Consumer complaint received 2015-06-06
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Credit card
Issue: Customer service / Customer relations

Complaint:
Best Buy Credit Services XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX MO XXXX is where I was about to send a letter appealing a customer service request that was denied. My wife was paying monthly on XXXX and XXXX gifts purchased at Best Buy on 24 month and 18 month promotions that ended in XXXX and XXXX 2015. She had payments scheduled in online banking to send to the Best Buy Credit Card. The scheduled payments must have expired because I got a call in XXXX, XXXX and XXXX by a computer telling me that the monthly payment was missed and offered to take a payment using my checking account information. I called customer service tonight and spoke to a very nice lady who took full payment at my request and also offered to remove the most recent monthly late fee. I asked for an explanation of the total interest paid in 2015 of {$1200.00} when my pay-off was only {$1500.00}. She told me about the XXXX and XXXX interest charges of {$670.00} and {$380.00} respectively. From my perspective, those quietly appeared without warning. And when she explained that the 27.99 % APR was on the initial purchase price calculated daily going back 24 months and not on the remaining daily balance, I felt that it was excessive. I respectfully asked for her use XXXX that rate. She put me on hold to ask a credit manager and the answer came back as no. She was so sweet and helpful that it was hard for her to tell me no. I asked if the credit manager would reduce the interest by XXXX and she said she was already told no to any relief. The reason she gave is that I had not tried to contact them sooner. If I had contacted them in the month following the interest charge, they may have removed it completely. But since it was 3 months after the charge, it would all stay. My frustration is that my wife pays our monthly bills and I knew something was wrong when I got a phone call. If they had used a person instead of a computer to call me for the recent missed payment, maybe I could have asked at that time. But I did n't know about the excessive interest charges until I opened the XXXX statement today. If the computer that called me to collect my missed monthly payment told me that it included 77.53 % interest and 22.47 % principle and fees, I might have asked to speak with someone instead of just paying the requested payment of {$440.00}. Remember that these were gifts to me from my wife. Anyone who is married would recommend that I just pay the requested amount from the phone call instead of asking to see my wife 's accounting records. After the second monthly phone call from Best Buy Credit, I had to risk rocking the family boat and ask her. I survived and when the next bill came in the mail, it was laid out on the counter for me. That was last night. She was still paying the amount she originally scheduled, but it was no longer meeting the minimum because of the gigantic interest charge on what was then a small balance. I think that my call to Best Buy Credit today could still be considered timely since it was the first bill that came after XXXX phone calls from their computer. We did n't miss any payments. It was the accumulated interest that caused required adjustments that my wife did not make any. I reacted after XXXX months in a row of notice that something was not right. I only asked that the interest charges be reduced to something both I and the phone representative thought fair. But I got a cold NO. The credit manager had the power to give a crumb at least. But nothing. It will cause me to not shop at Best Buy any more because it cost almost as much as the original gift and we never missed a single payment. The computer that called should tell us that our recent payment was not enough or we should get a special, separate notice that our balance doubled due to interest. Especially when they say NO because I called 3 months later instead of XXXX or XXXX. Cold-hearted.

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