Consumer complaint received 2024-09-14
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Charged too much interest
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (TX)

I've had a credit card with what is now known as Citi for more than 40 years. It's the first card I ever had. I have never missed a payment. In its current form, its an XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. In XX/XX/year>, I took a {$20000.00} loan on the card at 9.99 %. It's called a XXXX  XXXX Citi XXXX XXXX. The minimum monthly payment is just under {$430.00}. I set up an autopay from a XXXX XXXX checking account to take care of that portion of my monthly statement. I continued to use the card for standard purchases ( currently at 28.24 % ), and I paid off those purchases in full every month from a XXXX XXXX checking account. So, the only interest I should be paying is the interest on the XXXX XXXX. 

A number of months went by and suddenly they started charging interest on purchases, even though I had paid the previous month 's purchase charges in full. Numerous people in " customer service '' told me that as long as I am carrying another balance on the account, I will always be charged interest on purchases. Even when I quoted the following to them ( this appears on every monthly statement ), they were adamant : " We will not charge you interest on purchases if you pay your monthly Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX plus your entire balance, excluding any Citi Flex Plan balances, by the due date each month. '' It's obvious that the people I dealt with were confusing the rules around balance transfer balances with those that apply to the Citi XXXX XXXX. 

In XXXX of this year, following the death of my mother-in-law, my wife used the card to pay a total of {$10000.00} in funeral home expenses. Those charges were posted to the purchases portion of the account, as they should have been. As soon as we received proceeds from a life insurance policy, and feeling quite uncomfortable with a {$10000.00} charge sitting on my account, I made an online payment to Citi for {$10000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. My mistake, apparently, was that I didn't wait until I had received the next month 's statement with the {$10000.00} in charges on it. So they applied the {$10000.00} payment not to the Purchases balance ( 28.24 % ) but to the Flex Plan balance ( 9.99 % ). As a result, even though I continued to pay in full for all of the purchases I made on the card, I have been charged hundreds of dollars in " standard purchase '' interest charges every month. ( I have stopped using the card until this is resolved. ) I have explained on the phone numerous times that my intention was that the {$10000.00} payment be applied to the standard purchase balance, which included the {$10000.00} funeral charges. XXXX person ( a supervisor ) told me on XXXX XXXX she would request that the {$10000.00} be applied to the purchase balance instead of to the XXXX XXXX balance, but she wasn't making any promises. 

Having heard nothing from Citi, I called again on XXXX XXXX, and a person who said her name was XXXX noted the call I had made on XXXX XXXX. She couldn't explain why there had been no follow-up. She agreed that the {$10000.00} payment should have gone to my Purchase balance, not to the Flex Plan balance. And she said the higher interest charged on the Purchase balance should be refunded. This was the first bit of encouraging news I have received since this saga began. 

On Tuesday, XXXX XXXX, I received a form letter stating that " payment amounts greater than the minimum due are applied to balances with higher APRs before balances with lower rates. Billed segments will be paid before unbilled segments. '' In other words, if you are late with your payment, it will cost you ( which I totally understand ) AND if you are early with your payment, it will cost you. The distinction here is that the {$10000.00} charge had been placed on my account, but it hadn't been billed to me yet in a statement. 

I think they are so far behind that the letter I received on XXXX XXXX was not addressing the conversation I had on XXXX XXXX but the previous one. So, there's hope that XXXX is still trying to do something. But I am not counting on it. 

All I want from Citi is for them to move that {$10000.00} payment from the Flex Plan side of the ledger to the Standard Purchases side, which was my intention to begin with. I will happily continue paying on the Flex Plan loan every month until it is paid off.