Great trick, Citibank!
I took out a Citibank card just to earn some American Airlines miles that they promised. They email me my balance each month, I log on and pay it in full... Easy peasy. Last month they tried a new stunt. On December 7th, they sent the statement. Later that day, I paid it in full. Just after that, they posted "finances charges from foreign transactions" for a trip I had taken the month before. Because I paid the balance the same day they billed it, I had no way to know those finance charges showed up later that day, or that I would get to enjoy paying interest on them.
I got away losing only $11 on this scam, but imagine what someone on a fixed income would have to deal with if they made the same error of paying their statement when it was billed.
The website clearly says, "This statement may not include charges to your account that post today." My bad... I should have read it.
It took over 6 months and about 3 hours in phone calls and emails to get the companion fares (which were useless due to incredible blackout dates).
As for the foreign transaction fees, that took a similar amount of calling and emailing, and they would never commit to what potential foreign transaction fees I would incur when I traveled... let alone how many hours after I pay a bill that they can charge me for them.
People, if you can get by without a credit card, do! But whatever you do, do not give corporate crooks like Citibank your business.
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