Consumer complaint received 2022-10-12
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
BELOW is the letter I sent to XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( all CitiBank executives ) on XX/XX/XXXX. 

_________________________________________________________________ XX/XX/XXXX Good Morning : My name is XXXX XXXX. I have been a Citibank customer since XXXX having opened a CitibankXXXX XXXX XXXX card. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Citibank offering a promotion. The offer indicated that if I were to open a Citibank Gold checking account and meet certain requirements, I would receive XXXX miles added to my XXXX XXXX XXXX miles account. The requirements, as I understood them ( and confirmed with one of your customer service representatives at the time of opening the account ) are outlined as follows : 1 ) Spend {$1000.00} via Gold debit card ( card accompanying the checking account ) 2 ) Make bill payments for one or two consecutive months ( to be set up after debit card arrives ) 3 ) Maintain account for a minimum 90 days 4 ) Optional : Close account after XXXX miles added to account I opened the Gold checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. I received the debit card in early XXXX and initiated bill payments beginning XX/XX/XXXX. In the month of XXXX, I made bill payments to three companies totaling {$1100.00} and in XXXX, my bill payments to five companies totaled {$1900.00}. I believe that I fully met the Bill Payment requirement. 

I enrolled my CitiGold  Debit Card as the selected payment method for XXXX payments. My debit card purchases from XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX totaled {$1300.00}, excluding the XXXX payments Having believed that I had fulfilled the requirements of the promotion offer, I waited until the end of XXXX for the XXXX miles to be added to my XXXX XXXX miles account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted CitiGold about the fact that the miles had not shown up in my AA account. I was informed that the payments made via XXXX are not categorized by your definition as a Debit Card Purchase. Please note that my debit card spending exceeded the {$1000.00} requirement, NOT counting the XXXX spending. The agent with whom I spoke initiated an investigation and filed my complaint. As of XXXX, I had not had a response from Citibank, so I called again and was informed that my request had been denied, that I had not met the requirements and that I would not be given additional time to meet whatever requirement I had not fulfilled. Again, the emphasis for not meeting the requirement was that XXXX purchases are not considered debit card purchases. I ( and other consumers ) would not be aware of your internal processing terminology, but certainly making payments from my Citi Gold Debit card via XXXX is a debit card transaction. How would any consumer know that you dont characterize it as such? I asked one or both of these customer service representatives if they could send me a copy of the fine-print terms of the promotion and I was told that they could not send the terms to me, but that I could go into a banking office and ask for the terms there. Because I left for vacation on XXXX and returned XX/XX/XXXX, I have not yet gone to a banking office. 

Today I found in my CitiGold  on-line mail account a letter dated XXXX indicating that my debit card purchases of {$1000.00} were not made within specified timeframe. This is the first time I have heard that there was a specified timeframe for debit purchasesin my several phone conversations with your customer service representatives, the issue has been that the XXXX purchases dont count. Never has there been a discussion of a timeframe associated with meeting the debit card requirement. If I had understood that there was a timeframe requirement for making debit purchases, I would have ensured that the requirement was met. 

I received a letter in my Citi on-line mail dated XXXX. The letter ( although the content is now missing in my mail account ) indicated that, as best as I can remember it, in order to continue my Citi Gold account, I would need to deposit {$200000.00} into the account. I do not know anyone who would keep {$200000.00} in a checking account. My conclusion is that the promotion offer was nothing more than a scheme to lure customers into opening a checking account and later making a deposit of XXXX 

I am disappointed in how this promotion offer and investigation/outcome has been handled. I request that the XXXX miles be added to my XXXX XXXX  account immediately. I am hopeful that you and your colleagues can find some way to resolve this situation for me and that you will value the fact that I have been a customer since XXXX. 

Best regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX _________________________________________________________________ UPDATE As of today, XX/XX/XXXX, I have received no response from any of these executives or any other Citi representative. Since sending this email, I visited the local Encinitas CitiBank office ( on XX/XX/XXXX ) to request a copy of the specific terms of the promotion and was informed by Citi employee, XXXX XXXX, Head Concierge, that on-line promotion information is NEVER sent to the banking offices. Obviously this is in direct conflict with the information I was given when I discussed my complaint with Citi representatives by phone in late XXXX. At that time, I was told that the on-line representatives were not permitted to send promotion material and that I should go to the banking office to get it. I believe that my complaint falls under XXXX. 
I met the criteria requirements and then was given different explanations for what didn't meet the criteria, I was told by the phone contact in XXXX that she was not permitted to send me the terms of the promotion, that I should go to a banking office to get them and the banking office representative indicated that terms and information about on-line promotions are never sent to the banking office.

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