Consumer complaint received 2017-03-29
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker

Complaint:
I was referred to Citibank in XX/XX/XXXX by my financial adviser at XXXX to explore a possible loan to purchase a house. I was interested in Citibank 's XXXX fixed, 10-year interest only loan product. 

XXXX ( XXXX ID : XXXX ) spoke with me and told me the rates and qualifications for the loan, including the need to transfer {$200000.00} to establish a relationship with Citibank, which I did. He also encouraged me to take out a home equity line of credit ( HELOC ) as a way to access the equity in my existing home to use as part of my down payment on the new home before we were able to sell our existing home, which I also did. 

Unfortunately, it turned out that nearly everything XXXX told me to get me in the door was false. The rates and qualification standards for Citibank 's loan products were not what he represented and as a result, I ultimately chose another lender for the purchase and another lender for the refinance after wasting several months going back and forth with XXXX. Even the early closure fee on the HELOC -- that XXXX expressly told me would be only {$500.00} ( see attached correspondence ) -- was misrepresented to induce me to do this loan with Citibank. It was only after I reviewed in detail the HELOC loan documents I signed that they authorize Citibank to collect a {$1500.00} early closure fee, in addition to the interest it has received over the past 6 months. Moreover, even if I had read the HELOC loan documents before signing them, it would have been too late for me to have chosen another lender for the HELOC at that point as I needed the proceeds from the HELOC loan to close the purchase of my new home. In addition, I already had established a banking relationship with Citibank by transferring {$200000.00} in investments to them instead of another bank, which steps I also did not have time to reverse. 

Now that I am paying off the HELOC, Citibank is insisting on its {$1500.00} early closure fee, which is not even " in the range of {$500.00} '' that XXXX stated in his last e-mail to me as he was trying to backtrack from what he previously told me orally when I committed to take out the loan. Plus, I had already taken out the HELOC by the time XXXX first suggested in XX/XX/XXXX that the amount could be anything other than {$500.00} and that the actual amount would be listed in the documents I signed. 

In early XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX ( XXXX ID : XXXX ), who was XXXX 's supervisor at Citibank before XXXX was terminated by Citibank, to explain the situation and ask Citibank to honor the commitment XXXX made to me that the early closure fee would only be {$500.00}. After several weeks of delays, repeated failures to return my calls and e-mails and a general lack of responsiveness to my claim, XXXX informed me on or about XX/XX/XXXX that Citibank would not honor XXXX 's promise and was relying instead on the signed loan documents to support its claim to the {$1500.00} early closure fee.

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