We had a Visa Card with CitiCard for about 17 years and for the most part were satisfied with their service. We recently had a death in the family, in another state and forgot to pay the charges for one month (July 2007). When we realized that we had not paid that month we promptly paid the charges and the late fees. We explained what had happened and were told that our old interest rate, which was 3%, was cancelled and our new rate was now 15%. My wife and I wanted to cancel the account then but we were persuaded to keep the account.

In August customer service said they would have to cancel our old cards and were sending out new cards with new numbers and we could use our old cards until then. We returned home in September and had not received our new cards yet. I called and asked them where the cards were and they said they had sent them to us. I explained the situation to them and in turn they said they would report them as missing cards.

October 3, 2007 I called CitiCard and ask if they had sent the new cards yet. The first lady said that she couldn’t help me and would transfer me new business. The phone rang and a recording came on and said that all the lines were busy and to call back at another time.

I immediately called back at about 3:21 PM PST and talked to a lady named Sharron. She was polite and said she would help us. Since my wife is the primary card holder she joined in on the conversation as requested by Sharron. Sharron said this conversation would be recorded and we gave her all the information she requested except for my wife’s Social Security Number. I told her we could give her the four digits but we did not give out our social security numbers over the phone. She promptly said she couldn’t help us. I told her to cancel the account and before we could ask her any other questions like if we owed any money and what to do with the cards, she hung up.

However I am happy that we did not have rely on our CitiCard for our 2000 mile trip home. My wife and I have decided that because of their obvious lack of concern for the account we had with them, we do not want any contact with CitiCard or any other service operated with Citi Bank.