Consumer complaint received 2025-11-03 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I am approved for the Citi Strata Elite card. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my card is locked and Citi says I need to submit the 4506-C form for verification. This is beyond frustrating because I opened this card to use as a travel card and it was locked while I was traveling. 

I submit the 4506-C form 3 times to Citi because they provide NO instructions on how to fill out the form. For my 2nd submission the customer service agent told me how I should fill out the form differently and I asked them to please check to make sure if everything else was filled in correctly, and they confirm everything is correct. So I send in the 2nd form, and it was STILL wrong. I wasted so much money, time, and energy submitting this form 3 times to Citi. I saw online that some people had their accounts shut down immediately after submitting the form incorrectly twice and I wonder if that's what happened to me, but Citi 's only response to me is that they may close my account for no reason. I had the card for 1 month, used ZERO of the benefits on the card, and the Citi Executive Response team says that I am not eligible for the annual fee refund and the XXXX ThankYou points. I spent money sending this form in multiple times and countless hours on the phone with Citi to get the form issue resolved and literally walk away with nothing while they still take my annual fee and all the ThankYou points I earned. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I call customer service and Citi confirms that my form is filled out correctly and they submit the form. After 3 weeks around XX/XX/XXXX, my account is finally unlocked and I use my card for a week. At this point, this has been an incredibly frustrating experience but I decide to let it go and not complain because Citi had sent out a response that because of the temporary block on my account they would refund my Annual Membership Fee of {$590.00} AND award me my XXXX ThankYou Points. 

But instead of doing any of this, I notice on XX/XX/XXXX, Citi closes my account instead. This makes it seem like Citi closed my account to get out of giving me my points and my annual membership fee. Additionally, they provide 0 explanation for why they closed my account so its extra suspicious.

I reach out to the Citi Executive Response team, and they just say Citi may close my account for any reason, or no reason as allowed by the law. They will not refund my annual fee or ThankYou points. This is so unfair because I did not use any of the benefits on the card, and they put me through this hassle of sending in the form THREE times. I wasted countless hours and money on this and get XXXX explanation. 

According to California Code, Civil Code - CIV 1747.85 : Unless requested by the cardholder, no card issuer shall cancel a credit card without having first given the cardholder 30 days ' written notice of its intention to do so unless the cardholder is or has been within the last 90 days in default of payment or otherwise in violation of any provision of the agreement between the card issuer and the cardholder governing the cardholder 's use of the credit card or unless the card issuer has evidence or reasonable belief that the cardholder is unable or unwilling to repay obligations incurred under the agreement or that an unauthorized use of the card may be made.

I did not get 30 days ' written notice before the credit card was closed and I was paying my whole statement balance off on time so there was no evidence that I was unable or unwilling to pay my obligations. I also did not violate any kind of agreements, I used the credit card normally.

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