Consumer complaint received 2016-09-12
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IN
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
On XXXX/XXXX/2015, I opened a XXXX Checking Account through CitiBank using the promo code XXXX. This promo code was advertised to give a bonus of XXXX bonus XXXX XXXX after opening a new XXXX account by XXXX/XXXX/2015 and, within 60 days of account opening, post XXXX bill payment each month for XXXX consecutive months. My husband opened an identical account using an identical promotion. 
Prior to opening the account, my husband called CitiBank to confirm eligibility for XXXX of us. The rep confirmed that we were XXXX eligible, so we signed up on the website. Upon approval of the account, I immediately initiated a re-occurring bill payment, scheduling it once a month for 2 months. 
After the second bill payment posted my husband called CitiBank, and the rep confirmed that we had XXXX met the terms of the promotion, and that we would be receiving the bonus points in the next few months. 
The points had still not posted in XXXX in either account, so we called back in. The representative again assured us that they would be posting, as we had met the terms of the promotion on XXXX accounts. 
The points still had not posted a couple of months later, so we again called in. This time, we were told that if we had not been targeted for the promotion, we would not be receiving the points, but that they would look into it and send us a letter. 
We never heard anything back, so we called again and were told the same thing. This time, we received an email a few days afterwards stating that we were not targeted for the promotion on my husband 's account, and would not be awarded the points. 
We called back in and informed them that we had been targeted for the promotion, and even if we had not been, they had told us for nearly 6 months that we were eligible and had met the terms for both accounts. Meanwhile, we were being charged a $ XXXX account fee. After being transferred around for just over an hour, we were transferred to the wrong department. Someone at Citi had accidentally transferred us to the department which handles inquiries from Citi employees regarding their employee Citi savings/checking accounts. Despite being confused at how we got there, the representative was very helpful. He again confirmed that the promo code was showing as attached to XXXX of our accounts, and that we had met the terms including the bill payment on XXXX accounts. He promised to have this looked into and said that we would receive a letter in the next week with the outcome of the investigation. 
A week passed and no letter. We called back in, and the representative could find no record of the conversation we had previously, and no record of the investigation being initiated. She apologized and promised to follow through with initiating it herself. A few days later we again received an email claiming that we were not targeted on my husband 's account and would therefore not be awarded the points. 
We called again and informed the rep of the ordeal we had been put through, and that we had been told for so long that we were eligible and had completed the terms, and would be receiving the points for both accounts. This rep was helpful and promised to escalate the claim. 
But again, the same outcome. 
We called a couple of weeks ago to give them XXXX last chance, and the best I was offered was that they could put in a request to potentially send me XXXX points as an apology. Despite that I had been promised XXXX XXXX points for each account. 
I would be happy to furnish the phone call recordings, and I am sure Citi can do the same. 

Update : Citi was finally willing to honor the XXXX points promo for my husband 's account, so this should be possible to do for my account as well. All communications with Citi referenced both accounts, XXXX accounts had the promotion applied, and all account activities ( bill payments, etc. ) were done in tandem. **

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 monetary relief