Consumer complaint received 2017-01-20
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
For the past 10 years, I had a checking account at the XXXX, CA branch of Citibank, that had one job ... to automatically pay my mortgage. XX/XX/XXXX, and unknown to my wife or I, Citi changed its fee policies stating that certain checking accounts had to maintain $ XXXX or else you 'd receive a $ XXXX/month penalty ( I do n't know about you, but tying up $ XXXX to avoid unfair fees is unreasonable and simply not possible!!! ). I did n't notice these pernicious & " surreptitious deductions '' ( which were cleverly hidden on the back side of a page in a barely readable sized type ) for over 2 years! I know their defense will be, " That it 's right there on the statement ''. But, I propose to you, that the average banking customer who set-up an account for a singular purpose like automatically paying their mortgage might fully peruse their statement the first few months and might check in on something other than their balance once every few months, but after 8 years ... all either my wife or I looked at was the balance and made sure we had enough in there to pay our mortgage. Below are more details to this story : XX/XX/XXXX, we sold our house in XXXX, CA, and while going through mortgage and banking statements I discovered these $ XXXX/month fees. I immediately telephoned Citibank 's customer service, and of course, they could not help me, but then referred me to the XXXX XXXX, branch which was open that day ( XX/XX/XXXX ), a Saturday. When I sat down with the senior banker at the XXXX XXXX Citibank, XXXX XXXX XXXX, she seemed sympathetic and acted as if I was not the first person to bring this to her attention. She told me that she would credit me for the last 4 months fees, and acted as if she had done me a favor ( I still have not received a statement to confirm the credits ). She then said, " If you bring me your statements for the past few years, I 'll see what I can do ''. So I made an appointment with her for the next Saturday morning. I showed up at the appointed time with every statement for the past two-plus years, and to my surprise and disappointment, she had n't shown up for work that day. So, I was directed to see XXXX XXXX XXXX, a " personal banker ''. He was not helpful, and wanted me to leave my original statements with him refusing to make copies. Finally, another banker overheard his refusal and jumped in to help make copies. Then he proceeded to try to sell me on a new Citi Mortgage, knowing we had just sold our house and were looking to purchase another and so we would be in need of a new mortgage. A few days later I received a call from XXXX XXXX, telling me I should have fully read my statements and there was nothing further she could do to help, but then asked if I would like to talk to the Citi Mortgage Manager. Imagine how I felt! 

To re-state, for the first 8 years of having a mortgage and checking account with Citibank there were no fees, then a policy was created that forces the customer maintain a {$50000.00} balance or else charges of $ XXXX/month will incur, and these terms are tucked away on the back of a statement ... not on Page XXXX, in Large Bold Type! Why should a customer ever expect to see them at any time? I believe this activity to be an unscrupulous business practice. In fact, I believe it 's criminal! How many XXXX dollars is Citibank stealing from its unknowing customers?!!! 

Please find the enclosed Citibank Statements : There are statements from XX/XX/XXXX, through XX/XX/XXXX, where No Fees were charged. Then there are statements from XX/XX/XXXX, through XX/XX/XXXX where Citibank was charging fees.

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