Consumer complaint received 2022-03-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I processed a payment to XXXX XXXX ( massage and body work ) for a XXXX present I had given to my partner. The invoice was for {$150.00}, made through XXXX, after processing, XXXX charged me a fee of 2.90 %, plus a {$0.00} transaction fee, which they clearly disclosed at the time of payment. My XXXX account is linked to my Citi Card-XXXX XXXX XXXX credit card. 
A couple of days after the XXXX, I saw the above mentioned transaction on the Citi Card XXXX app that I use to monitor the activity on my card. It was processed for {$150.00}. It was listed along all other credit card transactions and did not appear any differently than any other transaction. However, at that time I noticed a transaction on my card I did not recognize, for {$10.00} with a description that was not intuitive, stating something to the effect of Cash Fee ( I did not write down the description, so I cant recall the exact wording ) However, at that time, I tried to use the functionality in the app to dispute the charge, and was informed that charges can not be disputed until they are posted. So, as a reminder to myself, I, again using the app, used the Remind me when this posts functionality to make sure I was notified when the item posted so I could then dispute the charge. Over the course of the next week I checked the status on the XXXX app, the item in question changed dates as the transaction date, but stayed in pending status. On Friday XX/XX/XXXX, I was checking my transactions on the XXXX Citi Card app and noticed the transaction was no longer showing up on the list. The monthly statement had been closed on XX/XX/XXXX, and the {$10.00} charge was showing up, with a changed name now called ADVANCES*TRANSACTION FEE, the XXXX app still did not show anything unusual about the payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX it still looked like a credit card charge. I called Citi Card support and after several unsuccessful attempts to get through their overly onerous phone tree, I was finally able to get to speak to a representative. When I inquired about the nature of the charge I was told it was a {$10.00} fee they charge for a cash advance. I stated I had not used the cash advance option, and she informed me that the issue was how XXXX processed the transaction to a XXXX  and XXXX was responsible for the charge, and that I needed to call XXXX instead of Citi Card. I inquired about why I was not notified when the {$10.00} charge posted and was informed that notifications do not work on Citi Card fees. Frustrated, I gave up for the evening and went to bed. 
The next day, I was traveling and unable to follow up. On Sunday I downloaded the PDF copy of my XX/XX/XXXX statement, and saw that the {$10.00} ADVANCES*TRANACTION FEE was there, and that now the transaction for the XXXX XXXX gift Massage was listed under the category CASH ADVANCES as XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX CA {$150.00} and an additional item that had not appeared anywhere before of XX/XX/XXXX INTEREST CHARGED TO STANDARD ADV {$0.00} Researching that fee I found a statement showing that the interest was calculated at a predatory rate of 25.24 % on the amount of {$44.00}. An amount that does not jive with any transaction on my credit card statement. On Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citi Card support to try to get to the bottom of these charges. I was informed once again that the charge was handled as a cash advance because of the way XXXX processed the charge, and that the interest started accruing the day the cash advance was withdrawn, and that the amount of XXXX was a calculated number by averaging the full amount over 30 days, rather than the full amount over 10 days. 
I expressed my concern that I was not given any visibility into the fact that the XXXX XXXX transaction was charged as a cash advance until the statement of XX/XX/XXXX was generated, or else I would have immediately transferred money to pay off the cash advance. Also I had concern that notifications were not available when Citi Card creates a fee, giving customers no recourse or advanced notice and that they are not being transparent in their practices. I also asked for an alert to be placed on my card so that any time a payment was processed as a cash advance I would immediately be notified. I was told that was not an option. So I then requested that a lock be put on the cash advance functionality on my card so that no cash advance could be processed without me unlocking that option, and was informed that was not an option. So I then asked if there was anything that could be done and was told she would try to lower the cash advance amount to zero, to basically make it impossible to do a cash advance, but she then stated that she was not able to reduce it from {$5000.00} to anything below {$750.00}, and asked me to stay on the line while she researched how to get it lower, and then disconnected the call. 
I then went online on the Citi Card website, and logged in and tried to pay off the cash advance, but singling out a specific transaction to pay is not an option, so I paid off the entire balance of my card, weeks before it was due, to avoid paying interest at the exorbitant rate of 25.24 % any further. I have also looked several times on the website and the XXXX XXXX and can not find any indication that I will be charged interest on the amount of the cash advance for the period of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, but feel certain there will be a charge on my statement that closes at the end of the month. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXX and informed them of my issue and asked them to walk me through the process of what I could have done to prevent this from being charged as a cash advance. The XXXX representative spent a considerable amount of time researching my request and came back and informed me that the transaction was processed as a normal credit card transaction and they did not see anything I could have done differently. 
Following up on my call with XXXX, I called Citi Card back and explained that I had just gotten off the phone with XXXX and that they said the charge was processed as a credit charge and not a cash advance, and the customer support representative then informed me it wasnt XXXX, it was the end recipient of the transaction and how she had set up her business account to accept funds. At this point Im more than a little frustrated and expressed that, multiple times Ive been told it was XXXX issue and now that Ive followed up with XXXX they are changing their story to its the payees fault. Exasperated, I then asked if, since I had been hung up on yesterday, could she verify that my available cash advance amount was in fact {$0.00}. I was told it was still at {$5000.00} and that she sees that a request had been sent to another department but they had not responded. 

I provided all the above narrative to try to relay how difficult and deceptive Citi Card is, to summarize my complaint : Citi Card is deceptively adding charges to customers accounts and providing limited visibility to the charges and restricting customers ability to anticipate or correct such charges until such time as Citi Card has collected fees and interest charges that are hidden from the customer. Citi Card does not disclose that these types of transactions will be processed as cash advances, therefore generating a fee for each transaction, subjecting the customer to higher interest rates with interest calculated from the date of purchase without any grace period, and does not provide the ability for the customer to do anything to avoid these charges. These business processes are clearly self-serving to increase revenue at the expense of its customers. Citi Card should be charged with deceptive practices and forced to refund any and all fees derived in this manner. Additionally, Citi should be required to provide transparency on the XXXX XXXX and online website clearly showing a transactions classification as a charge or cash advance, and should provide the ability to receive notifications based on these classifications. Additionally Citi should be required to allow the customer to pay off a single transaction without having to pay the entire balance using the XXXX XXXX or website.

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