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CitiCard

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vijaya of mobile, AL January 25, 2010

They have changed my APR and they are lying that they had already sent me a letter regarding a change in APR or to opt out. I got all my mails except and samething with my friend. When i called citi they are lying that they have already sent it to me and i have to talk to my mailman. Is my mailman skipping just the mails from citi??? they told me the samething for 2 citi accounts. how is it possible that i miss only 2 different citi mails and i receive everything else. can i complain against this issue? if so whom should i complain?

Phyllis of Amarillo, TX January 25, 2010

We signed up for the Conoco/Phillips gas Mastercard, have had the account for several years, always paid the statement balance or more the day before the due date every month, never missed a payment, paid online for several years, forgot to hit the submit button one month (Nov 2009)and payment did not go through. We had an 8,000 credit limit on the card.

My husband went to use his card in Dec 2009 for gas and the card was denied. He immediately called me and I immediately called the 800 on the back of the card to inqure as to what was going on. I was told we missed the Nov 2009 payment, so I immediately made a payment over the telephone. Then in January I received a letter from CitiCard...thought the Mastercard was with Conoco/Phillips, did not realize CitiCard had anything to do with my account, if I had I never would have got the card in the first place.

The letter stated that they had dropped my credit line from 8,000 to 300. I already had a balance of 275 on the card which the payment was set up to pay on Feb 4, 2010. My credit line was dropped by 7,700 for one missed payment that was immediately paid by phone as soon as we found out about the error. I called to inqure about this and was introduced to the most rude and uncaring people I have ever done business with.

I have never been treated so rudely before. We have above average credit history and worked very hard for over 30 years to have that. We always pay our bills, overpay statement amounts on all our credit cards, have zero balances on all but one or two cards. I could not believe how a good paying customer could be treated so harshly for one missed payment. They flatly did not care one way or the other.

Last Friday I received a call on my answering machine telling me that we had gone over our credit limit on this card. I immediately called CitiCard to inqure "Why the telephone call?" I once again was talked down to by a representative and their supervisor. I went over the same explaination with both of them and was treated wprse than a criminal.

They had the gaul to ask if I wanted to make a payment over the phone to bring the account to a zero balance and I immediately explained to them that my payment was scheduled for Feb 4, 2010 and that they would not receive one penny until that date and I hung up on them. I also told them that if this is the way they treat their customers in good standing that I choose to execute my right to not do business with them ever again and hung up on them.

I will never use a CitiCard ever again, and will also immediately ask any company issuing credit cards if they deal with CitiCard and then I will tear up the application and throw it in their faces. As I was telling my daughter about this, she also had the same thing happen to her in the past month, but this time her account was closed period without any explaination. She will also be paying off the card and cutting it up and sending it back to them with her letter of closure of account.

I think CitiBank and any of their subsidiaries need to be Federally investigated for unfair business practices. I am sure there are several laws being broken and loop holes they are squeaking through. And our government bailed them out. WHY DID THEY DO SUCH A THING? Political gain no doubt that should be investigated and borderlines on very shady business practices.

Roberta of Henderson, NV January 22, 2010

November 4,2009, I made an online payment. On November 20,2009, I received the December 2009 billing from Citi only to discover they stated my November payment had been returned and I owed late charges of 39.00 plus a 10 cent finance charge. I contacted my local bank and was told that Citi had processed the account numbers wrong. I contacted Citi and was told to send a letter by fax to the Citi Front End Dept. which I did the same day. I included a letter from the Bank in regards to this matter. I also sent copies by overnight mail to the Front End Dept in Des Moines and to the Tempe, Arizona Office. I did include a check for the payment of November which was clearly an error on the part of Citi processing. I had received 11 phones calls from Citi on November 20, 2009.The caller didn't leave a name or number, most of the time they hung up.

When I was able to get through to Citi I got a rude representative on the phone and he refused to clear the charges. I have not received any response from Citi in regards to all the documents and payments made after trying to correct Citi's errors. On December 1, 2009,I sent the normal payment due by check. Since that time I have not received any billing statements or correspondence from them. I have been checking my mail daily and no billing statements as of this date.

I contacted Citi and spoke with Rey, he informed me that I have a late charge on the January 2010 billing because I paid online when I didn't receive the January bill. I tried to inform him that since they had not sent me a bill, I was forced to make the payment at the last minute.The confirmation I got from Citi clearly states that my payment would be credited on that date, unless it was a Federal Holiday. For Citi to say otherwise now is a contradiction to their own printed statements. It is also my understanding that you can't get a full accounting of any Citi account oline, you can only make payments, and see what payments have been made online. I see now online they are raising the payments, I am not quite sure why.

Nance of Framingham, MA January 22, 2010

Citicard increased my credit card interest and applied it to pre-existing balances. They will not rectify this. I have contacted them twice now. My rate is high and the payments are so inflated I struggle and am very stressed out about this which has direct affects on my health. Payments over 750 dollars a month are astronomical and make it so I have to sacrifice paying other debts.

Vincent of Rising Sun, MD January 22, 2010

I have used my Citi Card for 12 years on larger purchses and have had balances up to 35k due to the type of work I do. Never been late on ANY PAYMENTS. I noticed mt minimum payment when up and reviewed the vill more closly and realized they were now charging me 29% interest? Even in my EARLY credit days have I never paid this much interest on a credit card! Why bother having good credit if the banks are going to screw you even harder?

MICHAEL of MERRICK , NY January 22, 2010

Raised the interest rate on my credit card from 12% to 29.90% without notice. I have never been late or missed a payment in the 12 years the account is open. I have tried to work it out with the bank, the answers I get are insane. It is not an option to cancel the account for it will reflect on my credit score. This unethical practice should be addressed. I dont know the laws but I would have to think some notice or rate changes should be required. Please let me know if I have any rights in this matter. Thank you for your time.

Panee of Playa Vista, CA January 22, 2010

I had signed up for a Citi Platinum credit card over a year ago that had an accelerated Thank You points program (3x for every dollar, 5x for gas, groceries, drug stores) and when the year was almost up, I called and asked if there was an annual fee. The rep told me no and I politely insisted that he double check. Still the answer was no. I called again a week later and asked the same question. Again the answer was no and the rep joked that he could upgrade me to a card with an annual fee if that would make me happy. I hung up feeling confident that there was no fee. When the year was up, I was charged a 125 annual fee. I called and asked if the fee could be waived (partially or entirely) and the rep said no. I told them I called twice previously and confirmed that there wasn't a fee and the rep said the previous reps probably looked at the wrong annual period. I didn't want to pay the fee and so my only choice was to cancel the card.

By this time, I had accumulated just under 50,000 Thank You points (I've been saving them up to redeem 100 gift cards) and I asked the rep what would happen to them. She said that as long as I had another Citi credit card under the Thank You network, which I did, my points would remain active, otherwise they would expire in 30 days. So this was good because I figured I'd use my other Citi card in order to reach 50,000 points and then redeem them for five 100 gift cards (10,000 points = 100).

One day, I logged into my Thank You network and saw all of my points missing. Shocked, I called Thank You and they said my points had been forfeited due to the closure of my Citi Platinum account. I immediately called Citi, told them that I was advised that my points would remain active since I had another card under the Thank You network and asked if my points could be reinstated. The rep told me that the points were in fact forfeited because I was past the 30 days period to redeem them. I then learned that due to my Citi Platinum card being a promotional" account, that having another card under the Thank You network would not keep my points active. I argued that I was not advised of this at all and the rep put in a request to a specialist to review my request for my points to be reinstated.

I later followed up and learned that my request was denied. I spoke to a senior account manager, explained the situation and all he could say was "sorry, there's nothing I can do." As some form of "consolation", he said he's had customers who lost over 100,000 points and still there was nothing he could do. I ended the call feeling angry and betrayed.

I feel that my entire experience with Citi has been misleading, the reps were not forthcoming with all the information to allow me to make an informed decision and that me being a good, loyal customer (I've been a cardholder for over 10 years without a single late payment and I've always paid my balance off in full), was not good enough for Citi. I guess Citi doesn't want to keep a customer like me and so I plan to cancel all of my accounts once my statement closes.

Chris of Lakeland, FL January 20, 2010

After having been a member of CitiCards for over 6 years, I missed my first payment several months ago. A new account was used, and we had moved at the same time, so I was unable to check that the payment had gone through. We used the online service, as I had for the entire time I'd been with them. The payment was never issued from the bank, or they never requested it, I had never received an answer on that issue.

Once we noticed the payment had not gone through, I contacted CitiCards via telephone and spoke with several representatives, who all confirmed that a payment was not received. I had them reissue a payment from the same account that had "failed" to issue it before, and that time it cleared without a problem, only after paying 15 dollars in "telephone payment fees."

The next week, I received a notice in my mail that CitiCards had re-evaluated my account status, and cut my credit line back from 4700 to 2040, citing a "report" stating I have an rotating account with a high balance near credit limit. Ironically enough, the card that they slaughtered the credit limit would be the only card I have that is now near credit limit, having put my fiance's tuition bill of 2000 on it. After having been a member with them for over 6 years, and two separate accounts with them who remained in excellent standing until that one mishap, a credit limit deduction of nearly 57% is both an insult and ethically questionable.

Shortly after, I was approved by my local bank for a consolidation loan, at a lower interest rate than Citi now offers me, and will be closing those accounts as immediately as possible.

To make matters worse, after notifying Citi shortly after our move of our new address, a letter from "Citibank Early Warning" concerning our change of address was generated. It wasn't mailed until an entire month later, to our old address, with our entire credit card account number printed on the front. I understand sending a notice to the old address in case of account fraud, but writing the entire account number in plain text? The potential violation of privacy and fraud risk is simply staggering.

I would have thought that a company who has received as much in bailout money as they have would appreciate clients who have a long track record of on-time payments would work with them if there was an issue. And as far as I can tell, there was no actual issue, their online center never requested a payment from the bank, but they certainly saved the new account's information, and it cleared quickly and without a problem when I called them and paid the premium on their "telephone payment system."

Absolutely mind-blowing. And off-topic, my captcha is "bribes." I could not think of a more appropriate description.

Rory of Palm Springs, CA January 19, 2010

In July 2009 I was told by the phone agent that if I sent a credit card payment in the amount of 2800 I would be receiving a credit to my balance in the amount of 550 as part of the Payment Partner Plan. After many calls telling me I would be receiving the credit any time they are now telling me that the plan never existed and there will be no credit applied to my balance. This seems like a scam to get customers to send in large payments.

Robert of Hilton Head, SC January 18, 2010

I disputed a charge with Citi. After five months, they rejected it because the dispute did not meet their "rules". Here is the terrible experience at Denali Alaska Back Country Lodge that gave birth to the dispute.

Date of stay: August 5-8, 2009. The experience at Back Country Lodge fell far short of expectations based on representations of the web site and in discussions with Denali Tours representatives. This complaint is not delivered lightly. I have over 30 years of experience in hotels and the hospitality industry. There were nine other couples and families who told me of their disappointment as well. None of them will recommend Back Country Lodge to friends and family. Denali Tours needs to re-evaluate its operations. Details of my complaint follow.

Schedule--This is the first resort I've heard of that requires you to book three nights to have two days. Although I was encouraged to book a fourth night at the companies Denali Cabins at the entrance to the park, I was never told that other buses would be allowed in earlier. If you book at BCL, you are not given the option of taking the early bus in or the mid-day bus out--these are reserved for the day visitor (who paid a fraction of one night's charge). So you arrive at 8 pm and depart at 6 am. The only reason I could determine for this lack of flexibility is to save the cost of a lunch! As you will see under the comments on food, this would be a small cost to the owner. Denali Tours will say the bus times are due to the train schedules but why not let those who choose come in on the day visitor bus?

Accommodations--To say that the cabin is Spartan is not an exaggeration. I've seen more amenities at a Motel 6! There was no shampoo, conditioner or body lotion. The shower dispenser didn't even have soap--for two nights. And then, of course, we had to leave at 6 am.

Program--Probably the area of biggest disappointment because the web site and reservationist pitched it the most. Upon arrival our first night, we were advised that extra activities were scheduled for the next afternoon since all of the morning hikes had already been booked by in-house guests. There was no mention of what we might do in the morning. Hikes were advertised as casual, moderate and challenging. All hikes were to be escorted by a naturalist. No challenging hikes were offered. I was told I would have to recruit three other hikers before they would consider it.

When I asked the head guide for a recommendation for a more strenuous hike, he gave me a map that had few details. When I asked how to find the trailhead, he pointed to the building next door and said, "It's just beyond that building." That would have been true if I were a crow. To actually walk to the trailhead, I had to go the other direction to reach the road which .7 mile later would reach the trailhead. When I asked about what wildlife we might see in the area, I was told, "There's not much wildlife at this elevation. What you saw on the ride in is pretty much what you can count on." That is NOT what I had been led to believe. I did not pay 800 per night to do self-guided hikes with little hope of seeing wildlife.

Customer Service--I have received your explanation of the denial of my dispute. As stated in your letter of October 22, "since I chose to use the service provided by the merchant despite the lodge condition, they deserve to be paid." Let me explain this situation further so you will understand why I had no choice but to stay at the lodge despite the conditions. Denali Backcountry Lodge is located at the edge of Denali National Park. The only way to the lodge is a five hour bus ride through the park. There is no other transportation available from the lodge other than that provided by the lodge according to the driver and the staff at the lodge.

With no practical alternative available, I had to stay at the lodge. Please note that I did not dispute the entire charge. I am being very reasonable in disputing 1000, aware that I did receive services from the lodge although they were not as advertised and promised. Since I had no alternative but to stay at the lodge as I was held "captive" due to their control of the transportation, I ask that you re-evaluate my dispute on this basis. Should you wish confirmation of the conditions as stated in my dispute, I suggest you read the comments from around the same time period on TripAdvisor at

Citi has again rejected my complaint because it involves a dispute over "quality of services". This is five months into the dispute. BTW, their web site asks whether the dispute is over goods or services. Why ask if you don't care? I'm sending them my two cards--in pieces. It is the only way for us consumers to be heard!

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