Consumer complaint received 2026-04-11 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Application denied
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
I am writing to complain about Citis handling of my application for the Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX, which was erroneously declined despite my full cooperation with their verification process. This mishandling has cost me a valuable, time-sensitive balance transfer offer and risks unnecessary damage to my credit through additional inquiries if I am forced to reapply elsewhere. Sometime around early XXXX, I applied for the Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX ( Application ID XXXX, Reference Number XXXX ). I have a good XXXX XXXX and already maintain another active credit card account with Citi, so my personal and address information should already be on file with the bank. Prior to any denial, I spoke with a Citi representative on the phone. She explicitly told me that they simply needed to receive the Action Required letter ( dated XX/XX/year> ) so they could verify my address. During my call, I stated that the letter had not been received in the mail. I specifically offered to send my drivers license, passport, or a utility bill to verify my address in another, faster way. The representative refused and would not accept any of those documents. I find it absurd that Citi requires verification of my address by mailing me a physical letter when I have applied for dozens of credit cards in the past and have never been required to do this before. It is even more ridiculous that I must go through this process when I already have another active credit card account with the exact same bankCiti already has and uses my address on file for that existing account. She refused to be reasonable. She said the only thing she could do was to resend the letter. Frustrated that I would need to wait even longer to get a new letter ( and that other official government forms of ID would not be accepted ), I instructed her to resend the letter, as she offered. A few days later, I received that letter, which stated that Citi needed to verify the accuracy of my credit information and directed me to call XXXX or check my application status online using the Application ID and Reference Number. I called promptly as instructed. However, I could not get through because the hotline informed me that my application had been denied. The automated application hotline now immediately states that the application is declined and ends the call with no option to speak to a representative. Regular customer service representatives can only advise me to apply for a new card ( which would create additional hard inquiries on my credit report in a short period of time ) or transfer me back to the same dead-end application hotline. Despite following their instructions exactly and offering multiple reasonable forms of verification, I then received the attached XX/XX/year> denial letter stating they were unable to approve my application because they couldnt verify some of the information on your application ( specifically my address ). This erroneous denial and complete runaround have prevented me from using the time-sensitive balance transfer offer that was tied to this specific application. Forcing me to submit a brand-new application would likely result in automatic denials elsewhere due to multiple inquiries. I request that Citi immediately reconsider and approve XXXX ID XXXX. Attached : XX/XX/year> XXXX Required letter XX/XX/year> denial letter Driver License ( for address verification )

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