which was still in good standing. The agent informed me that I could only convert the XXXX points to cash at a rate of XXXX cent per point. As this seemed the only option, I agreed and wanted to provide my checking account details for direct deposit. The agent informed me that they could only send a check, which I agreed to. Citi confirmed that the check valued XXXX USD was sent on XX/XX/XXXX ( ordered during my call on XX/XX/XXXX - see confirmation email XXXX ). 

PARAGRAPH 3 : After several weeks of waiting for the check, I called Citi and was informed that due to delays checks may take up 6 weeks to arrive. Consequently, I waited longer, but when the check still hadn't made it by XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citi again. The agent informed me that they would cancel the check and resend it. Again, I offered that they could also transfer the points to my husband 's account or do a direct deposit to my bank account, but the agent explained that this was not possible. Citi confirmed that a replacement check valued XXXX USD was sent on XX/XX/XXXX ( ordered during my call on XX/XX/XXXX - see confirmation email XXXX ). 

PARAGRAPH 4 : Again I waited several weeks, but the check still didn't show up. I called again and was told that due to delays some checks may even take more than a month, so I waited. I called again on XX/XX/XXXX, and at this point the agent informed me that they would reissue the check yet another time. Again, I offered that they could also transfer the points to my husband 's account or do a direct deposit to my bank account, but the agent explained that this was still not possible. Shortly after, Citi confirmed that a replacement check valued XXXX USD was sent to my address on XX/XX/XXXX ( ordered during my call on XX/XX/XXXX - see confirmation email XXXX ). 

PARAGRAPH 5 : This time the check actually arrived at my house without problems, but it was only then that I noticed that Citi had changed the value from XXXX USD to XXXX USD ( which I had previously not noticed on the confirmation email ). I subsequently called Citi XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and explained the situation to the agent. The agent told me that the check should have certainly be reissued in the original amount, but also told me that they could not see the full history anymore, as this was done in the back office. The agent suspected that due to the account closure, it was not visible anymore that the original order was associated to a Citi XXXX XXXX account with each point valued at XXXX cent. They informed me that they would cancel the check yet another time and would write a detailed message to the back office to confirm all account details. While they could not see or confirm the amount, they assured me that the back office would reissue the check valued exactly the same as the original check that was sent on XX/XX/XXXX. After another week of waiting, I just received a new confirmation email from Citi stating that a new check valued XXXX USD was sent on XX/XX/XXXX ( ordered during my call on XX/XX/XXXX - see confirmation email XXXX ). 

PARAGRAPH 6 : As there does not seem to be a way to get directly into touch with the back office issuing the checks and the XXXX XXXX customer service can not see the original amount of the check, I am seeking this path to get in touch with somebody at Citi who can actually track down what happened and resolve the issue.

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