Consumer complaint received 2025-12-29 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: PA

Complaint narrative:
My wife and I have been Citibank credit card customers for several years. In about XXXX, Citibank unilaterally switched us to paperless billing. For XXXX months Citibank did not send us a paper statement -- while we didn't know that we had been switched to paperless billing. My wife and I both use XXXX, which automatically files commercial emails to a " Promotions '' tab, so they never land in our inboxes and we don't see them. 

Because we never received a statement, neither of us knew that the balance had not been paid. We were married in 2023, so it's possible for either of us to assume that the other had paid a bill. We both assumed that the Citibank bill had been paid. Citibank never called us to remind us that a payment was late. Citibank added more than {$1000.00} in late fees and interest to our balance. 

We finally realized this XXXX, when Citibank finally started calling. As a result, on XX/XX/XXXX we paid the entire balance XXXX the late fees and interest, which we thought were unfair given that Citibank did not send us statements. 

Nevertheless, Citibank continued to call and hassle my wife, almost daily, to claim that that we owed more money. And it continued to add late fees and interest on the remaining balance. 

I called Citibank to complain, but the operator insisted that he could do nothing. He said I must email the CEO and gave me an address. I wrote a formal letter to XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. I have a XXXX tracking number for the letter. I never received a response from Citibank. 

Citibank continued to call and harass us constantly. I called Citibank on XXXX XXXX, and talked to an operator for quite some time. He tried to get me to pay the late fees and interest -- and to keep my Citibank card. I refused, and demanded that he cancel my Citibank card. I have detailed notes of this call. 

Nevertheless, Citibank continued to harass us. On XXXX XXXX called Citibank and talked to another representative, employee # XXXX. I told her that neither XXXX XXXX XXXX nor any other Citibank employee had responded to our formal letter. I told the representative to stop calling us. She said she would put us on a do not call list. 

Citibank now was sending paper statements, claiming that we owed more than {$800.00}, despite that fact that we already had paid the amount of all our charges back in XXXX. The {$800.00} reflected only late fees and interest, which we continue to dispute. In fact, we overpaid somewhat -- more than our charges -- because I had an autopay from our bank that I forgot to turn off. 

Citibank continues to send statements and it adds {$41.00} per month late fees as well as interest. 

In addition, it has reported us to the credit rating agencies. Transunion has lowered our credit scores more than XXXX points -- my wife 's from XXXX to XXXX. We both have had stellar credit records in the past, and we always pay our bills on time, IF we receive them. 

It appears likely that Citibank has a deliberate policy of switching customers to paperless transmission of statements, and that this routinely leads to late payments by unsuspecting customers. 

I have personally spent many hours dealing with Citibank. This is a waste of my time, and in a better world I would be able to send Citibank an invoice. Instead, my wife and I have had our credit scores lowered as a result of Citibank 's predatory behavior. 

We still have not received a response to our formal letter to XXXX XXXX XXXX or any other Citibank official.

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 explanation