Consumer complaint received 2019-06-21
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Problem getting a working replacement card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CO)

I received a notice from Citibank two weeks before my credit card was due to expire ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) notifying me that the card would not be reissued due to a " charge off or bankruptcy '' on another card. I was surprised, because I do not have another credit card account, and I have never declared bankruptcy. Upon further review, it appears a charge off was submitted to the credit bureau by Citibank for another account that was opened without my permission as a result of Costco transferring accounts from XXXX XXXX. As I had auto-pay set up for my XXXX and other accounts and was traveling, I was not paying close attention to my mail at the time. Once I realized that this new account had been opened in my name without my permission, I called Citibank to notify them that I did not authorize opening this account, that I never activated the credit card they sent me, and that I wanted the account to be closed. The assured me the account would be closed and all charges would be reversed. This was in XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX according to my records ). The person I spoke to advised me that in order to have a delinquency associated with this falsely created account removed from my account, I would need to fax a letter to their Credit Bureau Disputes department, which I did. 

As I have discovered by reviewing my credit report, before the charge-off, Citibank listed a {$5.00} balance on my account. It appears they never reversed all the charges and likely continued to attempt to charge me interest on charges I never authorized on an account I never authorized to be opened. As far as I can tell, they never responded to my Credit Bureau Disputes letter and never removed the incorrect information from my credit report. 

Now, on my active credit card account that has been open for over 20 years without a single delinquency, they have told me they are unable to renew my card because of " information from the credit bureau ''. After 4+ hours on the phone and being told my information was being forwarded to a " specialist '' who would contact me within 24-48 hours ( that certainly never happened ), I had to spend another 15 minutes on the phone to receive a definitive statement that Citibank will not allow me to speak to anyone who has any authority to make a decision about my account. 

Because of the lateness of the notice and the inaccurate, negative information Citibank has added to my credit report, I am left with no time to find another source of credit, insufficient time to pursue a reversal of the information on my credit report, and a damaged credit rating that puts me in a poor position to seek alternate sources of credit, all as a result of Citibank 's negligent actions and refusal to correct their own mistakes. Citibank seems to have constructed walls of bureaucracy in order to prevent their customers from resolving issues that Citibank itself created, as every person I was able to speak with was unable to view the full history of my accounts.