Consumer complaint received 2024-05-20 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I have been a customer with CITI for XXXX months. My CITI card is through Costco, but is also a Visa which can be used anywhere. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I became unemployed as my former company decided to send my job, along with over XXXX others, overseas to XXXX for cheap labor. My severance ran out at the end of XXXX and I went over XXXX months without pay. It took me XXXX months to find a job despite sending out XXXX 's of resumes. 

During this time, I drained my checking and savings to keep up with bills. When I finally received a paycheck on XX/XX/XXXX, I emptied the rest of my account and made a {$900.00} payment to CITI Costco immediately. This was for several reasons. 1 ) I wanted to bring at least one account down. 2 ) My payment was late, so I paid a large amount to show CITI that I was committed to being a good customer. 3 ) I wanted to have room on at least one card so that I may finally visit my aging parents in Pennsylvania whom I haven't seen since XXXX due to being unemployed. 

I sent the {$900.00} payment on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. Today - Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I receive an email from CITI saying that they're drastically lowering my credit limit due to my " credit report findings ''. Thus, instead of having {$1000.00} worth of room, I now only have {$80.00}. Plus, instead of having my credit usage percentage lowered to around XXXX %, it is right back to over 90 %. 

CITI purposely waited for me to make a payment like this to lower my credit limit. It is clearly an attempt to justify charging me higher interest rates as well as give them hope in that I'll continue to struggle making payments and give them the opportunity to charge more late fees. 

I asked them to verify how many times I had been late with the account in 22 months. Their answer was twice - once in XX/XX/XXXX and most recently in XX/XX/XXXX. So, 20 months of making on time payments means nothing to them. I only was late on XXXX payments following my layoff last year. 

Their justification, as with all credit card companies, is that they can based on the credit card reporting. My question is then why wait until you receive a {$900.00} payment which would have lowered the account balance dramatically? After all, I've been out of work for seven months and have been forced to make payments by the skin of my teeth for some time now. 

This has nothing to do with my credit report no matter what they claim. If my credit had gone down during this time, it would have happened some time ago and they would have lowered my credit limit some time ago as well. Not waited until I got myself caught up and then some and then made their move. 

Sorry, but this was done on purpose so they can make more money in interest and hopefully score some late payments from me. XXXX XXXX did the same thing to me a few months back. 

I want my credit limit restored or I go to congress. Trying to rebuild one 's credit after having a rough time is IMPOSSIBLE due to the shady practices of these creditors. Case in point, I have been trying to rebuild my credit since XXXX. I made some progress in the beginning, but the score remained stagnant in the low XXXX and even went down a couple of times despite being able to open some healthy lines of credit, having over XXXX years of on time payments and even keeping balances at {$0.00}. This needs to stop. Whether or not to lower one 's credit limit should be based on their performance as a customer, not because they " can ''. Because they can doesn't mean they should. And despite my XXXX late payments in XXXX  months of being a customer, I have been perfect with this account and do not deserve this treatment. 

I want CITI to restore my credit limit immediately. I'd also like an apology from them for the unnecessary stress they have caused me for no reason other than they are bullies. I'm sure I won't get that, though, and will settle for my credit limit being restored.

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