Consumer complaint received 2025-05-01 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
I recently discovered that I was enrolled in Citi Banks Payment Safeguard Program. I contacted them on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and spoke with XXXX. I inquired how long I was enrolled in the program and was told that I had been enrolled since XXXX of XXXX. I asked how I would have been enrolled and she stated it was a free trial that I did not opt out of and was automatically enrolled at that time. She canceled the program and stated she would submit a request for refund of all charges. She also stated that I could fax a request myself to XXXX. She gave me the reference number of XXXX for the phone call. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I faxed a letter to the fax number that I was provided in the call and stated that I would like a refund of all the charges billed to me. I included in the letter that I had researched and found out that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had previously deemed this program violated the law and ordered monies be returned to customers. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter stating that I would not receive any refund since I had been covered by the program benefits through the end of the month of the billing cycle in which I canceled and that previous fees were non refundable. This letter stated that I was enrolled since XX/XX/XXXX ( which is XXXX months longer than I was initially told and makes the enrollment a total of XXXX years ). 
I called XXXX and spoke with XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX the same day, and inquired what the benefits I would have benefited from exactly. He stated it would have been for covering me in event of missed payments due to hospitalization, loss of employment, etc. I asked the representative to check to see if there was ever a claim filed to indicate that I had utilized the benefits. There is no claim on file to indicate that I benefited from this service at all. Reference number for that call was given to me as XXXX. 

I have been a card member for over XXXX years and have never missed a payment in that time and I have never filed a claim utilizing this service in which I was billed for. Since I have never filed a claim, it appears to me that I did not actually benefit from this service. And since there is no records of me signing up for this program and Citi tells me it was due to not opting out of a free trial, I find these to be fraudulent charges just as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stated previously. Since I have had no success in having Citi Bank refund any fees billed to me, I am now filing a complaint with the CFPB. Also would like to include that on the billing statements received by me, the fee is not included in the list of transactions made for that month. The several times that I utilized a text service to receive a list of transactions billed to me, the fee was also not included. The only way I found out that I was billed for this service was recently downloading the app for CitiBank and the charges were included in transaction history. By my estimation from the last 18 months and the charges I was billed, I would have been billed between approximately {$10000.00} dollars since the XX/XX/XXXX enrollment date that they provided. I am disputing these charges and believe I should be entitled to receiving a refund of most if not all of the money I was billed. I would appreciate any help that the CFPB could provide in resolving this issue.

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