Consumer complaint received 2020-03-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
Good morning. 

The reason for this letter is to seek some help with three financial institutions with which I have been a client for years and so far I believe that they have treated my case unfairly. 

In XXXX, I became a father of XXXX  but unfortunately they were born in XXXX XXXX California at only XXXX XXXX XXXX, because they were XXXX XXXX we went through a lot of difficulties, even XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I was in XXXX XXXX for almost 6 months while my XXXX XXXX girls were recovering so I had to move to XXXX XXXX so I could be with them in the hospital every day and make sure everything would be okay with them. As you can imagine what it means to leave your home, to find a place to stay in XXXX XXXX, to eat, etc., unfortunately the job I had couldn't keep my position and I had to quit within a month of asking for permission to be with my girls. From that moment on, my financial difficulties began, between medical expenses, rent, food, and credit card payments which I was able to make by taking money from my savings. And that is where I want to explain in detail why I feel it is unfair what has happened to me with three financial institutions. 

The first dispute I want to talk about is with Citi Bank, I have 2 cards with them and I have never been late on any payments, on the contrary, I was even paying off the debt in full. When I explained to them the situation I was going through and gave them all the information of why I was late in payments the only option they gave me was that I had to pay {$560.00} a month not to close the account, which I told them seemed like a lot of money at that time because I was coming back from XXXX XXXX and I explained my whole situation even sent letters from the hospital, but they didn't help me in any way. I made the greatest effort possible and paid {$560.00} for about three months, but I could not continue to pay that amount of money, I called again and asked to lower my monthly payment but there was no payment arrangement for more than I asked, I called several times and they did not give me any kind of help and closed the account which I am still paying, now {$220.00} per month because after they closed it was that they told me I could pay {$220.00}. This whole situation does not seem fair to me at all. I did everything possible to pay, I called to negotiate lower payments and they never helped me avoid closing my account. 

The second company with which I have to explain my dispute is XXXX, I had with them an XXXX   card, which I used very rarely and paid in full, but with them something very peculiar happened, as in my previous case I called to explain the situation that was happening, I made payments until I could from my savings to avoid late payments etc. I always made the payments through the application and never noticed anything out of place. After a few months, in XX/XX/XXXX, I realized that the account had been closed without any notice, even when I called repeatedly to explain the situation. The only way I realized that the account was closed was by logging into the desktop version since the application does not give any kind of notification or anything like that. I have called many times and asked to speak with a manager. They opened a case for me and still nobody wants to be responsible for the account being closed without any kind of notification, they did not even send me letters or statements informing me of the situation, not even a phone call. Three weeks ago I was able to talk to a manager and finally he was the only person who understood my case, he listened to me and he could see that in his system they had never sent me notifications that my account was closed, it was not until a few weeks ago that I received about 6 letters from XXXX informing me that the account was closed, do you think this is fair or valid for a client? That a person after having called countless times trying to solve this problem nobody listens to you or gives you an answer or takes your case seriously? I don't know what else I could do to get this account reopened because as I mentioned I was never notified that it was closed, I still make the payments on a monthly basis. 

The third company is XXXX XXXX, maybe I had a card with this company for years which I never used alone to settle some accounts but unfortunately they closed it and as in the other cases I exposed my case and still did not have any help.

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