Consumer complaint received 2015-08-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Rewards

Complaint:
1 ) I applied for a Citi Thank You XXXX card on XXXX/XXXX/15 and was approved. The sign-up offer was as follows : '' Bonus Points. You will receive XXXX bonus ThankYou ( R ) Points after {$3000.00} in purchases are made with your card within XXXX months of account opening. " 2 ) I know from Citi that a XXXX-day grace period is given to attain to complete the minimum required spending to account for the time the credit card mail service may take. Consequently, my deadline to complete the challenge is XXXX/XXXX/15. 

3 ) On XXXX/XXXX/15 I noticed there was a better public sign-up offer from Citi for the same product Citi Thank You Premier I had applied for. The public offer was for XXXX Thank You points upon meeting {$3500.00} in XXXX months. I attach a screenshot of the public offer and url. 

4 ) On XXXX/XXXX/15 I sent a secure message to Citi requesting to match my sign-up offer for XXXX Thank you points after {$3000.00} in XXXX months to the better public offer of XXXX Thank you points after completing {$3500.00} in XXXX months. 

5 ) I received a denial to my request from Citi arguing that the time I had to be matched to a better offer had elapsed. Citi 's response is as follows : '' Unfortunately, the time frame to dispute your enrollment in a different online offer has elapsed and we are unable to apply the new account offer you mentioned to your existing account. " 6 ) I replied to Citi 's message advising Citi that my challenge to complete the {$3000.00} spending and receive XXXX Thank You points was still open until the first days of XXXX ( XXXX/XXXX/15 ). I then requested again to be matched or else be given the XXXX Thank You points difference as a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience. 

7 ) My new request was denied again. Citi 's response was exactly the same : '' Unfortunately, the time frame to dispute your enrollment in a different online offer has elapsed and we are unable to apply the new account offer you mentioned to your existing account. " 8 ) I have decided to submit this complaint to the CFPB because of the following : a ) I find Citi is being unfair denying my request as my challenge was still open at the time of my request ( XXXX/XXXX/15 ) until XXXX/XXXX/15. 
b ) Please note Citi 's " black-box '' strategy of denying a request stating that " the time had elapsed '' and not stating the time. In my opinion, this response shows lack of transparency as the time considered by Citi to deny my request is not specified. It seems to be an -on-the-shelf response ready to arbitrarily deny requests of consumers without any good reason. 
c ) Please note that Citi does not include any clause linked to the sign-up bonus offers on landing page of applications stating that there is a certain time to request to be matched to a better public offer for the same product. There is not either a clause specifying that Citi will not match applicants to a better offer for the same product. 
d ) Citi is then omitting this information. By omitting this information, I understand that as long as my challenge to complete the threshold spending is open ( XXXX days grace period ), if there is a better public offer for the same product, I am eligible to be matched. After all, common sense dictates that. You have an open challenge, it has not expired and a better offer shows up for the same challenge. Does not it make sense to upgrade the challenge to the better one? It seems to me to be a fair practice, considering that Citi omits any information on the contrary. 
e ) If Citi would like to enforce a different time, I think Citi should make it explicit in every application and sign-up bonus offer. If not, common sense dictates the time to be considered is the time the challenge is open ( XXXX days grace period ). 
f ) In view of the above, I kindly request Citi to match me to the better offer and deposit me XXXX Thank You points as I have already completed {$4200.00}, exceeding the XXXX threshold target.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief