Consumer complaint received 2022-10-27
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
XXXX  months ago, a payment was missed on my Citibank credit card, and a penalty interest rate of 29.99 % was swiftly applied. I called immediately to set up automatic payments in order to avoid any future oversights, and was informed tat that time that the penalty rate would be eligible for removal following 6 months of consecutive on-time payments. 

XXXX consecutive on-time payments have since been made, however, the penalty APR has remained in place. When I called last week to request removal of the penalty APR, I spoke to XXXX different representatives, via XXXX distinct channels ( phone, chat ). Each first line representative parroted a similar response, and that response was : " I'm sorry, while you are eligible for removal of the penalty APR, I do not have that option available to me yet in the system. You are welcome to check back in after periodic review to see if the option generates at that time .... '' No clarity was provided as to when " periodic review '' would occur, or at what cadence it should occur. Given that I had been eligible for removal of the penalty rate for XXXX  months, an *effective* periodic review process should and would have caught this without the need for me to intervene. 

Not only did the supposed periodic review fail to rectify the situation, but it seems that the standard procedure is engineered to wear consumers down, or encourage them to try later. This strategy is likely quite effective for Citi, as many consumers may not have the time, energy, inclination, or knowledge sufficient to escalate effectively. I will include screenshots of a chat conversation which demonstrates how difficult Citi is making it for consumers to address penalty APRs that are eligible for removal. You will see that several requests made by me for escalation were met with " You are welcome to call back after periodic review, please let me know how else can I help you today?, '' or something equally unhelpful. 

After XXXX more points of contact via phone that same day, and a relentless persistence on my part to demand escalation, I was finally able to get the rate reverted back to the non-penalty APR of prime plus margin. However, the level of resistance and avoidance I encountered from multiple Citi employees was unacceptable and clearly indicative of an abusive procedure whereby Citi is applying penalty APRs expeditiously, and then leaving them in place well after the consumer is eligible for removal, and possibly as long as they can to continue to generate more interest income. 

I am certain that if this happened to me, it is happening to many other consumers, and Citibank needs to be held responsible for its clear failure to adhere to regulations in place to protect consumers. 

The Credit Card Act of 2009 says that if a credit card company can increase your interest rate based on market conditions, your XXXX XXXX, and other factors such as payment history, it must also consider those factors when deciding whether to lower your interest rate. Further, the act requires card issuers to review such accounts every 6 months at a minimum, and if the factors have changed in the customer 's favor, the card issuer is required to lower the rate. With respect to penalty APRs, the regulation states that rates must be reduced if a penalized customer makes XXXX consecutive on-time payments. 

As a result of the failure to remove the penalty APR as expeditiously as it was applied, I have paid more than {$2000.00} USD in interest over the past XXXX years. This amount represents only interest beyond what would have been incurred by my non-penalty XXXX given the balances held.

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