Consumer complaint received 2023-06-28
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NV
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a payment to my Citi Thank You Preferred card of {$580.00}. The payment screen informed me that I would immediately have access to the available credit created by the payment. This has always been the case with payments to this Citi credit card since I became a cardmember over a decade ago, sometime in XXXX. I have never made a late payment and I always paid at least the minimum amount due. The payment initiated on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX was successfully drafted from my XXXX XXXX checking account on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX. The payment successfully cleared and posted to my Citi credit card on XX/XX/XXXX, according to Citi 's website and the two customer service agents I spoke with via telephone ( one of which was a supervisor ). This payment satisfied the minimum amount due and should have resulted in an increase to my available credit. However, Citi arbitrarily and without providing notice to me, decided to put a " hold '' on applying the payment to my account, despite confirming that they had in fact received the money and it had in fact been cleared by both XXXX XXXX and Citi on XX/XX/XXXX. I spoke with two customer service agents at Citi on XX/XX/XXXX to attempt to resolve the issue. The supervising agent I spoke with disclosed that Citi had in fact placed a " hold '' on the funds received that were posted to my account on XX/XX/XXXX, and that the hold would last until at least XX/XX/XXXX, at which time funds MAY be made available. I pressed the supervisor on the legality of this " hold '' and the supervisor confirmed this practice is in violation of the cardmember agreement, but couldn't do anything about it until at least XX/XX/XXXX because that's what her computer screen told her. Shortly after the conversation with the supervisor on XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to request a copy of the cardmember agreement using two methods : 1 ) I used the option on Citi 's website to request that an agreement be mailed to me. This request was denied ( see attached ). 2 ) I requested a copy of the agreement using the chat feature on Citi 's website. The chat feature is designed to prevent the option of providing members with Cardmember agreements ( see attached ). 

My complaint against Citi is twofold : 1 ) Citi should not be allowed to profit off of " holding '' posted payments ( in this case for at least 5 business days ) without increasing the credit available in the interim. By not updating the available credit, yet stating when making a payment that the credit will be available, Citi is engaging in deceptive business practices that have negative implications for its cardmembers and only serve to enrich itself through profits made at scale by " holding '' funds that ought to otherwise be available for use across tens of thousands of cardmembers. In my case, the consequences were four bills could not be paid that were scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX using what should have been available credit from the payment made the week prior. 2 ) Citi should be required to provide cardmembers with a copy of the cardmember agreement upon request. This is the first time in 10+ years that I requested a copy of the agreement ( which apparently constantly changes ), and I don't think it is an unreasonable burden on such a large company to provide a copy of the agreement upon reasonable request. Perhaps within the agreement it states that I must request a copy in writing, but if this is the case then Citi should not be allowed to advertise the option of requesting a copy of the agreement online when such an option is not available. Unfortunately, I can't obtain a copy of the cardmember agreement so there is no way to know if there was a recent change in policy that enables Citi to " hold '' funds posted for whatever period of time they deem reasonable. If that is a policy stated in the cardmember agreement, I argue that it is unfair and out of line with acceptable business practices. Citi should be able to profit off interest paid on my balance ; they should not be able to profit off of payment holds. Citi, theoretically, could continue to hold this payment until after the payment due date which would result in further consequences for me ( i.e. late fees, inability to pay bills, lowered credit score ). The fact that no notice was provided to me of this new payment application practice is particularly concerning. Every other credit card I've ever had has provided notice when a drastic change to payment policy will occur. For example, my Aadvantage Citi card informed me that my available balance would no longer be updated the same day as a payment. My XXXX XXXX informed months in advance of a change in their payment application process. Citi Thank You Preferred doesn't play by the same rules, and has arbitrarily and without notice decided to hold my valid, posted payment, despite telling me on the payment screen that my account would be credited the same day.

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