Consumer complaint received 2017-08-23
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I had charged {$140.00} on my Citicard account as a payment of XXXX XXXX service online. My Citicard had been inactive for 5+ years before that. Hence I forgot about the bill because I was mainly using my XXXX card. I never received any billing statement from Citicard in the mail either up until I received a letter on XX/XX/XXXX ( 6 months after my bill ) stating that I had a balance on my account. I called Citibank immediately anxious that the charge could be a fraud ( I could not remember my bill to XXXX whatsoever after 6 months without being reminded about it previously ). The agent who was assisting me over the phone clarified to me that there was a {$140.00} charge to XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX. I did remember it eventually and paid my bill over the phone the same day. Wish Citibank would have sent me a notice in the mail when I was 60 days past due instead of waiting for 6 months! I would have paid my bill then and avoided the extra late payment fees. They had charged me more than {$100.00} as late payment fees which I refused to pay. I agreed to take responsibility of two months late payment fees but they refused to accomodate me. They refused to take any responsibility of not having sent me any statement or prior notice. They kept repeating that according to their records I had asigned to paprerless statement. I made several attempts to make them understand, including one of their managers that I was not using the email account that they were sending those statements to for so many years!! After all this card had been inactive before and after XX/XX/XXXX. They have caused me tremendous stress and frustration. After I have already paid my main bill my late fee charges have added up to {$310.00} as of XX/XX/XXXX. This is affecting my credit report which is not fair because I pay all my bills on time and much more than the minimum payment due. I disputed the late payments with XXXX. XXXX was not able to help me. Instead I received another letter from Citibank recently offering me a settlement of {$280.00} vs {$310.00}. This is a joke! I called them again. I went over the whole story again with another of their managers. I suggested to pay late fees of 2-3 months right then if they agreed. The manager refused to accomodate me once again and kept repeating the same exact things that the others were saying in XX/XX/XXXX like a broken record ... ... They failed to contact me the best possible way while they could which would be through mail. This whole situation could have been prevented. Instead they kept adding late payment fees towards my unpaid late fees which is causing a considerable damage to my credit report. I do n't think this is fair.

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 monetary relief