Citibank Complaints & Reviews

- Despite logging request to deactivate card, renewal fees were deducted
- When complaint was raised, I was told that the transaction cannot be reversed
- I refused to pay the renewal charge and since then various charges have been accumulting onto it.
- Have sent mails and also had discussions with collection agents multiple times
- Statement keeps comming in e-mail and amount due now is Rs 42000+ from the initial Rs 2500 renewal charge that I had refused to pay

My name is Andrea Gideon holder of Citibank Credit Card Number [protected]. This card has been converted in to a loan and I am supposed to make a payment of Rs. 6010/- per month for 24 months.

I had set up an ECS on my salaried account to ensure the monthly payments are done on time. When I was signing the ECS form I clearly stated that I do not get my salary before the 7th of every month and picked a date after that for the ECS to be presented.

The initial few months went without incident. However in December 2008 the ECS was presented to my account on the 5th December 2008. Since I did not have funds in my account I had to pay the insufficient charges. Nobody from the collections team called me in December. However as we step in the new year another ECS hit my account on the 1st of January 2009 for Rs. 12020/-. I have not authorized Citibank to take out any amount except for Rs. 6010/- and if this amount had been presented it would have cleared.

Finally, I got a call from your collections team in January and I spoke with Karan and Ms. Saloni Seth and they assured me that they would have all my charges reversed if I make a cash payment. I made a cash payment on January 18, 2009 for Rs. 12020/-. Now that brought my account up to date and my next payment was due in February.

However, on the 28th of January another ECS of Rs. 6010/- was presented and cleared my account. I had written out two insurance checks which were returned since Citibank took out another payment in January even after bringing my account up to date.

I have been calling Citibank to get this issue resolved however no one in any department is doing any thing. I cancelled my ECS on my salaried account and have had to incure approximately Rs. 5000/- on insufficient charges. It has been 5 months since I paid my EMI's and contrary to what the Citibank executives have told me, the ECS gets presented to my account at least 4 times every month.

ON 8TH JULY 2009 FOUR CHEQUES WERE PRESENTED TO MY ACCOUNT FOR AN AMOUNT OF RS. 24040/- LEAVING MY ACCOUNT BALANCE AT RS. 13.82. Now I have had enough with this Citi Bank. If this is the way they plan to get out of financial difficulties they should go bankrupt.

This is with reference to my Citibank credit card ; i had been using this card since 1997 regularly with no issues as I had been paying my dues on time; till 2006 when I was been approched to have a birla sun life insurance policy where the premium's go thru' my credit card for payment. As agreed for the frequency of instalments; this was not been picked up by citibank and they debited my card 2 times in one quater which was a mistake ; I kept calling them till Sept 2007 to reverse the debit as it was a mistake but this was not reversed and I was been charged on my statement for interest for no mistake of mine. I checked with Birla sun life for the payment recieved from citibank and made the same amount of payment to Citibank. Since this issue in 2006 when they debited my card twice; I never used my card for any other transcation. Finally after taking to 10 people on customer service line for several times ; I gave up and wrote a letter expalining the entire situation; had cut my card in two peices and send it to Chennai office of Citibank Credit card by Register AD .. I got a reciept of this. But till dat ein 2009 these credit card statemenst haven't stopped to be generated and keep coming; at the same time I am going thru' the hassle of facing the contract agency on behalf of Citibank to explain every time that there is no due on my side to Pay. This is absolutely frustrating and getting no where...can some one action in citibank based on my register AD in 2007 and close this once for all...I am not paying a single peny to them ..but whereas I demand for the hassle I had gone thru' in these 3 years compensation for myself ...that was all due to citibank mistake.

Hi

In my last citibank card, i was supposed to pay Rs. 80K and I made a payment of Rs.70K within due date. To my surprise, iu found that the bank has charged me interest on the entire 80K @3%p.a without reducing the payment of 70K i have made.

I feel this is totally unjust and an unfair money making mechanism. Under any banking laws, if payments are made within due dates, interest can be livied only on the unpaid balance and not on the full amount

Regards
Mohan

The mail I wrote to Citibank officials, Ombudsman and CIBIL:



From: subhabrata chakraborty <[protected]@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Complaint- Not a customer of Citibank. Still threatened by Collection People.
To: [protected]@citi.com, Julio.[protected]@citi.com, head.[protected]@citi.com, [protected]@citi.com, [protected]@cibil.com, [protected]@rbi.org.in
Date: Saturday, 4 July, 2009, 10:14 AM


Dear Sir,



It’s well known that Banks harass their customers. But, mine is a case where I am not a customer of Citibank, still I am being harassed by the bank officials. Now it has gone to such an extent that both myself and my wife, who is in advanced stage of her pregnancy are spending sleepless nights and under tremendous mental agony, shock and trauma.


There are two aspects of my complaint:

1. I have never had any relationship with Citibank neither did I apply for any credit card in past. The problem started 2/3 months back. I received a call from Citibank collection centre, Camac Street, Kolkata (as claimed by that person). He also claimed that I am holding a Citibank credit card and I owe the bank more than Rs. 20, 000/- which I have to pay immediately or else, I have to face the ‘consequences’. My protests were not listened to and he went on forcing me and abusing me in a rough and rude manner. When I started asking him his name and warned that I’ll lodge a police complaint he hung up. I thought it’s some goo[censored]p of the system and the bank people have mistook my name for somebody else and forgot the matter. I didn’t feel it’s necessary so I didn’t even ask for the card number and other details.

After a gap of some weeks on 5th June evening, I again received a call from the same place. This time I saved the number. It’s [protected]. Their claim was same and their manner was even more abusive and rude. I was outside on road and in the shock I forgot to take down the credit card details. On asking his name etc he hung up. I tried calling back in that same number only to know that it doesn’t accept incoming calls. I came back home, fond out the number of that Citibank collection centre [protected] and lodged a complaint there. I spoke with an official Mr A Saha. Next day I called up the toll free numbers [protected]/ [protected] (then I was in Kolkata for few days) and registered a complaint # 0924037. Since, I didn’t have the credit card number the lady could check only my name in the. database and confirmed that there was no record found. She said within 7 days they would get back. The time period got over and nobody contacted me. So after around 15 days I called them to follow it up. They could not identify the docket number. But checking my name in their system (since, I didn’t have the card no.) confirmed that there is no such record and told me that there may be some mistake by the collection people. He suggested me to take the card number next time I receive a call.

Yesterday 3rd July afternoon again I received a call. It was from the same no.of Camac Street collection centre. The person went on telling me my permanent address in Kolkata, where my aged parents are staying, my present address in Chennai, my phone numbers, my past and present employer’s name etc. and threatened to send their people there with an objective of defaming me and harassing them. This time I took the card details and nonstop there were abuses flowing from the other end. These are:

Card No. 5546 XXXX XXXX XXXX ( mentioned in the mail)
Issue Date: somewhere in April, 2006 then I was in Kolkata
Total outstanding was 47, 000/- plus
Payment made for Rs. 27, 000/-
Payment outstanding Rs. 20, 202.90


When I asked them to check the a/c no. from which the part payment of Rs. 27 thousand was made they refused to give me that information and later said that it was made by cash.

I contacted the toll free number[protected]now from Chennai). I spoke with a CSO and then a senior officer Mr Vivek Ranganathan and registered the case against # 09110042. He checked with the card number and found that the card was in fact issued in my name. But when he checked with my Date of Birth it didn’t match. He promised of carrying out an investigation and stern actions. He is expected to revert by Monday 6th July.

Somebody has definitely misutilised my name and details to commit this kind of heinous act. The kind of harassment I am facing can only be realized by me. I worry about my wife and my parents and feel helpless and exploited.

I doubt that those who are involved in doing this will stop here. They can do the same trick with other banks as well and might have got credit card issued in my name. How to handle this kind of situation?



2. Few months back a credit card sales person from Axis Bank approached me for a credit card and I subsequently applied for it. One month back I got a letter rejecting my credit card application. It stated that as per the Credit Bureau report they rejected the application. Now I suspect that these two are related. There must have been some wrong report sent from Citibank side to CIBIL which has maligned my credit history and defamed me. Also, I can’t support CIBIL here because before publishing such reports that goes against me and ruins my image in public they should have at least given me a notice or consulted me. I believe I had every right to know what was going against me before it goes out in open that too by a regulatory body. I wonder how a body formed by RBI can do such act?


Pls help me come out of this mess.

Rgds,

Subhabrata Chakraborty

Chennai

I have taken Car loan from Citi bank. We have given post dated checks for 48 months for EMI.
While giving the checks we just filled in Amount (6700/-) in figures and not in words.

Later few checks were rejected with reason "AMOUNT in FIGURE AND WORDS DO NOT MATCH".
There was never a check bounced due to in sufficient account balance.
All the wrong amounts in word on checks were filled in by a Citi bank executive while taking a car loan, and later time to time we corrected this by giving new checks to Citi bank.

Also during 2006 flood in Mumbai, Citi bank has lost many of its computerized records, and for one of the my check payments, their record was not showing as payment received. Later in 2008 when loan was about to end, I showed all bank account entries for clearances of the EMI checks and then received the Loan Settlement letter from Citi Bank.

But suddenly after 5-6 months I got a notice that Rs. 8k is pending, I was doing followup for 3-4 months but no success, rather this due went from 8k to 11k during this duration and I did not get any loan closure letter.

At last I paid ~ 11k to Citi, thinking that Later I can have justice from Consumer Court.

I beg consumer court to help me to fight against Citi Bank Car Loan Dept.
My Cell No is : - [protected]

If required I can provide all required details.

Regards,

Devyani A. Tupe
Pune, M.S., India

Dear Sir,

I made ATM Withdrawal on 24Jun-09 from CITIBANK ATM Rs500.00 but i got only Rs100.00 and Rs500.00 debited. I did complaint same then Rs400.00 credited my Account but on 02 jul-09 Rs400.00 debited from account with any information when I did try to call to SITI Bank they were unable to reply for the same.

Rgrds
Shafi Ahmad

Hi,

Today I have received a call from CITIbacnk credit card customer care service Calcutta that I have not made the payment towards their citibank credit card, I really don't have any idea what is this story they are talking about.,
I am holding many credit cards for the last 7-8 years and I was never a defaulter for any of these cards.

In fact I have a citibank master card whcih I have taken during a promotion in Shoppersstop and i hardly used that card till now.
Please guide me how to handle this situation.


Regards,
Anjan

An unauthorized online transaction had taken place in my card with Citibank, ending with 4008, on 27/05/2008, amounting to Rs. 2999/-. I reported the incident immediately to Citibank, who launched an investigation. Upon completion of the investigation, it was revealed that the said amount was paid to Airtel in the account of Mr. Indranil Tarafdar, who is unknown to me. As instructed by Citibank, I once again lodged complaint with them. After a long silence, Ms. Garge Chakraborty (garge.[protected]@citi.com) called me on behalf of Citibank, who promised a closure of this matter. However, even after explaining the situation to her, I did not receive any response from her. After a few days, another official called me and promised me closure of the case, on receipt of Rs. 100/- as processing fees. I had paid the said amount, but continued to suffer their maltreatments. This included threats over the telephone and derogatory remarks about me and my family-members. On 24th June 2009, I received a call from Ms. Koel Sen, acting on behalf of Mr. Amiyo Saha, (Office: 22, Camac Street, Block AB, 5th Floor, Kolkata. Phone:[protected], threatening me with dire consequences if I do not pay up immediately. Today, i.e, on 1st July 2009, I again received call from Mr. Sukanto (Phone:[protected], who offered settlement on payment of Rs. 5000/-, which I refused. I believe it is against the norms that a Citibank representative approaches a client over the telephone, without any official document, and ask for settlement doing no justice to the complaint lodged.
I would request you to kindly investigate into the matter and see to it that the clients are not harassed unnecessarily and justice being done officially to the genuine complaint filed.

This has reference to Control number 39, 77, 13, 314. As per Citibank statement dated 23/04/2009, there is no amount due in regard to the Citibank Credit card number [protected]. However, this information is not yet updated on CIBIL. This is creating huge difficulty for me in regard to any financial transaction. Please look into this matter with urgent attention and update the data accordingly.
CONSUMER NAME : PRATIK MUKHERJEE
ADDRESS ; MUKHERJEE VILLA, Z3 PANCHASAYAR, KOLKATA 700094
DATE OF BIRTH : 31/08/1971
PAN CARD NUMBER : AMKPM6777A

Dear citibank head,

Iam a citi bank credit card customer since 2003, This is with regard to customer care telecallers from your Bangalore Branch. I have 3 credit cards from Citibank and i have not defaulted with the bank. I have been making prompt payments and some times missed due date. Now i do not have any outstanding balance of credit cards, except loan emi which i have taken against 2 credit cards. I have paid my full outstanding balance on my credit cards in May and promised myself that i will never ever use citibank credit cards. The problem with Citibank credit card is they have telecallers who call us everyday twice or thrice and remind us about our due date and tell us to do payments. It is very nice of them that they will remind us, but it should not be daily 2 - 3times and how many times i have to answer the calls and listen to the same and tell them that I will make payment on or before due date. This is very irritatting, torturing and i did not like the service. If we have missed the payment due date, then you have all the rights to call us and ask. But when we have still not missed the due date, please tell me why you guys are torturing me. I will be busy in meetings, business reviews, driving, with family, all the time i have to pick and listen to this . I want you to take serious action on this and make sure good customers are not tortured. I would also like to tell you that if this repeats again, i will not do any payment and will fight in court of law against this torture.

The details of the person who is calling me regularly and torturing me is given below :

Caller name : Malini
Phone no.[protected].

Regards
Shafiq Ahmed

I never used any Citi Bank Credit Card but suddenly for last 15-20 days, I received a threaten call from Citi bank for dudes which is Pending for last 7 Years. When I asked some question about my identity than he provided all my false verification except my name and phone numbers. When I told him, that I am not a right person than he started abusing words and threaten me & my family members.

Please some one suggest me how I resolve this issue.

My vodafone number is [protected]. I have been getting unwanted calls from Citibank for the last 1.2 years. The calls are meant for some Mohan Lal Sharma. I have told the calling agents and operators a 1000 times that the number does not belong to Mohan Lal Sharma. However they dont seem to update their records.

Hi,

I am a defaulter of Citibank credit card for Rs. 16, 000/- from last 2 years and they have sent me the letter that they have decleared my account as NPA (Non Performing Assets) as per the rules of RBI.

I have applied for 2 wheeler loan and it has been rejected because of CIBIL check.

Now i want to maintain the good credit score and wants to clear off the Citibank Credit card dues.

My question is if i pay the Citibank Credit Card settlement amount of Rs. 8, 000/- (50% of the total credit used by me), will my name be taken out of CIBIL.

if yes, how many months would it take.

If No, then there is no use of paying Rs. 8, 000/- to Citibank.

Kindly advise.

Thanks & regards,
Prakash Kumar
[protected]

My name has been put up in CIBIL even after paying the full amount as per the settlement letter.

My complain is that my card account is [protected]. And i have closed my card account on 10.jan.2009 by paying the full amount of rupees thirty six thousand five hundred amount but still my name has been put up in CIBIL for harassing me .

I request CITI bank to delete my name from CIBIL immediately.
My email id is [protected]@yahoo.com and my mobile no is [protected]
and i would also like to request to all concerned that this CIBIL is being used by bank in a negative manner by dishonests bank to extort money from customer by blackmailing them by putting their name on CIBIL falsely even after paying the full amount as per the settlement letter. I would also like to request rbi to monitor this CIBIL as banks are using this inaccesible site for blackmailing customer into paying illegal charges in order to clear their name from CIBIL.

Hi Sir,

I have recently applied for a personal loan from three different banks HDFC, FULLERTON, BARCLAYS and was rejected only becos my CIBIL score was showing less than what is required and according to the banks information I am showing overdue/ delinquent on my credit card accounts. I have checked my credit card accounts twice and thrice but therez no such status on my accounts. I should like to know as to how this incorrect report can be edited? I have Citibank, ICICI, SBI and Amex (Corporate credit card issued by IBM) credit cards with me and I am up to date with all my cc accounts. Please advise on how to act regarding the above mentioned problem. Thank You.

Best Regards,

Suresh.

I am using citibank credit card for the past one year & paying the dues on regularly basis before due date.Still then i've been receiving calls on citibank behalf for their dues followup with no days limit & no time limit - even on sundays & in late evening almost 5-6 calls per day, everytime calling different person.
in a way of threatening me.I ve made a complaint at Citibank, chennai but of no use.Pls help so that i do not face such harressment & gets call only after the due date, when the dues are no paid by me.

Hi, I am foreigner and had an account with citibank in Bangalore for a couple of years. Wanted to do a foreign outward remittance of money which I initially transferred from Germany to invest in India. This is a transaction which took my bank at home 10 Minutes!
However for transferring the money back, it took me around 4 weeks with Citibank! First of all, they take very long time in responding on inquiries - in comparison to other banks its 5 to 10 times longer. Secondly, I really doubt their competency. The first person was asking for all kinds of weird documents (like passport copy, visa copy, payment slips for the last couple of years, etc.) which were not at all required for the transaction I wanted to do. I called this person and she still insisted (and was very rude on the phone) and was not willing to provide support. Finally (after some days and after I escalated the issue a couple of times via Citibank website and emails) another person contacted me, saying the above mentioned documents are not required, I just would need to fill in some forms and send those back. I did this the very same day when I received the forms. Then again 2 days nothing happened from Citibank side. I again contacted them, then the person were saying I need to provide documents were the money came from (FICR-document). I was getting also these documents and sending it across the very same day. Again 2 days nothing happened. Then they were asking for a Certificate as a proof that I had paid my taxes in India. The said it would be a requirement asked from RBI (Reserve Bank of India). I did not know where to get these Certificate nor did I know what format is required nor did I understand why this is required at all. Since I'm in India, I was never missing out making a proper tax return (filed via E & Y).
So I was asking E & Y, I was asking a Chartered Accountant, I was calling someone from the RBI. Nobody could tell me why this is required nor provide me such a certificate.
So again I contacted Citibank to tell me what this is and what for. Then again a day got wasted until they were sending me the certificate form they would want to have filled in. They were saying it's a government requirement, I need to proof that I had paid taxes on interest for the time the money was on my bank account, however this is not possible, as this is part of the upcoming tax return filing with E & Y for the current year. So again I had to call Citibank. Finally another person (now the 3rd person) was calling me back, telling me, that the certificate would be not required, instead I could provide a letter from E & Y that it's part of the current tax filing. After providing this letter, it took some more days until this transfer finally happened, i.e. my initially transferred money from Germany to my Citibank account in India got transferred back. The whole transaction was extremely expensive and to get it finally done took around 4 weeks. Citibank was wasting here my time, my nerves, put endless hassles on me. They were not supportive in the least, nor do the have a proper complaint management in place. Logging a complaint via their website is of no use at all. One does not get a confirmation if the complaint were received, nor any indication if anything is going to happen and when.
The learning out of this: Never ever am I going to transfer money from my home country to Citibank India. It is a huge risk, they have extremely bad service and expertise and the cost for transactions is ridiculously high. They are wasting time and money of their customers and you're not treated like a customer. They are rude, have ridiculous processes in place and are not trustworthy in the least.

Dear Sir,

Please consider this email as a desperate request of Good Services from Citibank . I am a Priority Customer Credit card ([protected]) . I have taken a Good Health Policy and have paid full amount in the month of March but I have not yet got the Cover note of the Policy . I have called up Multiple times to Citibank to get the policy cover note but they have only one answer :They are sorry for the inconvinience...

- Statement of Credit card (no. [protected]) for the month of May 2009 recieved which contained fraud transactions worth total Rs. 24098.97.
-Immediately informed the Bank.
-Bank promised to look into this matter.
-However, the bank has recently sent a letter stating the transactions as valid & asked me to pay the Amount.

These transactions for sure has not been done by me. As such I will not pay this Amount which is false.

Pls help me how to go about.