Consumer complaint received 2025-09-25 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I am reaching out regarding a billing dispute with Citicards ( Citi AAdvantage credit card ) now going on for over a year. The disputed amount is {$6300.00} plus over {$650.00} in interest that I have paid during this dispute. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my family and I had dinner at a restaurant in XXXX XXXX. We paid the bill with our Citi AAdvantage XXXX, adding a tip after signing the receipt. 

When our credit card bill arrived we saw XXXX charges from the vendor, XXXX for the meal charged as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and converted on the bill to a charge of {$140.00} and another for the tip which was listed only in dollars as an absurd {$6300.00}. In XXXX XXXX XXXX, which is the currency our dinner bill had arrived in, this would have been a very logical {$12.00} USD tip. 

As a Citi cardholder, I would have expected that a tip amount or any charge so much higher than XXXX  % of the actual cost of the meal would have immediately triggered a fraud alert by Citi but it did not. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke to a Citi customer service representative to dispute the charge. I then received a letter requesting additional information from Citi and I promptly responded and also sent an email to the XXXX XXXX vendor on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I continued to respond to and proactively reach out to Citi throughout this process and have kept all documentation. I have complied with all requests that Citi. 

After receiving very little information from Citi about my dispute, I was finally able to reach the vendor on XX/XX/XXXX and I provided an email from the vendor to Citi on XX/XX/XXXX. Citi did not respond until XX/XX/XXXX and their response was that they were closing the investigation and holding me liable. On XX/XX/XXXX I was finally able to get the case reopened. I was then told that I needed a letter on letterhead from the vendor that included my name and the last XXXX digits of my credit card number and confirmation that a credit is due for the incorrect charge. I worked with the merchant and sent this to Citi on XX/XX/XXXX. It then took another month before they came back saying that the letter was insufficient and needed a date. I went back to the vendor and furnished the dated letter to Citi on XX/XX/XXXX. 

From the start of the dispute in XXXX until XXXX, over XXXX  months, Citi never made any attempts to contact the vendor. 

I then received a message from Citi on XX/XX/XXXX rejecting my dispute and including a copy of a merchants letter signed by someone named XXXX XXXX stating that our evidence is invalid. This letter by XXXX XXXX did not include any letterhead, date nor signature. It did not include the dispute amount or any other information that Citi 's own Billing Dispute Representative had told me was required for validation by the vendor. When I contacted the vendor that I had been in touch with, they said they did not send a letter of this sort nor had they been contacted by Citi. 

At that point, I wrote a letter along with XXXX pages in records from correspondence with Citi and I sent it certified mail to Citibank 's headquarters expressing my distress at the lack of meaningful resolution and lack of customer service support or credit protection. 

I received a message from Citi in XX/XX/XXXX stating that the case was moved to their Executive Response Team. I received a call from a staff person from Citi ( and then a letter attached ) who told me that the case was closed and that there was no further avenue they would take to resolve the matter. They claimed that the vendor was unwilling to reimburse the funds because XXXX  days had passed. As you'll see from my correspondence with Citi, they never once provided us with a timeframe or indicated that the original matter needed to be resolved within XXXX  days in order for us to see resolution in our favor. 

Despite my timely reporting of the disputed charge, my cooperation throughout the matter, and my good faith efforts to contact the vendor and providing documentation, Citi never provided me with clear instructions about what would have helped resolve this matter more speedily, they never explained to me why the vendor I contacted and the vendor they claim they contacted provided different answers regarding the incorrect charge. I do not believe that Citi abided by the Fair Credit Billing Act in how they have handled this dispute.

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