Consumer complaint received 2016-07-28
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
We opened a credit card account with Citi Bank about 20 years ago, account # ending in XXXX. We had few credit cards before and were fairly ignorant about the process. As a result, we found ourselves using it more than was practical and became indebted to Citi Bank. We worked with Citi Bank and paid off our balance. Then we cut up our credit cards and never used them again, thinking that everything was finished. 

Citi Bank did n't contact us for the remaining 2 years that we lived XXXX, nor for the first year after we moved to XXXX, XXXX Then after 3 years of not using this credit card and not hearing from Citi Bank XXXX we received another statement claiming that the account had NOT been paid off and had continued to accrue interest and fees to the amount of approximately {$5500.00}. We were very upset, and contacted Citi Bank by phone. We just wanted to be done with them and did n't ask at the time exactly where all of these fees had come from. XXXX sides agreed to settle with our paying half of the amount that Citi Bank claimed we owed. 

We now realize that this was a major mistake, because somehow, Citi Bank continued to charge us fees and interest for the next 15 years! We, however, knew nothing about this. We moved from our first house in the XXXX area to purchased another home about 10 years ago. Believing that we had no unfinished business with Citi Bank, we did n't send them notice of our new address. Nor did any mail from them get forwarded to us from the old address. 

The enormity of the mistake caused by our ignorance and Citi Bank 's failure to help us to understand what was happening was revealed when we sold our latest property at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, CO XXXX. Citi Bank had placed a lien against our property for {$23000.00}! The only reason we were given was that Citi Bank was n't able to find our new address. This is very hard to believe for these 2 reasons : 1 XXXX The cell phone number of the primary card holder had n't changed since we talked to them by phone 11 years ago. IF we still had unfinished business with Citi Bank, they could easily have called. 

2 ) If Citi Bank was unable to find our new address, how is it that they WERE able to place a lien against the property at the same address. 

We now fear that we may have never actually closed our credit card account with Citi Bank. If that was the problem, it was purely a matter of our ignorance, because we did n't intend to use the card ever again, and in fact have NOT used it during all of the intervening years. It appears to us that Citi Bank took advantage of this situation and did not explain what was happening to us. The total amount that we 've paid them since thinking everything was settled 15 years ago is approximately {$26000.00}. That is extremely excessive in light of the situation, especially since we have n't even used the account in all these years. We believe that Citi Bank should reimburse us most, if not all, of the money that they took from us when we sold our house on XXXX XXXX XXXX last year. This was money that we did not use in our account, and it is money held against us without any notification from Citi Bank. We are a lower middle class, working family on no public assistance of any kind, and now do not have the money to purchase a new home. Instead, we find ourselves renting a house in an undesirable neighborhood that is NOT healthy for our children. Please 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