Consumer complaint received 2023-12-12
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (VA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for, and was approved for, a Citi Custom Cash Rewards credit card which included two signup promotions and a {$3000.00} credit limit. The first promotion was to receiving XXXX Citi Rewards ThankYou Points for spending {$1500.00} on qualified purchases in the first 6 months ( by XX/XX/XXXX ). The promotional timeline for this spend bonus was effective immediately, even though the card was not shipped out until XX/XX/XXXX, did not arrive until XX/XX/XXXX, and was not activated until XX/XX/XXXX. The second promotion was an introductory period of 15 months 0.00 % APR on qualified purchases and balance transfers which was not activated until XX/XX/XXXX when I made an initial balance transfer of {$1900.00}. Since the balance transfer did not qualify for the first promotion, this meant that as of XX/XX/XXXX, I had {$1000.00} of available credit to spend towards the {$1500.00} total spend required to receive the bonus. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I still had {$230.00} worth of qualified purchases to make with my Citi Custom Cash Rewards card to receive the promotional XXXX bonus Citi Rewards ThankYou Points, which I had planned to spend on XXXX shopping. At that time, I had {$86.00} of available credit, meaning that I would have to make a payment of at least {$140.00} to have enough available credit to be able to meet the spend bonus. I made a payment of {$150.00} towards the card on the following Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, when I got paid, so that I could use the remaining balance to buy XXXX presents and qualify for the promotional bonus. Prior to this, I had made XXXX different payments to card, totaling {$630.00}, and in each case, my available credit balance was immediately adjusted to reflect the payment made. I made one payment XX/XX/XXXX, one payment on XX/XX/XXXX, two payments on XX/XX/XXXX, one payment on XX/XX/XXXX, one payment on XX/XX/XXXX, and one payment on XX/XX/XXXX. In every case, the payment was immediately applied to my available credit. The payment of {$150.00} made on XX/XX/XXXX was not immediately applied to my available credit. As of today, XX/XX/XXXX, it has still not been applied to my available credit. The {$150.00} payment appears on my Citi recent transactions as posted on XX/XX/XXXX. My bank statement confirms that the {$150.00} was withdrawn and the payment was posted on XX/XX/XXXX. I called Citi on XX/XX/XXXX to find out why my available credit has not been adjust to reflect my recent payment and they said that it could take up to 7 business days for my available credit to reflect any payments made to my account. This is a very convenient loophole for them to have up to an 11-day, interest-free loan any payment made by a customer on a Friday, while ensuring a mechanism to prevent customers from fulfilling spending requirements to qualify for promotional spend bonuses. How come it is that in every other circumstance that I applied a payment, I was permitted to immediately spend the an amount equivalent to that payment and add that to my outstanding balance, except in the case where it may require Citi to have to honor their promotional signup bonus and reward me XXXX Citi Rewards XXXX Points, equivalent to {$200.00}? I was coerced by Citi to spend {$1500.00} on purchases using their card with the false promise of a {$200.00} reward, effectively making {$1500.00} worth of goods and services cost me only {$1300.00}. I spent {$1300.00} before they pulled the rug out from underneath me, ensuring that they come out on top and net {$45.00}, while not having to give away {$200.00} worth of bonuses, and potentially having a larger balance with which to charge a high interest rate to starting XX/XX/XXXX. This is clear and deceptive, predatory lending behavior disguised as customer rewards and hiding behind fine print and vague terms that always favor the house. I want my XXXX Citi Rewards ThankYou Points, but mostly, I would like the CFPB to look into Citi 's deceptive rewards program to ensure this doesn't happen to others in the future.