Consumer complaint received 2016-05-27
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MN
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I opened a Citigold checking account on XXXX XXXX, 2015, during a promotion in which they were offering XXXX XXXX XXXX miles to open a new account and complete the following requirements within 60 days : 1. Make {$1000.00} in debit card purchases 2. Make XXXX more bill payments for XXXX consecutive months I completed these requirements by XXXX/XXXX/15. I then sent the customer service department a secure message to verify that I met all the requirements, and that I would, in fact, receive the XXXX XXXX miles. I then received the following response : " Dear XXXX XXXX, Welcome to Citibank Online, my name is XXXX. Thank you for your message regarding your promotion requirements. 

In review of your account, I can confirm your requirements for XXXX are met. 

Summary of Required Behaviors : XXXX XXXX Miles Open a new Regular Checking account in the Citigold Account Package by XXXX/XXXX/15. 
Within 60 days after account opening : complete Qualifying Debit Card Purchases of {$1000.00} using the Citibank Debit Card, which must be posted to the new checking account. 
XXXX qualifying bill payment must be posted to the new checking account each month for XXXX consecutive calendar months. 

Now that you have met the requirements, Citibank will credit the XXXX bonus miles to your XXXX account, within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which the completed offer requirements. Please feel free to respond with the XXXX account number for our files. 

Here at Citi, we take pride in finding solutions for your financial needs, and I am pleased to have provided your requirements confirmation. We will not require anything else for this promotion. Thank you for participating. 

XXXX XXXX, thank you for choosing Citigold. If there is anything else we can do for you, please contact us online with Live Chat, by sending a message, or calling Citigold XXXX at XXXX. Internationally, you can call us collect at XXXX. XXXX XXXX is available at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. We are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to serve you. 
Sincerely, XXXX XXXX '' I then told the customer service department my XXXX frequent flyer number and received the following reply : " Dear XXXX XXXX, Welcome to Citigold, my name is XXXX. Thank you for your response. I appreciate your providing us with your XXXX member number. 

I have noted your XXXX Member number on your account. The XXXX bonus miles will be credited by Citibank to your XXXX account within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which you complete all offer requirements. 

On a separate note, I want to take this time to make sure that you are aware of the requirements for the Citigold Account package. In order to avoid the monthly service fee of {$30.00}, your combined average monthly balance in all eligible deposit and retirement accounts must be {$50000.00} or more. Outstanding lending products such as loans, lines of credit and mortgage balances no longer contribute to the combined average monthly balance in order to avoid the monthly service fee and {$2.00} non-Citibank ATM fees. '' Because I was told I needed to wait 90 days I then waited the requisite time period. At this point the miles still had not posted to my account so I again asked the customer service department when I could expect them to post. At this point I was told I did not qualify for the promotion, and that I would not be receiving the promised miles. Unfortunately for me I had been paying the $ XXXX/month fee to keep the checking account open because I expected to see the miles within a 90 day time frame. It seems incredibly dishonest to tell me to wait 90 days for the miles only to renege at the end of the 90 days, at which point Citi had already collected XXXX monthly 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 non-monetary relief