Consumer complaint received 2026-04-27 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Credit card company forcing arbitration
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
XXXX XXXX I was issued a credit card ( XXXX ) with Citibank. My statement payments for the cc were ( always ) made via XXXX from my Bank Account, w/ the XXXX amt. set to Min. Amt. Due. it's also important to note that I was enrolled in Paperless Statements, so all activity & verifications of account payments, etc. were done online. In XX/XX/XXXX, my Min. Due amt. was paid via XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and then on XX/XX/XXXX I made an additional payment via a Balance Transfer to pay off the card 's full balance. -and this is where/when 1st proofs of wrongdoing by Citibank are seen , b/c although my XXXX amt. remained set to Min. Due, ( verifiable on my online account ), the amt. on my XXXX XXXX/Paper Statement for my next XXXX payment ( XX/XX/XXXX ) changes to match the XXXX statement 's full balance amt. Because the change is w/o my auth., is not reflected on my online account, is only made on the XXXX/paper version of my XXXX card statement -when I'm enrolled in paperless statements, and is only shown on that pdf statement just by changing the dollar amt. in a one sentence XXXX reminder on the statement, nowhere else, AND the amt. is very little, just for new purchases in that statement period since I'd paid the card 's balance off in full, I do not catch it. Which I believe is exactly as Citibank intended. They know I won't catch the unauthorized change to my XXXX amt. from Min. Due to Statement Bal. when my amt. due is {$0.00} or near to it, and the change is reflected nowhere except on the pdf/paper version of my statement in a small print autopay reminder sentence. I indeed do not catch the unauthorized change to my XXXX amt., and unknowingly pay XXXX Statement 's full amt. in XXXX, and XXXX Statement 's full amt. in XXXX. In my XX/XX/XXXX statement period, ( on a {$0.00} previous balance ), I again start making significant purchases, and have a XXXX statement balance due in XXXX. With my XXXX reset by Citibank w/o my auth . to Full Bal. Due, that XXXX amt. should've been automatically deducted from my bank acct. on XX/XX/XXXX, as my XXXX ( XXXX/paper ) statement stated it would, but it does not. Nor does the Min. Amt. Due of {$340.00} as my online account settings dictate. Instead, an XXXX payment in the amt. of only {$100.00} is deducted from my bank account, and because the {$100.00} amt. is so small, I again do not notice. If my account 's XXXX settings were set to pay my statements Min. Amt. Due., yet for the last 3 months Citibank 's been instead deducting my statements full bal. amt. via XXXX, how & why does a {$100.00} amt. get paid via AutoPay instead on a statement period where both the Min. and Full Bal. amts. due were more than? Only Citibank can tell us how, but the why is clear. For Citibank to make money, my credit account must carry a balance. So, in XXXX, when I pay my card off in full, and my acct. is no longer carrying a balance, XXXX rigged XXXX system, w/o my knowledge or auth., resets my XXXX from Min. Amt. Due to Full Bal., knowing I wont catch the change while my acct. has a $ XXXX-small bal. being paid in full, and waits for me to start using my credit line in a significant way again, and my account balance to once more become meaningful. In XXXX, I do just that, and my account is once again carrying a XXXX balance due in XXXX. So, on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX statements payment date, XXXX XXXX system again, w/o my knowledge or auth., bypasses both my accounts Min. Due XXXX setting AND the Full Statement Bal. amt. theyve actually been deducting while my account balance has been insignificant/dormant, and purposefully deducts only a {$100.00} amt. instead as payment, -an amt. smaller than even my min. amt. due. XXXX XXXX system does this, and does it then b/c my acct. once again has a meaningful balance that Citibank can make money from. So, my again sizable acct. bal. triggers XXXX rigged XXXX system into pivoting from paying my accounts full bal. to deducting a {$100.00} payment instead for 3 reasons : 1. If the ( now sizable again ) acct. bal. Is paid off in full, Citibank would continue to make {$0.00} off me/my acct. 2. Citibank now needs the acct. to maintain its sizable balance over a statement period for interest & fees to apply & accrue. I would have noticed if the accts. high XXXX full balance had been drafted, and notified Citibank to correct the error immediately. A small, {$100.00} payment works to avoid my detection. 3. Because that {$100.00} amt. is below the {$340.00} minimum requirement, Citibank can additionally charge a {$41.00} late fee, and my APR increases to a Penalty APR of 29.99 %. Come XXXX, I'm now unknowingly carrying a large balance plus interest, fees, and penalties on that balance, so XXXX XXXX system, again w/o my knowledge or auth., resets back to debiting my full statement amt., and debits {$9600.00} from my bank acct. on XX/XX/XXXX. The near $ XXXX unauthorized debit empties & overdraws my bank account. ( For the record, my accts. XXXX is set, and has always been set, to Min. Amt. Due. I have dated screenshots of my account settings, XXXX emails, and Citibank stating same on several recorded calls starting on XX/XX/XXXX as proof. ) XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, I get a text from my bank notifying me of the withdrawal, and that my bank account is over-drafted thousands of dollars, so I call Citibank. The Citibank rep I speak with can not provide information as to how debit of the erroneous XXXX amt. happened, but concedes to the mistake, and ensures the error will not happen again. The rep confirms my XXXX is indeed set to Min. Due., and the unauthorized debit amt. will be returned to my bank acct. in full, in 3-5 biz days. Additionally, since they took every XXXX I had with this fraudulent & unauthorized debit, my statement payment, due then, would be pushed to next months statement due date, and any late pay fees or addtl. interest would not be applied to my account. I then call my bank and relay the same. My bank says they will waive the monthly fee for not keeping a minimum balance amt., and the daily overdraft fees until the money is returned, but they will not pay/cover any other incoming debits that may process against the account, nor the NSF fees for same while awaiting Citibank to return the fraudulent withdrawal back to the account. On XX/XX/XXXX Citibank returns the {$9600.00} unauthorized debit to my bank account. On XX/XX/XXXX Citibank AGAIN debits the same {$9600.00} amt. from my bank acct. via XXXX and again overdrafts my bank account. I do the whole song & dance again, and call Citibank & then my bank. This time Citibank tells me theyll reverse the debit immediately, so I should only have to wait 1-2 business days for the funds to again be returned to my account. They again tell me I will incur no fees for non-payment since I again have no money left to pay them or anyone with, and while on the phone with the Citibank rep instructing me, I cancel/turnOFF AutoPay, so Citibanks system can not continue to debit my statements full bal. or any amt. from my bank account. The Citibank rep. assures me XXXX is turned off on their end, and I receive an email from Citibank on XX/XX/XXXX confirming the cancellation of XXXX for my account. My bank tells me they will flag any incoming drafts from Citi bank XXXX on my account as fraud. This is what they can do if I dont yet want to put a Stop Payment on my account for any incoming Citibank drafts. On XX/XX/XXXX Citibank returns the {$9600.00} unauthorized debit to my bank account. On XX/XX/XXXX I get a text from my bank saying a {$9600.00} amt. to Citibank XXXX wasnt paid b/c my acct. bal. was too low. So, Citibank AGAIN attempted to debit the {$9600.00} amt. from my bank acct. via XXXX immediately after returning the same to the account. I again call Citibank. They say since the funds were not released, theres nothing they can do on there end, and again assure me XXXX is cancelled on my account. On XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX, I get a text from my bank notifying me that @ XXXX a Citi AutoPay transfer in the amt. of {$9600.00} was made, and my account bal was - {$8100.00} overdrawn. FOUR TIMES now. My AutoPay is OFF. This time when I call, Citibank is not only NOT apologetic about their now 4xs in a row illegal draft of funds from my bank account, theyre aggressive and on the offense. They do not offer to return the money they stole from me. Instead, they tell me that I will need to speak to their fraud dept. and request an investigation into the funds I claim are missing from my bank account. Citibanks fraud department tells me theyre opening an investigation into the matter, and I need to wait 1-2 weeks for an answer. IF they find the funds were indeed taken from my account by Citibank, they will return the full amt. then. I am livid. I log into my Citibank account and do a deep dive investigation on what & how this is happening. I find my XXXX settings are indeed OFF/cancelled, but under my Accounts, tab I see my bank account is still attached as an Active/Primary account. That is how Citibank is still accessing my bank account. They are doing so with my XXXX settings OFF, and without authorization, but thats how theyre doing it. They repeatedly told me there was no way for their system to access my account with XXXX off, but they were lying. I REMOVED my bank account, and I again checked that AutoPay was off. I never used my Citi XXXX again but had to keep the card account open so they could pay me back, and b/c I now had debt on it. I called my bank and paid a {$30.00} XXXX XXXX fee to stop any future payments to Citibank. It took Citibank until mid XXXX to return my stolen money to me. By then, the damage had been done. For a month plus, my bank account was over-drafted. I bounced everything. Without a dollar to my name, I lived off of my other credit cards completely. The fees & debt racked up. By the time Citibank paid me back, my debt was unmanageable. I moved all my credit card accounts to XXXX, a debt consolidator. I went from a PERFECT CREDIT SCORE and XXXX debt to + $ XXXX in credit card debt, which included Citibank. To add insult to injury, Citibank did exactly what they assured me they would NOT do when they illegally took the funds from my account. They charged me a {$30.00} fee for each & every time they illegally debited money from my bank account. On top of that, they applied the Penalty APR of 29.99 % to my account starting in XXXX when their rigged XXXX system purposefully debited a {$100.00} payment on a {$340.00} required minimum due amount to start this whole XXXX scam rolling. Then, to really up the fraud & criminality ante, on my XXXX XXXX, they made the {$9600.00} payment amt. they stole and returned to me 4xs in a row, a Purchase and then charged the 29.99 % Penalty Interest on that purchase amt! Thou I stopped using the card in XXXX, in XXXX. I paid {$600.00} to Citibank towards the debt. Thats all I could afford. My minimum amt due was {$540.00}. In XXXX as payment I redeemed all the remaining points on the card as a {$200.00} Statement Credit. That was my last payment. From XXXX thru XXXX of XXXX, when I moved all my credit cards into credit debt consolidation, Citibank called me relentlessly asking for payment. I told them over & over again, what theyd done & why I could no longer pay. The calls kept coming. I finally told Citibank that I had moved the card to a debt consolidator who would be in contact to negotiate a payment plan. For 2 years now Ive been paying roughly {$800.00} a month to XXXX towards my credit debt. On XX/XX/XXXX of this year, Citibank N.A. filed a lawsuit against me in New York Supreme Court for {$11000.00}. I found out about the lawsuit from law firm solicitations in my mail seeking to represent me against Citibank. I called my credit consolidator XXXX & informed them of same. I asked them to contact Citibank to negotiate a settlement amount. Citibank/Citibanks attorneys : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, will not respond to our repeated attempts to settle the debt. So, on XX/XX/XXXX, I filed an Answer and Counterclaim to Citibanks Summons.

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