Consumer complaint received 2025-06-15 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Can't close your account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: DC

Complaint narrative:
My Citi XXXX XXXX credit card started getting fraudulent charges made on it the day after the night it was used at the parking garage of a hospital emergency room in early XX/XX/year>. The charges were subtle and I had XXXX  for the first time so I wasn't tracking things as closely. Five days later I noticed 11 charges all to XXXX that I didn't make. I immediately contacted XXXX and they said they could see that someone else was using my credit card and that I didn't order or receive that merchandise and they could see who was but were not allowed to reveal that information to me. They said this issue is between me and me credit card company. I called Citi to have that card cancelled and reissued and told them exactly what I wrote above about my conversation with XXXX. But somehow they sent the case to the wrong department ( identity theft maybe? ... hard to recall now ) as a supervisor later discovered after maybe 6 calls with them at this point and many many hours. The supervisor stated that when only one vendor is used by a fraudster, Citi 's fraud department should have been processing this claim and it sounded like it would be more straight forward now that it was switched over. But then I got an email saying that I needed to go into my account to a specific location and fill out the forms posted there. But the forms were not in the place they were supposed to be and nowhere else they could guide me to on yet another call to them. Citi said they can't see my account nor fix the issue preventing from the forms posting to it so they would need to email me the forms. But I got one email for each charge over the lower dollar amounts so maybe 8 separate emails. But the emails were all encrypted and were going to require me to set up a username and password and jump through hoops to access these forms. So still sick with XXXX, I called again and said how insane this process is and asked what info these forms are looking to have provided. A supervisor said questions like did I place the orders for these charges?, did I receive the merchandise?, etc. which I had stated verbally 100x at this point that I didn't and XXXX knows who did so I said the just needed contact XXXX. But then that supervisor said that in nearly every case she knew about like this, XXXX settled the charges and that I should try to settle it with them so that XXXX doesn't cancel my account if Citi processes the claims ( as she said she has seen routinely happen ) and also so that my credit score won't go down. So that supervisor made two threats to push me back to XXXX that turned out to be false. When XXXX repeated that this is a credit card company issue, I was unable to get back to that supervisor and was at the end of my rope. I was too exhausted having made easily over 20 calls and untold hours over this issue that amounted to a little more than {$400.00}. I called Citi one last time to have them completely cancel the reissued card and my account because I wanted nothing to do with them anymore and I would accept losing being reimbursed for the majority of the {$400.00} just to be done with this mess of a company. And I switched to the # 1 in customer service XXXX XXXX and they are amazing! I also cancelled my XXXX account but was due a credit they were supposed to send by check. But I recently suddenly received a statement from Citi for this closed account and the XXXX credit was posted there. So I called Citi to find out how a merchant could post a credit to a closed account and the XXXX customer service agent said only a senior supervisor two levels over her could fully close the account and I needed to call back on a weekday. I reached a senior supervisor who said, 1 ) Citi has the right to leave the account open to receive credits against my wishes, 2 ) Citi is only obligated to pay the consumer any credited balance after 90 days unless the consumer calls to request a check sooner, 3 ) he could not tell me how long this closed account would remain open for the posting of credits that Citi can use for free for 90 days without providing interest, 4 ) he could not provide legal language proving that they have these rights nor provide me with contact info for Citi 's legal department/he said I could hire a lawyer who will find the language and provide it to me. CFPB, is this really a right that only credit card companies appear to have to leave closed accounts open for credits for undetermined amounts of time to their benefit and in my case, my expense? This is fraud in itself!

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