Consumer complaint received 2024-08-30 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: OH

Complaint narrative:
Deceptive Practices- Statements/Online With Multiple Promotional Balances and Payment Allocation I feel that Citi bank is deceiving their credit card customers on introductory promotions by not providing and being forthright about current balances left on promotional offers and payment allocation on monthly statements and digital banking. I had 4 introductory promotions : 0 % Purchase Promo subject to interest beginning XX/XX/XXXX Balance {$2200.00} 0 % Balance Transfer subject to interest beginning XX/XX/XXXX Balance {$3200.00} 1.99 % for 24 months XXXX subject to interest beginning XX/XX/XXXX Balance {$1700.00} 1.99 % for 24 months XXXX subject to interest beginning XX/XX/XXXX Balance {$2000.00} There is no way to see what balances are subject to interest charges online unless you go to your statement. 
On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX  I called the customer service line because I was confused on why my {$5500.00} payment did not seem to pay off any of the balances on any of the promotions based on what I could tell from my XXXX statement to my XXXX Statement. Unfortunately, each of the 4 promotions appeared to still show balances on my statement including the 0 % offers expiring soon. I had thought at least some would be XXXX based on the fact that my payment was {$5500.00}. Most importantly the ones expiring soon. 
Evidently, as I would learn after an hour on the call, the Interest Charge Calculation box on the statement shows how each promotion is still subject to interest based on an Average Daily Balance Method and not the actual balances left to pay on your promotions. 
My payments were applied to the 1.99 % offers ( because they are the highest interest rate ) then to standard purchases, and then to any balance transfers. Payment allocation is nowhere on the statement or online. Maybe it was on the disclosure/agreement? But whatever the case, when you are making your monthly payment, it should be available and clear how your money is getting allocated both on the statement and online. This feels deceiving. 
This is not clear in the statement or online. A consumer thinks they are working towards paying off a promotional balance to avoid the higher interest before the expiration date ( because isnt that the intent ) then finds out that isnt the case when its too late and interest is getting charged. I had to call to find out the real balances left on each promotion and now have to come up with another large payment in even shorter timeframe. This is unfair to the consumers trying to manage their finances when things are tight and tough decisions need to be made to be able to pay for things and get out of the debt cycle. Had this been clearer, funds could have been allocated earlier and budgeted differently to prioritize paying off the correct promotional offers. Not providing clear and concise statement/online payment allocation information and on-going balance breakdown when offering multiple promotional offers causes customer confusion and could be considered unfair and deceptive practices leading to potential consumer harm. 
I dont feel that my rights as a consumer are being protected nor satisfied with Citibank as they did nothing to address my concern or offered a material solution and called it feedback. Not identifying a complaint properly is also problematic.

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