In May of this year, I decided to pay my Citi Visa card off in full. After logging in to their website, I found my current balance and made a payment for that amount. Two months later, I started receiving phone calls from Citi saying I needed to log into my account and review a problem. Upon logging back in, I found a balance of $40 and a late fee to boot!
I called Citi's customer service line and was connected to a representative who could not answer my questions and offered to transfer me to the "escalation" department. Instead, I was disconnected. I called back in and requested to be sent back to escalations, which thankfully happened quickly. The agent I spoke with, however, told me that the amount left over was the remaining finance charges on the account.
When I asked why the website offered me an option to "pay balance in full" if that was not truly the balance, she said that it was the balance, but not the full balance. What? I've paid off several credit cards over the last few years, and not one has done anything like this. Bank of America? Nope, "pay in full" meant just that. Discover? No problem, I selected "pay remaining balance" and never heard another word from them.
Citi? It appears that when you tell them you want to pay off the balance, you are paying what they decide is the balance at the moment, but they reserve the right to change that later. Never, ever, ever do business with Citi. There are plenty of other options, and I'll be exercising those in the future.
0 comments