Consumer complaint received 2017-07-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX we used a promotional balance transfer called XXXX XXXX with our Citi AAdvantage Gold Card. The promotional offer expires XX/XX/XXXX.
After calling Citi, to find out how we could pay off the promotional balance, I was told that we had to pay off our balance entirely before the XX/XX/XXXX, deadline, that our payments were applied to Standard Purchases, fees, and interest first.
My statement billing period of XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, with minimum payment due on XX/XX/XXXX showed a new balance of $ XXXX.On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a {$500.00} payment, bringing the balance to {$7400.00}.
On XX/XX/XXXX I made a {$7600.00} balance payment online which included charges for {$48.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I selected the " Pay Balance '' tab. Once the payment was made, the system showed me a {$0.00} balance.
When I received the following statement for XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, with a payment due on XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed that the XXXX XXXX  promotion was still showing a balance! I did not understand, as I had completely paid off the credit card to have it show a {$0.00} balance.
On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX, supervisor XXXX, who kept saying over and over that they first pay off the standard purchases and then the balance. I thought maybe it was a language issue. He told me he would have someone call us back within 72 hours, but no one did.
Today, XX/XX/XXXX I phoned and spoke with XXXX XXXX XXXX an account manager, who after I explained multiple times that I had paid the balance off on XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX, told me that there was still a {$210.00} balance in the XXXX XXXX. She also stated I would have to pay the entire balance off the next statement plus an additional {$190.00}, which she stated would be an over payment, in order to stop the XXXX XXXX from charging the fees since it was an on going promotion until XX/XX/XXXX. I asked her if I was not suppose to use the credit card, once I had paid off the balance in full, and she stated that I would have had to pay off the balance every month in order for the XXXX XXXX to stop, although I had already paid off the entire credit card including the promotional amount of the XXXX XXXX. If you look at the statement with the payment due date of XX/XX/XXXX, it  shows the previous balance plus the over payment, and then the additional charges we made after the full payment had been made, plus the interest.
All the employees seemed like they were instructed to say the same thing over and over again without really acknowledging that once you pay off your balance entirely then any promotional debts end and the program ends because you have completed your agreement by entirely paying it off.
Citibanks transaction reports shows 3 additional charges that were made also on XX/XX/XXXX. These were not showing on the balance when I made off the total balance to bring it down to XXXX. If they had been, then I would have added those charges, as I did the XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXXcharges, and paid those as well. My ENTIRE reason for paying off the balance was to get rid of the XXXX XXXX balance transfer promotion.

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