Complaint sub-issue: You never received your bill or did not know a payment was due

I moved in XX/XX/XXXX. I have four Citbank credit cards and in late XX/XX/XXXX, I called the XXXX number on the back of each of the four cards to change my address. 

However, unbeknownst to me, the customer service agent who took me call for the Citibank AAdvantage card did not apply the address change. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX. I received a call on XX/XX/XXXX from an internal collections department that my Citbank Aadvantage card was in arrears of {$900.00}, with a  total balance of {$4600.00} due. When I said that I was unaware of this as I had not received a bill since XX/XX/XXXX, they said " yes. We know. They were returned to us as undeliverable and we had no way to get in touch with you. '' They gave me the number of the recovery unit. 

I have a bunch of problems with this feeble excuse. First of all, I have three other Citibank credit cards that manage to get to me every month. Second of all, neither my email nor my cell phone # has changed in more than 10 years. And third, how is that the credit reporting unit had no trouble finding my home or cell phone? 

I know that this will lead to a huge ding in my credit report, so I called the recovery unit on the same day, XX/XX/XXXX. I managed to convince the man I was speaking with to investigate the claim in an effort to keep it off my credit report. I also asked to pay the entire outstanding amount in full. But he could not guarantee that my credit would not be tarnished. He told me to fax a letter to the XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), which I did on XX/XX/XXXX. I was told to call back in one week ( XXXX XXXX ) after XXXX to learn about the results of the investigation, and that in the meantime, the account would not be sent to an external collection agency and that I should not speak to the INTERNAL collections unit if the called again. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from an EXTERNAL collection agency telling me that i had outstanding debt on this account. I told her that I would be speaking with the recovery unit as promised, at XXXX. When I called the recovery unit, they " had not yet gotten to the investigation yet '' and had no record of sending the fax. ( I subsequently resent it again today ). When I asked why the account had been sent to an EXTERNAL collection agency despite reassurances that it would not happen, his response was " Citibank always abides by federal rules and statues when it comes to this type of thing. '' I spoke to his supervisor, who had no more light to shed on the status. 

So, I 'm in limbo because they made a mistake in not applying my change of address. And they did n't bother to do anything about trying to find me. I could call the EXTERNAL agency and pay off the debt in full, but I 'm reluctant to pay it in full ( I could just pay the arrears ) if my credit report will still get dinged. And no one can answer any of my questions. It 's a huge circular vortex. When I called collections, they ca n't 'see the account ' because it 's in recovery. Recovery has had it for a week, has n't done a thing, and in fact, sent the account to an EXTERNAL collections agency when they said they would wait.