Consumer complaint received 2024-05-16
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill — Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (GA)

I had a Costco Visa credit card issued by Citibank. The card expired in XXXX of XXXX and Citibank refused to renew the card beyond the expiration date in retaliation for a dispute I had with Citibank regarding a My Best Buy Visa credit card account which Citibank also refused to renew once the card expired which resulted in Citibank filing a lawsuit against me to collect an alleged debt and the lawsuit was settled for less than the full balance. Now Citibank has closed this account but refuses to charge it off so that they can continue to charge interest and fees including late fees if any payment is late because if the account were charged off they could no longer charge interest and fees on the account that Citibank closed almost three years ago. Citibank also refuses to offer any financial assistance saying that there is nothing they can do and no programs to offer even though if I make a late payment they use the phone and call me every day and when I log into the website or app have messages on there stating to contact them if I am having trouble making payments. For almost three years I have been making payments on a closed credit card account that I can no longer use because Citibank refused to renew the card almost three years ago as a retaliatory move as stated previously in this complaint. I don't believe that Citibank has any intentions of working with me to reduce interest or to settle this account for less than the full balance and intends to keep charging interest and fees until the balance is paid in full. If I were to stop making payments on this account after ( 180 ) days which is about six months, Citibank would be required by law to charge off the account and once the account is charged off the interest and fees would stop. I have tried to explain this to Citibank and provide them with copies of billing statements, the complaint, and settlement agreement in the Best Buy case to prove my point but Citibank seems unwilling to listen and do anything. 

Citibank will also refuse to remove this account from my credit report stating that as a credit provider, we are obligated to report the account accurately to the credit reporting agencies. Citibank 's statement seems to suggest that they are required to report information about consumers to a credit bureau even though there is no law that requires them to do so and Citibank 's own customer agreement does not mandate credit reporting or prohibit or prevent Citibank from removing this account from my credit report. Citibank also refuses to explain how the Best Buy account was deleted from my credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act15 U.S.C 1681i and 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2 ( b ) does not prohibit Citibank from deleting or removing this account from my credit report because once again how was Citibank able to remove the Best Buy account from my credit report? 

Attached to this complaint is the letter from Citibank stating that my Costco Visa credit card account was not renewed because of the Best Buy Visa credit card account, the lawsuit complaint and billing statements from the Best Buy case ( notice how the interest and late fees stops after 180 which is about six months because the amount of the last billing statement dated XX/XX/XXXX and the lawsuit was not filled until XX/XX/XXXX is the exact same amount. So Citibank is going to go approximately ten months without charging interest? Citibank should have to explain where there were not interest and late charges after XX/XX/XXXX in addition there were not additional billing statements after XX/XX/XXXX. I have tried to explain this but Citibank refuses to listen and does not care ), a copy of the settlement agreement in the Best Buy case, and a copy of the letter from Citibank stating that the Best Buy account has been deleted from my credit report which Citibank claims it can not remove or delete from my credit report as discussed previously in this complaint which Citibank should have to explain.