Consumer complaint received 2020-08-10 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/XXXX My husband and I have been trying to solve a problem with Citibank. We have been unable to accomplish this task with hours of phone calls to Citibank, which included hours of time on hold and talking with multiple different representatives from Citibank. 

My husband and I are both XXXX, we have been longtime Citibank Card holders, last year we had three of their cards. Over the years, we have easily charged a couple hundred thousand dollars on our Citibank cards and we have always paid our bills on time and in full. 

Last year, was different! We had one of our cards hacked in the summer of XXXX. We had terrible trouble communicating the incorrect charges. Finally, all the incorrect charges were removed, but one charge was taken off that should not have been. We called right away to try and solve the issue. We had NO success. We decided to close the account, as we did not feel like the account was being managed competently. We paid the charge, in fact, we over paid the charge by one dollar and our closed card sat with a credit on it. We called weekly to try and get the reversed charge unreversed to no avail. 


The credit of {$96.00} sat until XXXX. We called in one last attempt to do the right thing and have a legitimate charge put back on the card. Finally, this was done on XX/XX/XXXX. And the {$95.00} charge was returned to the card. The next day on XX/XX/XXXX Citibank issued me a refund for the {$96.00} credit that had been on my account for months. 

The problem is I NEVER GOT THE REFUND of {$96.00}. We called over and over again to tell them that I did not get the refund. They said to just pay it and they would work it out later. That might have worked in ordinary circumstances, but this whole last year my wife has been battling XXXX XXXX XXXX- all the while she has been trying to set the accounting straight with Citibank XXXX XXXX is expensive and XXXX is when our deductible resets and so we are hit with mountains of bills. We felt it was important to pay our legitimate bills and not ones that were fabricated. My wife has called Citibank well over 100 times and many days, she can not get through and she has spent countless hours on hold. She has explained the situation over and over again and no one understands it- or is able to deal with it and make things right. She has had them refuse to escalate our case to the executive level. 

To make matters worse, Citibank has begun to ding my credit with delinquencies- something- I have never had before. In four months, my credit went from high 700s early 800s to XXXX. Normally this would not be a financial problem, but with rates at historic lows, we have the opportunity to refinance our home and save thousands of dollars. This would really help us in with medical expenses, but we can not get the rate because of what Citibank alone has done to our credit. We get flyers every day to refinance and once we call and they hear my credit, they can not give us the deal they have offered. That is reserved for people who have good credit. 

What we have done? We have been loyal Citibank customers who tried to do the right thing. We have called repeatedly to try and get Citibank to take ownership of their mistake and now we are getting our credit ruined and our financial future has become unnecessarily unstable, which has caused a lot of stress in a family that is already dealing with a medical stress. 

I have all the clear documentation on my end of the statements to prove my case. Citibank has nothing! 

My wife after a frustrating day unsuccessfully trying to deal with Citibanks error. She should not have to be doing this. Her focus should be on getting better and instead, she is forces into cycles of calls with no results. Frustrating to say the least.

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 monetary relief