Consumer complaint received 2019-06-21
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — You never received your bill or did not know a payment was due
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.

Complaint:
In XXXX of XXXX I made a purchase at Home Depot with my Home Depot credit card in the amount of {$53.00}. Somehow I forgot about this, and never received any emails or letters about this unpaid bill, until XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Home Depot stating that I owed {$160.00} to be paid immediately or it would be sent to a collection agency. I quickly contacted Home Depot and they told me that I now owe over {$200.00}. I explained to them how I never received any emails and he looked up my account and told me that they had my wrong email address, he said it was my fault, he was very rude to me and told me that I could pay {$160.00} today, but if I do not pay right at that moment then the amount would go back up to over {$200.00}. I became upset due to being treated so rude by the employee that I ended the call with this employee. I called again the next day and spoke to someone else who told me they would take {$160.00} and we could be done with this. Again the employee saw that they had the wrong email address, she apologized, but stated she could not do anything about this. I paid the late fee with the understanding that this would help my credit, but then found out on my own research that Home Depot reported 3 late fees and a closed account on my credit report. I again called Home Depot and asked them to please take this off my credit report as I had not received any emails in regards to this bill and how I paid more than the amount I should have due to fees that were accrued. The person told me that she can not take anything off the credit report once it is reported, but that since I was such a good customer they would re-open an account for me. I declined this and contacted XXXX which made Home Depot tell me that they " did an investigation and concluded that it was the fault of the consumer, not the banks '', because I am " responsible for ensuring contact information is correct and updated ''. Due to a {$53.00} purchase, which I ended up paying {$160.00} due to a minor error and zero reminders from the bank, Home Depot has made my credit look, as if, I do not pay my bills. I wasn't even informed that they put anything negative on my credit. I discovered the negative information when a potential lender ran my credit for a potential loan purchase. I also discovered that my credit report didn't show the small amount of the purchase or that I paid the full amount including all the late fees. These actions by Home Depot and Citi Bank are not right and mischaracterize excellent citizens in order to relish the opportunity to damage an individual 's credit. 
I paid as soon as they sent me notification, this was the first time in 11 years as their customer to miss a payment, but they are treating me as if this was regular behavior and like I did not resolve the issue immediately. They do not care about their customers and they illegally do not inform their customers when they decide to report negative information on the customer 's credit report.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation