Consumer complaint received 2024-03-02
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (NC)

I purchased the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite credit card XX/XX/XXXX understanding I needed to spend {$7500.00} by XX/XX/XXXX to receive a promotion for XXXX bonus miles. I spent {$7500.00} within the period ( attached file ) but did not receive my bonus miles. I called XX/XX/XXXX to confirm I had met the spend requirements, as I can see a spending summary in my Citi app. The representative said if I see the spending summary is $ XXXX I should be receiving my miles in 8-10 weeks. 

I waited 8-10 weeks and no miles had posted. I called Citi again to understand the issue. The representative told me I did not meet the spending requirement, I was short ~ {$600.00}. The representative could not explain the difference between their spend summary and the apps spend summary. I filed a complaint and was told Citi would review my case and get back with me- he took my email address. I never received an email. XXXX week later ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I called Citi again to follow up on my case. The representative told me Citi had no intention of following up with me. He said that I did not meet the spend requirement and I should review the debits and credits line by line to prove it to myself. 

I reviewed the debits and credits from XXXX, and still came to a {$7500.00} spend. I called Citi again XX/XX/XXXX to understand the difference they are getting - the representative explained the Card membership annual cost- {$590.00} - does not count in the {$7500.00} spend requirement. This is the first time this was stated. I reviewed terms and conditions and could not see this clearly stated anywhere that the {$590.00} you pay to get the card doesnt count towards your spend requirement. 

I was transferred to an account manager and I pointed out that no where in the terms and conditions is it made clear that the annual cost of the card is not an eligible purchase and it took her, a senior manager and subject matter expert in Citibank credit cards, over 20 minutes of research to determine this would fall into the interest and account fees exclusion embedded within the terms and conditions. If it takes this amount of time for a Citibank manager to arrive at this conclusion, it is reasonable to assume the information is not made adequately clear to a customer. This is a deceptive sales practice and Citi bank did not provide enough explicit language to the consumer to ensure they understood the {$590.00} did not count towards the spend requirement. In addition, the {$590.00} card membership is included as a debit in the spend summary for the card on the Citi bank app, further deceiving the customer into believing they have met the minimum spend requirement. Its also included as a debit in the transaction history, representing it as a purchase in the consumers view. 

I am reaching out to the CFPB for the following reasons : XXXX. I feel the terms and conditions are made to be intentionally unclear to a consumer and the exclusion of the {$590.00} annual cost of the card without explicitly stating this is the case is a deceptive sales practice, especially given the {$590.00} is included in the Spend Summary on the app, which gives the customer the perception that it will count towards the {$7500.00} total spending requirement. 
XXXX. In the numerous calls made to Citibank, which were made with the sole purpose of confirming I had hit the required spending amount, I was not informed that the {$590.00} would not count towards the {$7500.00} requirement until XX/XX/XXXX, which was far beyond the 3 month spending period. In fact, the customer service rep ( XX/XX/XXXX ) confirmed if the Spend Summary on the app stated I had spent more than {$7500.00}, I would received the miles and requested I wait until the XX/XX/XXXX statement was posted to call again. If I had been made aware of this fact earlier, I could have increased my spend to allow myself to collect the award miles. The fact that this information was withheld until it was too late felt like an unfair sales practice made with the goal of ensuring Citibank would not have to provide me the miles I am owed.