Consumer complaint received 2016-07-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Closing/Cancelling account

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX my wife had purchased a new tablet for me approaching the holiday season. When checking her online statement we found that her card had been charged approximately five-thousand dollars in fraudulent charges and the card was maxed out. Our joy of going into the holiday season immediately turned to worry as this amount of money would financially ruin us. We called the number on the back of the card and the red flags began. The automated phone system had absolutely no way of talking to a live person and reporting the fraud. The phone system was very limited in help options and would hang up on you after a short time. After multiple call attempts we finally determined that we could get a person on the phone after a long process of mis-dialing the account number. About a half hour into calls we were able to get an agent on the line and explain the fraud we had found on the account. The agent stated that we could not report fraud on the phone ( what!! ) and that we would have to submit a form that would be mailed to us and it could take up to 30 days to receive the form. I asked if the form could be e-mailed to me or at least expedite shipped in any way. the agent stated that we had no other recourse than to wait for the form via mail. This was the next red flag. Our other credit cards have clear and easy was to report fraud, flag fraudulent charges, talk to a live agent for assistance, and open a fraud case immediately for quick resolution. This was not the case with this company. After waiting the 30 days for this mystery fraud form to arrive, nothing came ... We repeated calling again and navigating the cumbersome call system. We again got an agent on the phone who said they would be mailing us another copy of this fraud form to be filled out. After about another 30 days to the day we finally received the form we had been waiting for. At this point we are XX/XX/XXXX. It is almost 2 months in and we had not even been able to begin the investigation. We filled out the form carefully and in great detail. The form was submitted and we waited for a response. The form stated the investigation could take up to an additional 60 days. We were continually receiving statements for the entire balance owed on the maxed out account. She asked me what to do and I did some research on the FTC website. I told her not only to pay them, but to pay the entirety of the legitimate charges on the account so that when the fraud case was resolved we would have a zero balance and could easily close the account ; about {$800.00} which included various add on fees and late charges. We paid and waited. Again nearing the deadline of the 60 days we finally received a letter sating that the fraudulent charges were removed from the account ( Yay! ). Soon after we received another statement that said we owed more late fees. We called.. again.. And found that the credit card company had opened an alternate account in my wife 's name and the fees were something having to do with the fraud account. Our response to them was very clear : " TELL US ANY BALANCES OR FEES WE OWE ON ALL ACCOUNTS IN HER NAME, WE WILL GLADLY PAY THEM BUT CLOSE EVERY ACCOUNT. WE DO N'T WANT TO BE AFFILIATED WITH THIS CARD OR ACCOUNTS ANYMORE.. '' We paid the fees and assumed we were closed and done. Not quite.. We soon started receiving statements that we had a negative balance and were owed the money we had just paid for Fees. We assumed they would eventually send us a check if they felt like. Now in we are XX/XX/XXXX, 8 MONTHS AFTER THE FRAUD, we just received a statement on a closed account saying we now went from a negative balance to owing {$19.00}. We called again ; The agent said she does not know how this happened the account is clearly closed and not active. Why are we still getting statements?? I just want to be done with this. When does this end??

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