Consumer complaint received 2019-02-22
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CA)

Citibank told us yesterday that they will not reverse the late fee ( we were not even aware we were late or owed anything ) we just learned of two days ago on about XX/XX/XXXX, even after we explained we are victims of the biggest national disaster fire in the history of California, called the " Camp Fire ''. Our entire town burned down, our home caught fire, both of our vehicles ( car and motorcycle ) were completely burned up, our street still looks like a war zone with many homes burned completely down. This is unfair because we were blocked from even entering our town for weeks after the fire and there are still signs put up by FEMA and other authorities stating it is extremely dangerous to enter our town or try to go home. This is wrong of Citibank to do especially since they received about {$460.00} billion, almost 1/2 trillion dollars in government bailouts through  TARP after the banking collapse in XXXX and later. Our banks were all closed for a long time, one never re-opened except for a temporary trailer with two people in it making it hard to do anything financially related. The late  fee is about {$35.00} that is unfair, but worse is they have or will report us to the credit bureaus. We have worked very hard to keep our bills paid and current even after this deadly disaster that killed friends and neighbors. Our son barely escaped with his life rescued by a fire truck as he walked out through the inferno, my wife and I are still in some kind of shock, a FEMA tent and mobile office is still there in what little is left of our town at the church parking lot where we volunteer serving food and giving out clothes and water to thousands of victims that keep coming for help trying to recover as we are still doing. Citibank should be fined heavily for refusing to accommodate us and should reverse the late fee, they should not report us to the credit bureaus or anywhere and should ask the credit bureaus to clear any negative report they may have submitted, due to the mitigating exigent circumstances. We have high credit scores, or at least we did, before this massive national disaster fire took place and burned down our town and closed our banks. We have been on the road constantly since the fire and still are on the road. Please contact Citibank on our behalf and ask them to use the same standards in helping us now, and other customers of theirs, that they got when they went to the American taxpayers including us when they received {$460.00} billion in bailout funds that they were not even required or even asked to say how they used it. About two days ago, on about XX/XX/XXXX, immediately after learning we were late, we paid off the entire balance of our Citibank credit card account that was about {$400.00}. My wife handled that call with Citibank and they treated her horribly, demanding the late fee, refused to listen to our fair reasoning and details my wife explained she gave them about us being victims of the national disaster fire destruction. We are still so off balance from the massive death and destruction of the fires just as we were when it first happened and as the fires kept burning for several days. We did not even know charges were being applied to our Citibank credit card account but some automatic payments to various services such as XXXX and one or two or more others were going through that we had intended to cancel but got so distracted and displaced by the fires. We have been through so much on this, many people have, please help us and our neighbors that survived the fires and are still struggling in hopes of recovering, please hold Citibank to high standards because they received so much help from the American people and our government and use of our hard-earned tax dollars. Please contact Citibank on our behalf about this unfair late fee and any related credit reporting they did or plan to do against us.