Consumer complaint received 2016-04-11
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Other

Complaint:
My credit card company, CitiBank, continues to find ways to impede how much money I can spend on my card each month. They have to give me " points '' back for my purchases, but they only gave me a {$320.00} credit limit. I still use it quite a bit, but they abuse their terms and conditions ( or at least that 's their defense ) to prevent me from spending money during the month. They only allow me to make 5 online payments a month on the card, but they only allow me to make and or schedule payments equivalent to what THEY declare is my " current balance ''. If I charge {$300.00} on my card on a given day, but it does n't display on their webpage yet, I ca n't schedule a {$300.00} payment. They simply refuse to let me make and or schedule a payment for that amount until it fully shows on my account. This is even though they already approved the payment to the merchant, and therefore KNOW the charge has gone through. I ca n't even schedule a payment for the charge for the day that its going to hit my account, I have to wait UNTIL the date it shows on my account to even make or schedule a payment.. Then, if I send a payment, directly from my bank 's bill pay system, they put a hold on the payment. They used to tell me they put a hold on the payment if it exceeds the current balance when they receive the check, but apparently, not anymore. They received a payment of {$240.00} on XXXX XXXX, and even on XXXX XXXX, it has n't posted yet, even though it shows posting on my account, it does not yet affect my available balance. My credit card has been declined, I think, 3 times since then for amounts less than {$20.00} each. They do n't even show a hold on my account on their web page ( I guess they want to be even more covert about their fraud than they were in the past, as it used to show the hold on the web page ). They 're playing games with my account to prevent me from spending more money to save themselves from paying me points and such. They claim the ambiguities in their " terms and conditions '' justify their actions, but in XXXX v. XXXX XXXX, it was confirmed that such ambiguities are in violation of California Business and Professions Code section 17200 ( et seq ). Basically, they claim because the agreement says they " may '' do something, they can do it whenever they want, but that 's exactly what the court struck down in XXXX v XXXX XXXX. I 've had this credit card for like 5+ years and I 've never submitted a false payment, yet they put holds on my payments? They 're just making up rules and procedures and overall, extremely limiting the amount of points I can earn on my card per month and year. They are limiting it to such a degree that I would argue they are violating their terms and conditions. Nowhere did they clearly state that there is a limitation on my points I can accrue based upon their defunct policies. Usually, when they put a hold on a payment i submit to them, they hold it for upwards of like 10 days. Which means, I can only spend a maximum of about {$960.00} worth of points per month ... which is n't written anywhere. If considering their online payments, I can only acquire about {$1600.00} worth of points per month, something that also, is n't written anywhere. They have offered to increase my credit limit, but only if I allow them access to my credit report ( as if they are blind to my usage of their card ) .I have refused because I 'm still entitled to acquire points, and if they did n't illegally abuse their processes, I would n't need to.Or they could just increase my credit limit, but they refuse to do that unless I appease them too. Their refusal to provide me with with the full use of my credit card and credit card account is absolutely unacceptable and I would love to see them prosecuted for such behaviours. Or, worst case secenario, keep records of this to show their pattern of evil. I 've complained to them before they do n't care.

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