Consumer complaint received 2026-05-18 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
I am filing a second complaint against Citibank regarding a personal loan application that was formally approved and, after XXXX days of not being able to accept it due to an internal system failure, they let it expire. Now, I reapplied using exactly the same information that resulted in the previous approval, and Citi has denied my application. For context : Citibank approved my loan application and confirmed that, in their system, the loan was pending acceptance, and the credit line showed as available ( XXXX ). However, when I attempted to log in and accept the loan terms, their platform consistently fails and does not allow me to proceed, asking me to call them. This issue is entirely on Citibanks side and prevents me from accessing an already approved financial product. Over the past 22 days, I have contacted Citibank XXXX times through their customer service channels and personal bankers. Despite these repeated efforts : No representative has been able to resolve the issue. I have not received any meaningful update or estimated timeline. The only response I consistently receive is that I must wait for the Tech Department to fix the issue, '' since " it is clearly a Technical Issue on our side. '' They got extremely rude asking me to stop calling and wait XXXX hours for a representative to call me ( which has not happened ). This response is not acceptable. Citibank has failed to provide a functional mechanism to accept the loan, yet continued to treat the application as time-sensitive and finally it let it expire. Compounding the issue, Citibank conducted a hard inquiry on my credit report as part of the application process. I was informed that if I do not accept the loan within 21 days, they will require a new application and an additional hard credit inquiry. This of course has negatively impact my credit scoredespite the fact that I was absolutely unable to accept the loan, and no Citibank employee could fix the issue, solely due to Citibanks internal system malfunction. This situation creates an unfair and unreasonable outcome : 1. I had an approved loan that I can not access. 2. I faced credit harm due to circumstances entirely outside my control. 3. Citibank did not provid a workaround, escalation path, or resolution timeline. 4. Citibank let the approval expired. 5. Now Citibank has conducted a new credit inquiry and has rejected my new loan application, which had exactly the same information as the application that was previously approved. This matter reflects a breakdown in Citibanks digital onboarding process and a complete failure to protect consumers from avoidable credit harm. After XXXX weeks and a first complaint filed, Citibank replied on XX/XX/year>. Frankly, Citis response was deeply unsatisfactory and fails to address the actual substance of my complaint. Rather than engaging with the factual background I provided, Citi issued a generic and conclusory response that ignores the operational reality I have been dealing with for nearly four weeks. At no point did I claim that my loan application was denied. The issue is precisely the opposite : Citi approved the loan, but I had repeatedly been unable to complete the acceptance process because Citis own system fails during the electronic bank account verification stage. This has occurred consistently and repeatedly despite numerous attempts over approximately 24 days. Several Citi employees have also tried to complete the loan application on the phone and in person in a New York branch, and the same error appeared. Most concerning, Citi now states in its CFPB response that it confirmed that there were no system errors or issues on Citibanks end. That assertion is directly contradicted by the facts and what multiple Citi representatives and supervisors told me during numerous phone calls. Throughout this process, Citi agents repeatedly acknowledged that the issue appeared to be technical in nature, that the application was stuck in the system, and that they were escalating the matter to technical support because they themselves could not resolve it. If, as Citi now claims, there was never any system issue, then I request that Citi explain : ( 1 ) why multiple representatives stated that the matter had to be escalated to technical support ; ( 2 ) why no representative was ever able to complete the electronic acceptance process despite repeated attempts ; ( 3 ) why I was repeatedly instructed to wait for the tech team ; ( 4 ) why the issue was unresolved after more than three weeks later ; and ( 5 ) why Citibank has now denied my new loan application under the exact same information they approved XXXX XXXX weeks ago. Citis response also entirely disregards the central concern raised in my complaint : that I was exposed to the risk of expiration of an approved loan offer, and now to a second hard credit inquiry, because Citis process was not functioning properly in practice regardless of whether Citi now labels it a system error. Moreover, Citis proposed solution namely, requiring me after weeks of failed attempts to abandon the electronic process and instead complete a paper-check workaround only further demonstrates that Citi was unable to make the approved electronic acceptance process function properly. The CFPB should note that Citis response does not meaningfully address the repeated failed attempts, the contradictory information provided by Citi representatives, the lack of any effective escalation path, the substantial amount of time spent attempting to resolve an issue that Citi now broadly dismisses without explanation ; and the recent denial of the new application under the same circumstances I had been approved XXXX weeks ago. At this stage, Citis response appeared clearly designed to formally close the complaint without genuinely addressing the operational failure that gave rise to it. Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

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 non-monetary relief