Citifinancial Retail Services
Payment Credited to Wrong Account and $29 Late Charge Dispute

I have 2 accounts with Citifinancial because I purchased furniture and appliances at 2 different stores, both offering interest-free credit through Citifinancial. I paid every month per agreement, but twice Citifinancial said they did not receive the payments on time.

To avoid any late charges, I set up the payments to be made automatically and electronically from my checking account every month. The only reason I chose to have these accounts was to avoid paying any kind of fees beyond my purchases and to be able to pay for them over time, an advantage for my pocketbook.

In late December I received a call from Citifinancial telling me they did not receive the December 1st payment. I told them it was electronically debited and that if my history was on the screen in front of them, they would see that they receive it at the same time every month. Citifinancial said they did not do electronic payments and my bank must have made an error, and that I needed to research the missing payment with my bank. The account was nearing payment completion, so I told the person I would just pay the account off in full and find out from my bank about the payment. Citifinancial told me the payoff, which was 278.86, and that I would have to spend another $10 to authorize this electronic payoff payment to avoid another $29 late charge.

I went to my bank (they found it amusing that Citifinancial, as large as it is, did not accept electronic payments) and they initiated a trace on the missing payment. My bank told me, and provided a copy of the check they sent on my behalf to Citifinancial at the scheduled payment time. The check was indeed processed by Citifinancial, but someone at Citifinancial had crossed out the correct account number and handwritten the number of my second account at Citifinancial. The payment was credited to the wrong account.

Today is January 26. I just called Citifinancial to see if they had resolved my issue. My call was routed to Toronto, they had no knowledge of anything, and they told me all I could do was write a letter about my issue to the dispute department.

On January 5, I talked with a Marisol in Arizona, who instructed me to fax her the copy of the canceled check, the late charges, etc. She gave me the fax number and told me to fax the papers to her attention. I did all of that the same day.

To date, Citifinancial owes me $30 in late fees plus $55 erroneously posted to my second account, and they need to refund the $10 charged to me for making a payment I had already made.

Company: Citifinancial Retail Services
Country: USA
State: Arizona
City: Tempe
Address: P.O. BOX 22060
Phone: 8006435607

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