Consumer complaint received 2022-12-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
Good afternoon. 

I am writing in hopes to raise awareness and prevent further deceptive and predatory practices from Citi Card, which has now taken hours and weeks of my time and as we have detrimentally relied on the promotional offer and contracted terms we signed with them but are unable to receive. 

To begin, about one month ago, we ( I, and my husband as an authorized user ), applied for a Citi Credit card- XXXX XXXX card, which offers XXXX reward miles if {$4000.00} are spent in the first three months.

The first couple of weeks there was no issue. We used the card as needed to earn the reward miles. However, apparently as we were too close to receiving this promotion, they have done everything possible to block our use of the card and not allow us to receive the miles. 

The first block happened when we paid the entire balance in full ( before it was even due ). Even though Citi has direct third party access to my checking account ( which I authorized ), they decided to block the available balance for a whole 10 days after the payment was booked on the account, in order to " verify '' the bank and payment info. This means that the money was taken out of my checking, but during the XXXX  XXXX, when we relied on the funds, they were unavailable to us on the credit card. 

Then, before this " payment verification '' was completed, they also started sending alerts to my phone app that they had to verify prior purchases. 

Once I called them to " verify the purchases '' and remove the early fraud detection, they went through a series of steps : 1 ) They tried to verify my number ( even though it is the only number I have, the number they approved my application from, the number every other bank uses to verify my transactions ) and they said their system was unable to send me a text message. 
2 ) They tried to verify my employer ( even though no one at my work has any knowledge of this " attempt '', and even though I was sitting at my work desk when I called them, and even though I have paycheck stubs they could have asked for, etc ) 3 ) They asked for another credit card ( I gave them 2 credit cards on my name, all in good standing, all functioning ) - they were unable to verify. 
4 ) They asked for my bank account information, which, again, even though they had because I made a payment with the same account, they were " unable to verify ''.

I called back in a few minutes because it was impossible to speak to this person who just kept telling me that I couldn't be verified, even though I was sitting at the desk with the card in my hand, and I was connected to someone else. This person actually called my number, heard that it was me, and was able to release the early fraud detection, but not release the available balance ( so I can continue using the card ) because the payment verification was ongoing, even though they had already taken my money out a week prior at that moment. 

I then received a letter in the mail, about two days later to call fraud prevention services again. AGAIN, I called and they were " unable to verify me '' until I asked for a supervisor.

After speaking to a supervisor, she was able to verify that the text wasn't going through to my phone because according to them it was tied to my fathers name ( my maiden name ), even though I opened my phone number under my married name and have never tied this number in any way to my maiden name. I was then told that I would be flagged as " verified, '' the number would be flagged as trusted, and that in about 48 hours they would release my available balance to use. 

So, this morning, once we saw that the balance was available again, my husband and I went to XXXX to go XXXX  shopping, and once we were at the register, my card was again declined!! I had to use another card. I called them straight away because I wanted to rewards miles, and again was told ( after more than 40 minutes on the call ), that they were again not able to verify it was me. I told them about the conversation I had two days previously, about flagging my number as trusted, and they did not care. 

They have offered no way to remedy this. I have my paychecks, my bank statements, my IDs and my passport. I have had the same email addresses for about 15 years. All meaningful ways to verify who I am. I know now that they are not trying to protect my identity, rather, they are trying to ensure that the promotion they offered is unattainable. This falls clearly under UDAAP compliance - deceptive practices. 

The easiest thing for me would be to close the account, but as we have already taken a " hit '' on the hard pull credit check and another " hit '' for opening a new account, which negatively affects our credit score, we would be further negatively impacted in doing so. Also, I do not feel that it is fair to allow them to get away with these actions and that I want to be able to use my card and earn the rewards I was promised.

In hopes that you can help me resolve this, I wish you a happy XXXX XXXX 

Best, XXXX XXXX

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