Happy

Update to my situation

1) I filed with CFPB, OCC initially and a week later sent letters to NY AGO and FL AGO in early June after the woman at "Presidential Communication Office" told me she would not reinstate my TYP accounts and I stood to lose them all because Citi "can close accounts at any time for any reason. Once accounts are closed, TYPs earned would also be forfeited."

2) OCC promptly forwarded my complaint to CFPB which was actually able to match it with the complaint to itself and sent me email to inform me 2 filings were now merged and my complain would retain the original CFPB case number.

14 days later CFPB sent an email informing Citi requested a 60 days extension to come up with response.

3) A few week late NY AGO sent me a response that it has forwarded my complaint to OCC.
4) Another 2 more weeks passed, on the eve of our long trip to Europe I also got FL AGO response. FL AGO forwarded my complaint to Citi's Executive Customer Response Unit in NYC and to CFPB.

Both NY AGO and FL AGO responses are attached to my complaint online as documents. FL AGO's is just a PDF file that contains everything - from the envelop it used to address me, its reply to my letter to them. I assume the NY AGO's document may be similar but I could not open NY AGO's which is in a format my computer does not have the software.

On Jul 19th we went on a 35 days trip in Europe.

Sometime in August when checking my emails, I noticed an email from CFPB which advised me the bank had responded. It told me to log in to check the outcome and if I was not satisfied, I could file a dispute. In the email, CFPB also said the case together with the bank's response, would be put into a public data base after privacy information is edited. I did not bother to check the outcome while on trip - that could wait till our returning home.

Back home slightly a week ago, I found someone from Citi's Executive Response Unit had left a message on my machine regarding the CFPB complaint - she wanted to "discuss further of the complaint" and "get more details" from me. The return call number is of 605 area code - belongs to the so-called Presidential Office in Salt Lake City.

Going thru the pile of mails I first found a check from Citi of $$$, and later a letter from the SAME person who told me to pound sand when I last talked to, before filing CFPB complaint. I also found a statement of my PPE card (the old PPE, now Premier) that showed the entry of Thank You Point Redemption, and the entry next date Refund of Credit Balance - hence the check.

The letter from Citi did not give any reason, merely said that the signer was instructed to review my complaint and upon review, determined how many points were there (a few hundreds less than the figure I saw on my last statement - no idea how she came up with that.) As a result, a refund check of $$$ is sent to me. The points are valued as if one redeems a statement credit at 0.005 per point.

The response posted on CFPB site is even more brief - only stated 2 facts: 1) I have responded to cardholder. (I, being the Citi employee, but without any name.) 2) A refund check of $$$ is sent to cardholder.

So, Citi admitted it did owe me my TYP account balance which as many of you have learned, was from years accumulations between 2009 and 2011.

Yet, Citi still decided to steal over 50% value of it by using the lowest valuation that hardly any cardholder would choose.

I tried to get in touch with the lady who left the message 3 times to no avail. (She is not the person who signed the letter informing me the refund check was coming.) I could only left voice message to her inbox and she never returned my calls.

Since Citi chose to ignore my follow up, I called CFPB to check what would be the next step available to me. The rep agreed the amount of refund check was not fair being barely 50% of the value I asked for in the initial complaint, while the bank somewhat agreed with the total amount of points confiscated. She actually encouraged me to file a dispute. So I flied one over the phone - the CFPB rep wrote it then read it back to me for my consent. Dispute filed. She said the bank again has up to 60 days to respond. Based on Citi has taken exactly 60 days to respond on the initial complaint, it would not be a surprise that the 2nd round would also take 60 days.

Later I called Citi's NYC Executive Office and as soon as the lady heard it was CC related, she PROMPTLY transferred me to the Salt Lake Office where I got a woman whose name sounded awfully familiar to the person one of the FTers I have been in contact has talked to - sounded like a front line person of that "Presidential Office" and of absolutely no help to that FTer. While this woman asked my phone number several times and said she would make sure "Mary" (the person who left message on my machine when we were in Europe) to call me back - no call ever comes and I think it would never come.

Still, Citi must respond to CFPB on my dispute within 60 days. I will update the thread when and if I hear anything when the 60 days are up. The refund check has 180 days validity from date of issuance which is August 6. So plenty of time to wait out the ongoing saga. I also doubt Citi would cancel the initial refund check after it has informed CFPB that is the refund it agrees upon.

Marathon Man

Good update happy and you have certainly done your homework and then some

People reading should learn from this

Now... Cut out the waiting even longer for more bull and SUE THEM!!

1) yah they can say all day that they can close an acct they feel was fraudulent and thus all points are forfieted... But WHY WOULD THEY??

They only would because they are scammers and your suit will reveal that in court.

They stole your points (money) and are making up reasons that fit their needs.

******SUE THEM!****

Do it now or be one year older when you do

They will settle and send you all money plus lost court filing fees an if you are fortunate you may even be able to recoup costs you incurred along the way.

CVG_Kid

Happy. Thanks for the update.

It is interesting that they are taking some steps to restore your accumulated point value. What about the accounts themselves? Have they made any moves to reopen them? Are you 'blacklisted' from future applications?

Happy

They still steal 50% of the value as currently it stays.

Despite the mere act of refunding the points albeit at a much inferior valuation, Citi indirectly admitted that it had wronged me. However all accounts remain shut down. They do have the right to choose not to do business with any chosen customer, we must remember this.

No idea for the blacklisting but I am assuming it is, at least for the foreseeable future. Ain't going to waste an inquiry to find out. With the current sad state of AA award seats availability, there is better place to accumulate your miles, not to mention there is another program change to the worse on the already inferior TYP program. The only card worth something is the HHonor Reserve that for $95 you get HHonor Gold plus 2 free weekend nights if you stay at Hilton properties often.

Rajnish

I signed up for this 5X card today at a branch in Fairfax, VA.

silver6054

OK, just confirm when the card comes that those benefits are really enabled.

calebb

Please update us if the card actually comes with the advertised benefits.

I'm having an issue because my wife applied in a branch and the benefits we know and love were pointed out directly by the branch employee. My wife was approved. But when the card came in the mail at the end of last week, the benefits are completely different from what we were told in the branch!

I wish I had kept up with this thread, it looks like it was a wasted credit pull. My wife will pursue it, but I'm not very hopeful.

At least I still have mine until next year.

Frequent Miler

The materials that come with the card won't mention the 5X promo. If you (or your wife) calls and asks, the rep should be able to confirm 5X (or may list it as 4X bonus points on top of the normal 1X).

us1549

just redeemed 30k points for a $300 student loan check, fingers crossed.

clockhand

(junior I am guessing) banker at Citi Global HQ Branch (by 53rd and Park in NYC) told me that it is not possible to apply under the old promotion (5x on drugstores) after July 15th, but apparently people have done so. He also told me that 5x on drugstores will go away sometime this month for those people who applied under the promotion even though it has not been 12 months yet.

Not sure if I believe him completely. I will continue to check out at other NYC branches. If you have applied under the 5x promotion recently, please pm me your banker information!

dedkends

let us know how it goes....

packfanlv

Be careful. My wife signed up for the offer a few weeks ago in a branch. The woman who gave her the card was actually the branch manager and promised she would get the terms. (My wife actually went over all of the terms of the offer in detail.) It turns out she just gave my wife the publicly available offer of 20,000 points and no 5x. When we emailed her she played dumb.

Now we are in the process of having it investigated with Citi corporate, but who knows what will come of that. The moral of the story is that something needs to be in writing or you are not guaranteed to get the offer. Everyone I have dealt with at Citi has told me the offer expired on July 28th. (Of course the branch manager never made mention of this upon application.)

yoyo

Same happened to me. I specifically said that I would like to have the 5X and was assured it was still available but after the application the T&C were printed as 20K points (instead of 15K and 5X). I should have known better.

ma91pmh

And this is the bank that calls US fraudsters!!!!

digital330

Another observation for today. One TY account hooked up to TY Premier card has BB/WM GC's available. Second TY account hooked to TY Preferred card now shows only a subset of GC's available.