Consumer complaint received 2023-03-27
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Unexpected increase in interest rate
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (VA)

Dear CFPB, Thank you in advance for any assistance you may provide in connection with a recent increase of XXXX XXXX in my interest rate on a credit card held by Citizens One Card Services. 

I have been a customer with Citizens One and its predecessor, Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS ), since XXXX, or for XXXX years. I am low- to moderate-income. A credit card I have held with Citizens One is now in collection, and is not active as a means to make purchases but is a debt that I am repaying each month on time. 

I received a paper statement in the mail in XX/XX/XXXX, on which I saw that a fixed interest rate of 9.74 % that I had enjoyed since XX/XX/XXXX was suddenly increased to 13.74 %, i.e., it XXXX by 41 % in one month. I called Citizens One on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX to ask why my fixed interest was suddenly increased after 13 years, and was put on hold and made to wait forty-five minutes, after which the company hung up, abruptly ending the call. I believe the service representative I spoke with on my first call was XXXX XXXX, who was cordial and who transferred my call, only to have it disconnected after a 45-minute wait. 

I called back the following day, when I spoke with XXXX XXXX with Customer Service. XXXX was cordial but not very knowledgeable. He claimed my account was under a variable rate and always had been. Since that was not the case, I asked to speak with someone more senior than him who might better understand my account, its history, and the sudden change in terms. 

XXXX transferred me to a Supervisor named XXXX. When I spoke with XXXX, he sounded a little more qualified but, like XXXX, did not have access to ( or a full understanding of ) the history of my account. For instance, XXXX did not know that I had been a customer with RBS before RBS sold its credit card division to Citizens One. Like XXXX, XXXX insisted that my account was under a variable interest rate and always had been. XXXX was able to tell me when Citizens One changed the terms on my account : XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. He said on that date Citizens One announced that it would be switching its interest calculations on my account from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to the US Prime Rate, which had undergone five ( 5 ) increases in XXXX and one so far in XXXX. 

Puzzled at the claims by both XXXX and XXXX that my credit card had always been under a variable rate, I told them that if my card had been under a variable rate, surely the interest rate, even if calculated under XXXX, would have changed between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, which it did not. I explained to XXXX that the reason I had a fixed rate was because I was offered a fixed rate by RBS in XXXX as an inducement for me to transfer balances to them, so they could earn my business. As always, I have punctually and faithfully repaid loans, and believe I was offered a fixed rate of interest in XXXX by RBS in recognition of my credit history and long standing with them at that time. 

In finishing our call, and with perhaps new information he was receiving from other colleagues at Citizens One through automated screens and scripts he was reading, XXXX stated that when Citizens One bought my account from RBS it retained the right to change the terms of the consumer credit loans it assumed from RBS at any time. I thanked XXXX for his help, but told him I was disturbed by the sudden change in my fixed interest rate and that I would like for Citizens One to return my interest rate immediately to the fixed 9.74 % it had been since XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX agreed to refer my concern and request to a Research Supervisor. 

I was called the following week by XXXX, who, like XXXX and XXXX, maintained that my previously fixed rate was now variable, and was being calculated based on the US Prime Rate of Interest, not XXXX, as was the case when I first agreed to borrow from RBS. I complained to XXXX of the poor treatment I was receiving as a loyal customer and of the company 's tactics of reneging on terms it originally agreed to, especially given that at no time had I ceased making payments and that under its current loan it was earning a solid 9.74 %. I complained that Citizens One seemed to place profits over people, even over its oldest and most loyal customers. I likened Citizens One to XXXX XXXX and to XXXX XXXX, two companies in the news in recent years over business practices that cheated or harmed their customers in the pursuit of higher profits. I called XXXX back the following day to request a copy of my original loan agreement from XXXX as well as a copy of a letter XXXX claimed Citizens One had mailed to me in summer XXXX announcing that they would be changing the terms of their loan with me. XXXX agreed to mail those documents to me, but I have never received them. 

This changing of my fixed interest rate of 9.74 % to a variable rate, currently at 13.74 %, without my consent seems illegal and unfair and should not be allowed to stand.