Consumer complaint received 2020-04-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
Hello, I recently signed up for a new Citi Premier card ( ending in XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX. The information packet I received with the card indicated I was not eligible for the sign up bonus of XXXX points after spending {$4000.00} in 3 months because I either " earned a new cardmember bonus or closed a Citi Rewards+, XXXX XXXX  Preferred, Premier, or Prestige in the past 24 months '' However, I keep very diligent records and see that the last XXXX  card I earned a signup bonus was a previous XXXX XXXX card which I opened on XX/XX/XXXX ( ending XXXX ), for which I received the bonus points in XX/XX/XXXX ( see attached XXXX  points history, and note that the name listed is XXXX XXXX because that is my maiden name ), which would mean the 24 months has since passed between then and my newest application. 

Of note, I have converted products from that Premier card ( which ended XXXX ) to a Preferred in XX/XX/XXXX, and then to a Rewards+ recently in XX/XX/XXXX, but I never closed any of those XXXX   cards. 

As such, I have neither earned a new cardmember bonus or closed a XXXX  product within the last 24 months and should be eligible for the bonus on this new XXXX  Premier card. 

When I called Citi to explain this issue, it came to my attention that the representative saw an apparent previous Citi Premier card opened on XX/XX/XXXX ( ending in XXXX ). This is a Citi Premier card opened by my HUSBAND, not by me. I believe that during my application for my Premier card ( ending XXXX ) that I accidentally put in my husband 's SSN rather than my own, and I had to call the application department to correct the application. However, it appears that this original mistake is what caused my new account to be flagged as ineligible for the sign up bonus, due to the original SSN linked to the application to be associated with a recently opened XXXX product. I assumed this would be a simple mistake to correct, and was told the situation would be explained to the " back office '' and that I would receive a letter resolving the issue. However, I have since received a letter stating that I am still ineligible because I was requesting a " new account offer [ be ] applied to [ my ] existing account, '' and that new offers are only available on new accounts. 

This completely misses the point that the original offer should have been applied to the new account but was erroneously not-applied due to a mistake on Citi 's part. I am not trying to apply a new-card bonus to an existing card ; I am trying to have a wrongfully refused new-card bonus properly credited to a new-card. 

I have since tried repeatedly calling in to explain the insanity of this response by Citi, but am unable to speak to a human and get hung up on by the computer system.

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