Consumer complaint received 2020-08-19
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (NJ)

NB : I do not know if the COSTCO Visa card can be used at other stores. 

RE : COSTCO member number XXXX COSTCO/Citibank denied me a credit card for unfair reasons, specifically, because I have a credit freeze on my credit report and it will not pull my credit report within a designated time when the freeze is lifted. The result is that I unfairly, if not as a result of advertising deception, pay more for items bought at COSTCO than I should, because I am barred from receiving additional discounts that I would get if I used the COSTCO VISA card issued and managed by Citibank. Although I tried to correct this problem with the membership division of COSTCO and with the credit card application processor, neither would do anything to correct the problem.

Within the last several years, I applied for COSTCOs VISA card after I became a member of COSTCO. I received a letter in response to my application for the credit card indicating that the application processor could not pull my credit report because I had a credit freeze on my credit report. I called the number provided in the letter and discussed the problem with a woman who answered the call. I explained that, because of the XXXX  data breach and for other, similar, long-standing reasons, I have an enduring credit freeze on all of my credit reports. It is the only way possible to protect my privacy and risk of identity theft that I believe is rampant in the current system. I further explained that I could and would lift the freeze and provide a code to the woman that she could use to pull my credit report within a certain period of time after the freeze is lifted, so that she could complete processing my application. This procedure, of the credit bureau providing a code to me for a specific potential issuer of credit, is set by the credit bureaus. I also do not feel comfortable removing the credit freeze on my credit reports indefinitely and in general so that any source could get my credit report for an indefinite period of time. The only way to protect myself from the credit bureaus sloppy operations, abuse of my privacy for profit, and abuse of laws that supposedly govern them is to lift the freeze for specific entities that I authorize to pull a copy of my report within a few days of lifting the freeze, temporarily, after which the freeze resumes. 

The woman who worked for whatever group sent the letter with the telephone number to contact her about my application for COSTCOs VISA, said that she would not use the code or pull the report within the specific period of time. I dont know why she unfairly refused to complete processing my application, but the CFPB should investigate why she refused to follow the credit bureaus own procedure to protect individuals from identity theft and a whole host of financial fraud. In particular, it should investigate whether Citibank, the application processor, or other affiliated entities are using applications for this credit card to gain access to peoples credit reports for other, unauthorized purposes. 

But whatever the excuse is, COSTCO should issue me credits for whatever discounts I would have earned since I applied for its VISA and it should issue me its VISA immediately without further delay, assuming that my credit rating meets its criteria. I have every  reason to believe that it would, despite the fact that Equifax still does not provide copies of my credit report to me for review readily when asked to as it should. ( I will request free copies of my credit report from XXXX again soon. ) Aside from this, COSTCO, Citibank and their affiliates implicated in the aforementioned denial of the credit card to me, should be closely monitored. Many COSTCO members nationwide are potentially affected by these habitual actions of unfair pricing, across all income groups, including persons financially injured by the current XXXX caused by the covid-19 pandemic. No one, including me, should be disadvantaged by COSTCO and Citibank in this manner.