Consumer complaint received 2024-03-11
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CA)

I was approved for a 24 month " Citi Flex Plan Loan '' on my Citi Double Cash Card on XX/XX/2023. The monthly payment was added to my minimum monthly payment and I was advised to select the " Adjusted New Balance + Flex Plan Monthly Payment '' option for autopay, to avoid paying my plan early. The description for this payment reads, " This includes your monthly Flex Plan Payment Amount and the non-Flex Plan portion of your last statement balance. It does not include Flex Plan payments due in future months. '' However, any amount over the minimum monthly payment that I have made has been allocated to my 24 month loan. I now only have 6 monthly payments left on a loan I had planned on taking 2 years to pay off, and my interest accruing balance continues to grow, resulting in higher monthly payment requirements. 

For example, my XXXX statement indicated that I would be charged for an adjusted new balance of {$2800.00} and that my Flex Plan payment amount of {$370.00}, for a total of {$3200.00}. Despite my payment plan clearly stating that it would not include Flex Plan payments due in future months, my XXXX statement, and a Citi representative, confirmed that all {$3200.00} had been applied to Flex Plans and that the {$2800.00} remains and is accruing interest. 

The XXXX payment I made, based on the XXXX statement, is what brought the issue to my attention. Similarly, all of my XXXX payment that was over the Flex Plan payment also went to future monthly payments, instead of the adjusted new balance. 

I spoke to representatives at Citi on three separate occasions. On the first call, I was hung up on while I was on hold. On the second call I was told that since my adjusted new balance was receiving a low promotional rate that they chose to apply it to the higher monthly rate Flex Plans. I explained that, per the agreement, I had to pay the interest rate of the Flex Plan regardless of if I made early payments and that my adjusted new balance was going to switch to a higher rate the following month so it would be in my best interest ( and per the payment plans description ) to pay off the adjusted new balance and not pay future months off. They said they would look into it, but would provide me with no reference/confirmation number or any names so I could track the case. On the third call I reiterated the wording on my statement and my autopayment plan and asked for information on how to escalate the issue to a higher level ; however, they refused to do so and would not provide a way to track the case, and they advised me to " call back to check in ''. 

In summary, Citi is calculating my automatic monthly payments one way, and detailing that in my statements and payment details, and allocating the amount I am paying in a completely different manner. This is resulting in large monthly payment requirements, and interest to accrue on an increasingly growing balance. I am also not able to enjoy the benefits of the 24 month loan I took out, as I only have 6 months remaining on a plan that should still have 22 months remaining.