Consumer complaint received 2023-06-22
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
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:
My complaints about Citibank , N.A . : 1 ) On my XXXX XXXX account statements appeared the wording, About Interest Charges. ; How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases. ;. We will not charge you interest on purchases if you pay your monthly Citi Flex Plan Payment Amount plus your entire balance, excluding any Citi Flex Plan balances, by the due date each month. Based on this PROMISE, I applied for a Citi Flex Plan loan of {$10000.00}. The statements showed NO explanation of how payments would be applied. AFTER being granted a Citi Flex Plan loan additional new wording appeared on the XX/XX/XXXX statement, We apply any amount you pay above your Minimum Payment Due first to the balance with the highest APR, then to the balance with the next highest APR, and so on. This wording conflicts with the subsection How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases., as once the Flex Plan is paid in full, lower interest purchases can be left on the account, subject to interest charges. Whether or not intentional, this DECEPTION by Citi caused my Citi Flex Plan loan period to be reduced from the originally agreed term of 36-months to less than 12-months. This DECEPTION could also result in my owing interest on purchases in spite of Citis PROMISE, We will not charge you interest on purchases if you pay your monthly Citi Flex Plan Payment Amount plus your entire balance, excluding any Citi Flex Plan balances, by the due date each month.

2 ) Due to Citis FALSE statement above, and Citis FAILURE to explain how payments would be applied PRIOR to my being granted the Citi Flex Plan Loan, my purpose for contracting the loan with Citi was effectively negated. Had Citi informed me how payments would be applied PRIOR to the granting of the Citi Flex Plan loan I would NOT have contracted the loan, nor would I have incurred the interest generated by the loan. Citis FALSE statement and FAILURE to explain how payments would be applied, caused me to incur much higher monthly payments than planned for, resulting in a loss of income on my investment account ( s ). 

3 ) On XX/XX/XXXX I called Citi about amending how payments were applied to my account. Their representative ( s ) told me Citi could not alter the way payments were being applied. Between XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX I called Citi at least 7 times ( over 3 hours 8 minutes call time total ) to express disagreement with how payments were applied. Also I asked that the Promotional Rate of 1.99 % on new purchases, which Citi advised me of on XX/XX/XXXX, be canceled so my Citi Flex Plan loan would not be rendered useless to me. Citi representatives said they could not cancel the special Promotional Rate but would not tell me why. On or about XX/XX/XXXX a Citi supervisor in AZ told me she would investigate the possibility of cancelling the Promotional Rate and someone would contact me, but there was never a callback or other contact. On XX/XX/XXXX in a 29 min 3 sec phone with XXXX XXXX Ext XXXX, I was advised the Promotional Rate had to be cancelled within 51 days. The cancelation period information was not disclosed to me previously.

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