Consumer complaint received 2015-04-27
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
Dear representatives of The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I 'm writing to you because I 'm facing some problems with one of my credit card accounts that I ca n't take anymore and I would like to get the professional assistance of your government agency in order to resolve this serious matter with them. 
I have a credit card account with Life XXXX Signature issued by U.S. Bank National Association located in the state of XXXX. I applied for this credit card when I received a pre-approved application by mail from them around one year and 3 months ago. The Life Miles credit card was mailed to me after I mailed the credit card application to the address they provided me. I traveled to XXXX in order to work there almost at the same time they mailed me the credit card but for some reason I never received the credit card by mail and of course I was not able to activate it because I never received it. 
I was offered a job in XXXX there and I traveled XXXX for work for one year and two months. When they mailed me the credit card application, they specified in the credit card application that the annual fee was free of charge. This was one of the reasons why I applied for the credit card. One of the reasons was that the annual fee was free of charge and also because I was getting some credit card benefits that were offered to me along with the credit card. I was planning to come back to NY to pick up my mail, pick up the credit card and activate it when I would be already back to The United States. 
I left for overseas before the credit card arrived and I stayed in XXXX for more than one year but on XXXX XXXX my mother passed away from XXXX in the state of XXXX. I traveled to XXXX, XXXX for the funeral and burial of my mother and to be with my family during this terrible time. 
I have been feeling very sad and destroyed by this that I did n't stop in XXXX but instead I traveled to XXXX, in XXXX. This is one of the XXXX. My wife is originally from XXXX and we were there for several weeks with my wife 's family because of the sadness and how hard it was for me and my family losing my mother. 
I returned to XXXX in the XX/XX/XXXX. When I returned to XXXX, I realized that U.S Bank was charging me some credit card bills for around 4 months without even notifying me or contacting me all about this matter. I called the credit card company and when I called the credit card company they informed me over the phone that they had sent my account to their accounts collections department and they also reported unfairly that I was paying late to the XXXX major credit bureaus XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. 
When I called the credit card company in XX/XX/XXXX to find out what was wrong, they explained to me that the Life Miles Signature credit card has an annual fee of {$65.00} but as I previously mentioned to you this was not mentioned in the pre-approved credit card invitation they sent me. I found out they were charging me around {$250.00} Dollars including the {$65.00} Dollars annual fee plus interest and late fees. This is very unfair to me. 
They were charging me an annual fee without even notifying me and I never received any phone call or voice message from U.S. Bank customer service representatives to inform me that I had an overdue bill. They never sent me e-mail messages even they have my e-mail address to notify me about this. My phone number in XXXX was also in service while I was in XXXX and they never called me to notify about this overdue bill. 
The only e-mail messages that I got were advertising.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation