Consumer complaint received 2015-12-11
Product: Credit card — 
Issue: Closing/Cancelling account — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (VA)

We have a Shell gasoline credit card, primarily as an emergency, as we also have a XXXX and XXXX ones as well. In XXXX while out of town we used the card once, making a purchase of lest than {$20.00}. Earlier in the calendar year Shell had sent us new cards with a new account number replacing the old XXXX. I did n't realize that with this new account number I would also be locked out of my online account, as apparently my passwords were also changed by the company, NOT ME. I tried at the end of XXXX 2015 to pay the account and could not access it online. To be honest as I work long hours I did n't make another attempt assuming I would be billed. I never received a bill or overdue statement through the US Mail. The company started calling my house recently and apparently were calling on the landline I use for business as I work from home, but this is my personal account so I do n't recall giving them this number. I recently found out that they were reporting this to the credit bureaus as a seriously overdue account with late fees accessed. Today, XXXX XXXX, 2015, I called and in a rather lengthy process paid off the account which had ballooned from a less than {$20.00} fuel purchase of to more than {$80.00}. The representative at Shell would only remove XXXX late fee when I explained to him that since receiving the new card ( which I never requested ) that I was neither able to access my online account to pay NOR had they sent me any form of bill so I did n't know what the amount due was. Moreover when I paid the bill, in excess of {$65.00}, I requested to close the account and I wanted a written confirmation sent to my home address showing that the bill was paid in full and the account closed. The representative told me he COULD NOT send me written confirmation to my home address, he could only give me a confirmation # over the phone ( XXXX ). He then was supposed to transfer me to another department to close my account but after putting me on hold I was somehow disconnected and I had to call back and go through another lengthy hold process and speak with XXXX more CSRs in order to close my account. As I previously stated I work from home and I literally had to move a meeting in order to remain on the phone with this company to get this resolved. This bill was also reported to the credit agencies even though I WAS NEVER NOTIFIED AT MY HOME ADDRESS OF THE ACCOUNT BEING DELIQUENT. I can not emphasize this point enough as I bought a new car in XXXX of this year and at that time my credit rating was very strong. I do n't believe I should have been accessed ANY late fees and quite frankly I wonder if this company deliberately did this to make some money off me as I do n't use their card pretty much at all. I would like to be refunded the late fees as they basically more than tripled the initial charge and I am in the habit of paying all of my bills on time and this would n't have happened if XXXX ) they had not replaced my card with another XXXX with a new account number ( it was NOT replacing a lost or stolen card ) without informing me that the change would impact my online accessibility and XXXX ) they never sent me ANY form of communication to my home address even though obviously they HAVE my home address which is how they sent me the card to begin with. I am especially disturbed also at their refusal to send me any written confirmation about the bill being paid and the account being closed. I thought they were required to provide me with this. I work on computers all day and pay my bills mostly online as well, but I still keep hard copies of some types of information and would have appreciated having this in writing for my records. I would still like something in writing stating that the account was closed and paid in full.