Consumer complaint received 2025-03-14 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: SC

Complaint narrative:
I have a Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX card. My payment each month is due on the XXXX of the month, and I am enrolled in auto-pay to pay the full balance on the card. My remaining statement balance due XX/XX/year> was {$XXXX}. XX/XX/year> was a Sunday. I reviewed the amount due over the prior Friday, XX/XX/year>, realized that the account that the auto-pay was set to draft from only had {$XXXX} in it, and so I made a {$XXXX} payment out of a different bank account, and that payment posted on Saturday, XX/XX/year>. I thought that my auto-draft would be adjusted to reflect this, and that the remaining {$XXXX} would draft from my primary bank account with no problem. 

Apparently, I made this payment too close to the due date, and so Citi attempted to draft the full {$XXXX} out of my primary bank account, which as I stated earlier, did not have the full funds to cover that amount. When I realized what had happened, on Monday, XX/XX/year>, I immediately called Citi requesting to cancel this auto-draft so that I could make a replacement payment for the remaining statement balance. They told me that this was not possible, that Citi would attempt to draft the full {$XXXX} XXXX more times, after which the payment would be returned and I could make a replacement payment. 

I waited, checking daily, until the payment was returned on Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, and then immediately made a payment of {$XXXX}. From my perspective, the {$XXXX} paid on Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, plus the {$XXXX} paid on Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX more than covered the full prior statement balance, and the {$XXXX} paid on XX/XX/year> FAR exceeded my minimum payment, so I should have no issues other than potential interest on the unpaid {$XXXX}. 

Starting that Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, both my wife and I noticed that we were unable to use our credit card. When I checked my account, I noticed that although my remaining balance was {$XXXX}, and my credit line is {$XXXX}, my available credit was {$XXXX}. I called Citi again, and after being escalated twice through customer service, was told that I would have XXXX available balance until the payment posted. They said that this would likely happen on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. 

I checked my account on XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and my account still showed XXXX available credit. This had been an enormous hassle the prior week, as we had many payments, some significant, tied to this credit card that were all rejected ( unless we moved to another account prior to their drafting ). I called Citi again, was again escalated through multiple levels of customer service, and finally reached someone who said that we could resolve this issue by speaking with my bank and confirming that the payment posted. I agreed to this and waited while they connected my bank, XXXX XXXX, on the phone. 

When XXXX XXXX joined the call, I asked them to confirm for Citi that my payment of {$XXXX} had posted. The Citi representative, who had all of the above background information, then stepped in and said no, Citi needs to confirm that the {$XXXX} payment had posted. I reminded them that I had made XXXX separate payments of {$XXXX} from XXXX bank and {$XXXX} from my primary bank, not the {$XXXX} auto-draft. The Citi representative said that until I make ANOTHER payment of {$XXXX}, I will be unable to use this credit card account. 

We let XXXX XXXX go, and I was escalated up XXXX further level, which I was told is the highest level you can be escalated to as a customer over the firm. This person also confirmed to me that, although I had made a total of {$XXXX} in payments on a statement balance of {$XXXX}, because the {$XXXX} payment was returned, I had to successfully complete that payment before I would have any available credit on this account. I reminded the Citi representative that if I were to do that, not only would I be paying {$XXXX} on a balance of {$XXXX}, but my balance with Citi would actually be negative. They confirmed that this is what has to happen and said that they would issue a refund for the resulting negative balance. 

I attempted to do the right thing in every step of this situation. When I realized that there weren't funds in my account to cover the entire statement balance, I made a payment from another account. When I realized that the auto-pay wasn't adjusted for this payment, I called and asked to cancel and replace the payment. When the payment was finally returned, I immediately paid {$XXXX} to make up for the unpaid remaining statement balance. I have spent hours on the phone with Citi over multiple calls and at all levels that I am able to reach over the phone. No one has presented me a reasonable solution to this matter, which has resulted in me filing this complaint.

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