Home Depot - Citi Bank
Misleading 5-Year Payoff Plan, Then Three 30-Day Lates Reported

Home Depot/Citi Card offered a 5 year payoff program in 2009 (not long after they raised all their credit card rates to 29.95%). Their customer service representatives and their paperwork were misleading, and they misrepresented what you were signing on for.

HD/Citi offered a 5 year payoff program that, if you enrolled in it, would cut your interest rate from 29.95% to 9.95%. In order to participate, however, you had to meet these guidelines:

1. Your account could not be late
2. You had to close the account
3. You needed to be in financial difficulty and answer about 15 minutes of questions regarding your income and debts

So far, so good, if what they said in 2009 was actually true.

In September I contacted Home Depot/Citi because my card interest rate had jumped to 29.95%. In fact, most of my credit cards had, and I just could not afford the rates. This was when credit card companies could promise one rate on purchases, you buy products based on that rate and are never late, and then they jack the rates up 10% to 29.95% on your previous purchases.

I contacted the company and requested any special programs to get this account paid off or a better rate. I was told about this 5 year payoff program, but you could not be late, and since they raised my rate, I was late. So for 3 months I made double payments to catch up. In October I called back, and the rep took an additional payment and scheduled the new payment to be withdrawn from my account later that month. Now my card balance would be at 9.95% and every month they would automatically deduct my payment. If I missed 2 automatic payments, my account would revert to the normal payment.

I noticed soon after I had set up my account on this plan that my statements' minimum payment amount never matched the amount of the 5 year program, and the statements said I was late. So I called (on 3 occasions), and each time I was told that my account was in the 5 year payoff program, I had not missed a payment, my payments were not late, and therefore I should disregard the statement. I thought this odd until I heard the same thing from 3 agents over a period of the first 4 months I was on the program.

So I went on for over a year, and they deducted the payment each month from my account. Then, a little over a year later, my son came home to live and my food bill skyrocketed. On the date they withdrew the funds, the amount was not there, so I paid them via my Bank of America Bill Pay within 1-2 weeks. This happened 2 times. Once it was 2 days after the automated withdrawal date, and once it was 12 days later.

Since I missed the automated withdrawal twice, my account reverted to the normal program. OK, fine, no issues, since I was aware of it. However, I pulled my credit report and found they had reported 3 thirty-day lates. The first two were for the 2 times I missed the automated withdrawal date, and the third was a couple of months later, when I paid the account 2 days after the due date!

I disputed the lates, and HD verified them to the credit agencies. So I called them, and it took an hour, but when I finally got through to the 5 year payoff plan group, they informed me of an item they had never told me before. In fact, it was the exact opposite of what they had told me when enrolling me in the program:

1. They claimed now that to be enrolled in this program now and back in 2009, your account had to be late.
2. They said that because my account was late when enrolled on the program for 76.00, if I was just one day late on my payment, I was technically now 30 days late!

I am furious. This is not what I was told, and in fact I never was given a late fee from the month I was enrolled in the program forward. I was told my account had to get current to be enrolled, and if I had been told I was carrying a 76.00 rolling late, I would have paid it off. I would never have allowed an account to be 30 days late for over a year. I had the money after Jan, since I moved and took a new job which was much better for me.

These lates are now causing me to be denied credit and lowered my score by 35-40 points. I have called and complained. I have written, I have disputed, and they refuse to correct my report.

As soon as I was told there was this 76.00 above the agreed upon payment each month, I immediately paid it, and I show no lates since. But I need to know how to fight this, since they lied to me. They either trained their call center people incorrectly in 2009 or they changed it since, but this is not right, and they should be made to stop reporting people late when they are told by HD customer service they are not late!

Company: Home Depot - Citi Bank
Country: USA
State: South Dakota
City: Sioux Falls
Phone: 8665230118
Site: secure2.homedepot.com

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